Life as a Writer with David Coggins - [Making Media, EP.38]

Sep 28, 2023

David Coggins, a writer known for his creative identity, discusses his writing process, his parents' influence, and his recent assignment in Cuba. He also talks about the importance of editor-writer relationships, the impact of reflection and perspective, and his writing rituals. The podcast explores the experience of being edited by a family member and offers a recommendation for creatives.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Notes On The Water And Nightly Drafting

For travel-based writing Coggins carries water-resistant pocket Moleskine notebooks to capture lines and phrases.
He fleshes notes out nightly on a computer and waits weeks before heavy editing to gain perspective.

INSIGHT

Travel Gains Meaning With Return Visits

Travel provides both natural solitude for fishing and rich cultural material; returning deepens meaning.
Repeated visits to places build personal history that informs writing and judgment.

ADVICE

Let New Places Breathe

When trying new restaurants or places, give them time to settle before joining the hype.
Visit off-peak times to see what truly works instead of the media-driven crowd rush.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Today we have a special guest on Making Media. There are few people who write and live like David Coggins. David has a way of maintaining his creative identity while still adopting many of today's tools. He writes books, and he writes on his Substack, The Contender.

We talked to David about his process for writing, what he is or is not sacred about, how his parents normalized creative acts in his house growing up, and we get some great recommendations. Please enjoy this interview with David Coggins.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

-----

This episode is brought to you by Scribe. Scribe is the presenting sponsor of this episode of Making Media and the magic behind the Colossus transcripts. One of the best decisions we made at Colossus was transcribing all of our audio into a searchable transcript library. We had been using another provider up until the summer of 2022 but we were constantly having issues with accuracy if our audio was just the slightest bit impaired. Whether it's training sessions, internal Q&As, or for media purposes, the value of transcripts is huge. And we are not alone. Scribe is the transcription service that powers all of S&P Global - like CapIQ - and the client list includes our friends at Tegus. Go to joincolossus.com/scribe to unlock 150 minutes of free transcription and test their capabilities.

-----

Making Media is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Making Media, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Show Notes

(00:02:00) - (First question) His experience having parents who work in creative fields

(00:07:30) - Finding people who expose you to interesting things

(00:10:15) - How to find an editor

(00:12:33) - The transition from writing online to writing a book

(00:16:00) - Conveying a theme effectively in a book

(00:18:30) - Documenting emotions and experiences

(00:24:00) - Balancing travel and book writing

(00:28:53) - Editing a family member’s work

(00:30:40) - Scheduled writing versus writing in the moment

(00:33:00) - Favorite types of written media

(00:35:00) - Advice for aspiring young writers

(00:39:30) - The impact of location on writing

(00:44:40) - Defining a successful book

(00:45:45) - One piece of work every creative should experience