ENCORE How To Start Writing (w/ Anna Quindlen & John Dickerson)
How To! with Mike Pesca
Peach Fish Projects
4.3 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You've probably heard about the importance of journaling, putting thoughts on paper to help process the daily vicissitudes of life. But it's easy to stall once you see a blank page or get self conscious about what exactly you're writing. On this episode of How To!, we bring together Anna Quindlen, bestselling novelist and author of the new book Write For Your Life, and John Dickerson, co-host of Slate's Political Gabfest, CBS News reporter, author and veteran journaler. They share their wit and wisdom on how to start writing about your personal life — and how to keep it going amid all the distractions. (And stay tuned after the credits for an exclusive sneak peek of Anna Quindlen's next novel).
If you liked this episode, check out "How To Write a Bestseller" and "How To Get Your Book Published."
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, how to listeners. This is Charles Duhigg, one of the original hosts of How To. |
| 0:05.7 | And we are preparing to make this show kind of brand new for you. And as we're doing that, |
| 0:11.1 | trying to figure out how to make this show even more awesome than it already is, we wanted to |
| 0:15.5 | share with you some of our favorite episodes. And today's episode is one that Amanda Ripley, |
| 0:20.5 | one of our former host did a |
| 0:22.5 | couple of years ago, about how to start writing. In this conversation, which I absolutely love, |
| 0:27.9 | she talks to John Dickerson, who you might know as an anchor at CBS News. He's a writer for the |
| 0:32.9 | Atlantic. He's written a number of nonfiction books. And also Anna Quinlan, who was a New York |
| 0:37.3 | Times reporter and columnist and then became a best-selling novelist. |
| 0:40.6 | And what I love about this particular episode is that they talk about the tactics of writing. |
| 0:45.3 | Like how you actually get yourself to sit down and write every single day, how you get those creative juices flowing when you don't really feel like they're very flowing at all. |
| 0:55.2 | And as someone who's written a number of books myself, I have to say, this is one of the |
| 0:58.6 | most valuable lessons you can learn. |
| 1:00.5 | It's not about how to tap into your inner child and how to wait for the muse to talk to you. |
| 1:07.4 | Writing is a craft. |
| 1:08.4 | So please enjoy Amanda talking with John Dickerson and Anna Quinland about |
| 1:13.5 | how to start writing. Anyone out there who feels like you're being shredded by all of the |
| 1:18.7 | interruptions in your life, if you want refuge from that, this is a great way to sit down and |
| 1:23.8 | write engages you and your attention in a way that is, even if you don't write |
| 1:29.3 | anything that is terribly profound, it is a safe harbor from the constant pelting of the rest of |
| 1:35.8 | the world. |
| 1:38.2 | Welcome to how to. I'm Amanda Ripley. |
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