Remembering Petra Mayer: Everyone's a 'real writer.' Here's how to write that book

Life Kit

NPR

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🗓️ 16 November 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

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Summary

Beloved books editor Petra Mayer believed that all you have to do to be a 'real writer' is to write. We're re-running this episode in honor of Petra who died on Saturday. We hope Petra's generosity, wit and passion for story will help shut down those distracting voices and honor the stories you have to share. (This episode originally ran in April 2020.)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey life-kill listeners, Andy Tegel here.
0:03.6	Today we've got an extra special episode for you hosted by Petra Mayer.
0:08.2	Petra was a book editor for the Arts Desk here at NPR, and also a wonderful friend,
0:13.6	to me and to life-kit.
0:16.1	And her absence will be felt deeply by the book world and by everyone else who was lucky enough
0:20.2	to know her.
0:21.6	Petra was fiercely intelligent, as quick-witted as she was kind and exceedingly generous,
0:27.6	with her enthusiasm, her nursery, and her time.
0:31.2	Please enjoy this episode and join us in honoring the supreme talent and the vibrant,
0:35.9	colorful character that was Petra Mayer.
0:39.0	I'm not a real writer.
0:41.9	How am I ever going to find the time to write?
0:44.4	I mean, I've only ever written fanfic, and I'm afraid of getting in trouble for writing
0:49.1	something outside my own experience.
0:51.8	And who cares what I have to say?
0:53.7	I'm just not a real writer.
0:58.7	It's kind of a truism that everyone has a book in them, right?
1:02.0	We all have some kind of story to tell, but it's equally true that a lot of us have those
1:06.5	crummy little inner voices telling us it's never going to happen.
1:10.5	I don't know, I'm one of those people.
1:13.1	Hi, I'm Petra Mayer.
1:15.4	I'm an editor at NPR Books, and for this installment of Lifekit, I decided to talk to some people
	...

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