How Bestselling Author & Investigative Journalist Scott Carney Writes: Part One
04/24/18 • 33 min
Award-winning New York Times bestselling author, investigative journalist, and anthropologist, Scott Carney, stopped by the show recently to talk about the dangers of putting yourself into the story, what he’s learned in his 20+ years in mainstream publishing, and how he juggles his multiple creative adventures.
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Start getting more from your site today!Throughout his globe-trotting career as a journalist Scott has spent extensive time in South Asia, been a contributing editor at WIRED for over five years, and written for Mother Jones, Men s Journal, Playboy, Foreign Policy, Discover, Outside, Fast Company, and many others.
Mr. Carney is the author of a trio of nonfiction books that combine investigative journalism and anthropology, including The Red Market (where he explored the black market for human body parts), A Death on Diamond Mountain (an examination of the dark side of spiritual seekers), and most recently, the New York Times bestseller What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength.
As part of his research for What Doesn’t Kill Us, Scott spent time with Dutch extreme athlete and fitness guru Wim Hof to try to understand the science behind his now famous method to control his body temperature in extreme conditions and tap into ancient super-human abilities.
In addition to his writing, Scott is a public speaker and educator who has been a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and a Scripps Fellow at the Center for Environmental Journalism in Boulder, Colorado.
His work has been featured on NPR and National Geographic TV.
His most recent project is a video course for writers, called The Fine Print, aimed at helping freelancers, journalists, and creative entrepreneurs to think of themselves as a startup business and help merge their creative and business sensibilities.
If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews.
In Part One of this file Scott Carney and I discuss:
- Why he dropped out of his Anthropology PhD program to become a professional writer
- How to protect yourself from negotiating bad contracts
- Why you don’t have to fall into the traps so many broke journalists fall into
- The writer’s natural state of “productive procrastination”
- Why you need to gun for those “theme park” sized ideas
- The power of outlines and how to write 80,000 words in eight months
Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ...
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes- If you’re ready to see for yourself why over 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress — the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins — just go to StudioPress.com
- What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary – Scott Carney
- ScottCarney.com
- Scott Carney’s video course — The Fine Print.
- The Ice Guru [Wim Hof] Comes to Brooklyn – The Atlantic
- Scott Carney on Twitter
- Kelton Reid on Twitter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Award-winning New York Times bestselling author, investigative journalist, and anthropologist, Scott Carney, stopped by the show recently to talk about the dangers of putting yourself into the story, what he’s learned in his 20+ years in mainstream publishing, and how he juggles his multiple creative adventures.
Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByDiscover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.
Start getting more from your site today!Throughout his globe-trotting career as a journalist Scott has spent extensive time in South Asia, been a contributing editor at WIRED for over five years, and written for Mother Jones, Men s Journal, Playboy, Foreign Policy, Discover, Outside, Fast Company, and many others.
Mr. Carney is the author of a trio of nonfiction books that combine investigative journalism and anthropology, including The Red Market (where he explored the black market for human body parts), A Death on Diamond Mountain (an examination of the dark side of spiritual seekers), and most recently, the New York Times bestseller What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength.
As part of his research for What Doesn’t Kill Us, Scott spent time with Dutch extreme athlete and fitness guru Wim Hof to try to understand the science behind his now famous method to control his body temperature in extreme conditions and tap into ancient super-human abilities.
In addition to his writing, Scott is a public speaker and educator who has been a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and a Scripps Fellow at the Center for Environmental Journalism in Boulder, Colorado.
His work has been featured on NPR and National Geographic TV.
His most recent project is a video course for writers, called The Fine Print, aimed at helping freelancers, journalists, and creative entrepreneurs to think of themselves as a startup business and help merge their creative and business sensibilities.
If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews.
In Part One of this file Scott Carney and I discuss:
- Why he dropped out of his Anthropology PhD program to become a professional writer
- How to protect yourself from negotiating bad contracts
- Why you don’t have to fall into the traps so many broke journalists fall into
- The writer’s natural state of “productive procrastination”
- Why you need to gun for those “theme park” sized ideas
- The power of outlines and how to write 80,000 words in eight months
Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ...
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes- If you’re ready to see for yourself why over 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress — the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins — just go to StudioPress.com
- What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary – Scott Carney
- ScottCarney.com
- Scott Carney’s video course — The Fine Print.
- The Ice Guru [Wim Hof] Comes to Brooklyn – The Atlantic
- Scott Carney on Twitter
- Kelton Reid on Twitter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Previous Episode
How New York Times Bestselling Author Maria Konnikova Writes
The multiple New York Times bestselling non-fiction author and New Yorker columnist, Maria Konnikova, dropped by the show back in early 2016 to chat with me about what it’s like to be a contributing journalist for a storied institution, productivity hacks, and her own creative process.
Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByDiscover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.
Start getting more from your site today!This is a fan favorite from the archives that I’m updating because it’s an insightful interview and Maria has also been in the news recently for winning her first premier professional poker title.
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and as the story goes — reported by Poker News — over “... a year ago ... Konnikova decided to learn the game of poker and asked the infamous, Erik Seidel [winner of eight World Series of Poker and a World Poker Tour title] to help mentor/coach her. Her goal ... was to play poker for a year, to learn the game, and then write a book about it.”
The book was pitched as a chronicle of her “... yearlong journey from poker neophyte to the World Series ... an exploration of the balance of luck and skill in our daily lives and how we can become the best decision makers we possibly can.”
Lo and behold, an intensive one-year poker crash-course helped her win her first prestige pro tournament and a cool $85K in early 2018.
It’s a crazy story, and a fantastic reason to revisit our talk here, and to find her book, The Biggest Bluff, when it’s published in Summer 2019.
Her last bestseller — The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time — examined the psychology of the con, and as Forbes described the book, “One of the best science writers of our time examines the minds, motives, and methods of con artists — and the people who fall for their cons.”
Ms. Konnikova has a PhD in Psychology from Columbia University and has contributed countless articles and essays for The Atlantic, The New York Times, Slate, The Paris Review, The Wall Street Journal, WIRED, and Scientific American, to name only a few.
If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews.
In this file Maria Konnikova and I discuss:
- How to avoid writer’s block
- Why a standing desk isn’t for everyone
- How to simplify your research & writing process
- Why writing is hard ... just like any other job
- The author’s definition of creativity
Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ...
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes- MariaKonnikova.com
- Maria Konnikova Wins the $1,650 PCA National Championship for $84,600
- Updates on her upcoming book The Biggest Bluff
- The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time
- Maria Konnikova New Yorker Contributor Page
- The Joy of Psyching Myself Out by M. Konnikova
- Freedom App
- The Paris Review Interviews
- Maria Konnikova on Facebook
- Maria Konnikova on Twitter
- Kelton Reid on Twitter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Next Episode
How Bestselling Author & Investigative Journalist Scott Carney Writes: Part Two
In Part Two of this file, the award-winning New York Times bestselling author, investigative journalist, and anthropologist, Scott Carney, returned to talk about the dangers of putting yourself into the story, what he’s learned in his 20+ years in mainstream publishing, and how he juggles his multiple creative adventures.
Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByDiscover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.
Start getting more from your site today!Throughout his globe-trotting career as a journalist Scott has spent extensive time in South Asia, been a contributing editor at WIRED for over five years, and written for Mother Jones, Men s Journal, Playboy, Foreign Policy, Discover, Outside, Fast Company, and many others.
Mr. Carney is the author of a trio of nonfiction books that combine investigative journalism and anthropology, including The Red Market (where he explored the black market for human body parts), A Death on Diamond Mountain (an examination of the dark side of spiritual seekers), and most recently, the New York Times bestseller What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength.
As part of his research for What Doesn’t Kill Us, Scott spent time with Dutch extreme athlete and fitness guru Wim Hof to try to understand the science behind his now famous method to control his body temperature in extreme conditions and tap into ancient super-human abilities.
In addition to his writing, Scott is a public speaker and educator who has been a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and a Scripps Fellow at the Center for Environmental Journalism in Boulder, Colorado.
His work has been featured on NPR and National Geographic TV.
His most recent project is a video course for writers, called The Fine Print, aimed at helping freelancers, journalists, and creative entrepreneurs to think of themselves as a startup business and help merge their creative and business sensibilities.
If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews.
If you missed the first half you can find it right here.
In Part Two of this file Scott Carney and I discuss:
- Tips for escaping the great “distraction machine” and focusing on only what’s in front of you
- Why the author’s whole life has been built around writer’s block
- Scott’s routines for successfully juggling multiple large writing projects
- How the author uses his investigative journalism to actualize his adventures and vice versa
- The importance of making a living vs writing simply for your own pleasure
- Why he wants to take Hemingway to rehab
Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ...
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes- If you’re ready to see for yourself why over 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress — the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins — just go to StudioPress.com
- What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary – Scott Carney
- ScottCarney.com
- Scott Carney’s video course — The Fine Print.
- The Ice Guru [Wim Hof] Comes to Brooklyn – The Atlantic
- Scott Carney on Twitter
- Kelton Reid on Twitter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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