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Creative Writing – How to Write a Book on a Bike, Randy Pausch Style
By Deb Gallardo
How to Write a Book on a Bike
Randy Pausch continues his battle against pancreatic cancer with grace, a dogged will, and the clarity of what is most important – family and fun. Below he is talking on this cell phone during his one-hour daily bike ride. Who says you can’t write anywhere?
Yes, he has a co-author, but why couldn’t any of us talk into a cassette recorder while biking, while exercising on a stationary bike, or while walking 3 miles a day? You may have just found an extra hour per day to write.
As writers, we can learn and draw strength, not to mention story ideas, from such inspiring testimonials as Randy’s: to live each day to its fullest, to focus on what’s important to us, to hold to our dreams, to never stop having fun and never to give up even in the face of life’s biggest challenges. To quote Randy,
“You can’t control the cards you’re dealt,
just how you play the hand.”
Below are highlights from Randy’s blog, where he keeps the millions of interested readers worldwide updated on his condition since his diagnosis in September of 2006.
December 10 -
Jai wanted me to write a book, but that begged the question of how to do that without taking time from being with the family. The solution? Jeff Zaslow is actually doing the heavy lifting of creating the prose (and dang, is he a good writer), but the deal is that he and I talk one hour each day, while I’m exercising on my bike.
That way, I can get all my stories and anecdotes to a real writer (I stink at writing, anyway), without taking any time from family.
January 15 -
Kudos to Jeff Zaslow, the world’s fastest writer. I am proud to say that the book “The Last Lecture” is now done!
I’m even prouder to say that we accomplished this with the major constraint that it take little or no time away from family (see “How to Write a Book on an Bike” ).
Jeff and I are very proud of how it has turned out. It’s 61 chapters in 206 pages. There are 18 photographs, 1 bar chart, and (for all my mathematical friends), one equation.
I am particularly proud that I negotiated to get the words “Carnegie Mellon” on the front cover! Hyperion is publishing the book in early April. [You can order here.]
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1 Comment »
July 29th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
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