Right now, this moment, as a writer? "I don't know," says Alex Dobrenko

This was my first live video but it was really “improv” with

Alex Dobrenko`

. Thank you Alex!

And thank you

Michael Estrin

,

Seth Werkheiser

,

Erin Shetron

,

Jennifer’s Substack

Brodee Myers-Cooke

,

Naomi Yaeger

, and dozens of others, for tuning in.

NOTE: the AI transcript mistakenly says AARON instead of ERIN (it’s

Erin Shetron

).

A brief synopsis

Alex Dobrenko`

and I share a sense of existential crisis (anxiety, self-doubt, not feeling good enough); I asked him if today’s extraordinary political chaos, the even BIGGER existential crisis in America, is affecting his life, his writing, his creativity.

How should writers respond to this historic moment? Should we write about it, or reference it, or not? Aren’t our personal neuroses and problems insignificant in comparison? This is a question I’ve been wrestling with.

Alex responded:

“I don’t know… I don't know how to think about this. I don't know how to talk about it. And that has been pretty paralyzing, honestly… I think that maybe it has hindered my writing… it does seem harder than before.”

He pointed out that, in general, it’s very important to be able to say “I don’t know” about a lot of things. And that our personal suffering still matters. Paraphrasing Victor Frankl¹, Alex reminded us that suffering, like gas that fills a room, fills our mental space; it doesn’t matter what size or what kind it is.

We also talked about:

• How you should still write about the little things, because that’s what life is and where joy comes from

• Alex’s writing process and how it’s “improv on the page” (check out his Both Are True to see this in action)

• How maybe we’re both playing a “schtick” in our writing (feeling bad about ourselves) and maybe we could be somebody else

• How Alex feels “old” right now; he feels like he’s way behind as a writer, he’s already “too late”

• How I inspire him when I say that I know I’m on the downhill slope but I’m still writing and I “don’t feel done”

About Alex

Alex Dobrenko`

is the guy with an absurd sense of humor who writes the bestselling Both Are True. He’s known for being vulnerable, confessional, and very funny. Plus, he’s the 30-something guy I’ve written about as my writing crush.

His bonafides below? They might be exaggerated… I DON’T KNOW.

Questions or comments

Don’t hold back; it’s

Alex Dobrenko`

.

1. In Man’s Search For Meaning, chronicling his experience in a Nazi concentration camp, Victor Frankl spelled out how to find meaning and purpose in life, despite great suffering. He wrote: “Suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the ‘size’ of human suffering is absolutely relative.”