I’m Kevin Day and I’ll be your host for the podcast. In this episode I’ll first tell you a bit about the show, about what to expect and about why I created the podcast. And then I’ll finish this episode with a little bit about who I am.

The podcast is about how writing is great exercise for your mind for those of us, like me, who are in, or graduating into, the third phase of our lives. This is the phase after growing up, career, family, etc., what some people call aging or retiring.

What I found is that a daily practice of writing gives my mind the regular exercise it needs to stay flexible and open. And it keeps my memory vibrant, it stimulates my imagination. And it’s fun. So, I decided to try and share that through this podcast.

The podcast has a couple of major themes — one is how writing for yourself is great exercise for your mind. The other is about how writing enhances your life in so many, many ways.  

Episodes will cover topics like how to get started writing, different ways to write, different things to write about, how to get through the resistance to starting writing and the inevitable resistance to continuing writing. I have suggestions and tips about why you’d want to write, how great it is in so many different ways, how it’s good for you, and how it’s lots of fun.

Most of the episodes will have a topic of the week. Sometimes there’ll be lists like How To’s – Questions - Ways To – and so on. And other times I’ll give examples of the kind of the kind of writing that I produce when I sit down every morning to write. I’m pretty sure my samples will help to make everyone clear and comfortable with the type of writing I’m talking about.  

It’s all based on my own experience. I’m hoping my samples will show how simple it can be to have writing transform your life. And they should give you plenty of confidence that you can write for yourself as well. I’m also hoping that this might develop into a community where we encourage each other and share our experiences with our writing, as we get into more conversation.

No doubt I’ll repeat myself from time to time. I know I will, actually, because I often do, as my children repeatedly remind me. And, anyway, that’s what happens in a conversation. I’m going to contradict myself as well, no doubt — another thing I do from time to time — as they also delight in reminding me. There’s simply no way I can keep talking and not come to different conclusions sometimes. I contain multitudes, as the poet says.

So please bear with me in the same spirit you would in a conversation with someone.

Here’s another thing — this is a Podcast about writing, so I write the episodes first and then I record them. I’m just not good enough to produce the content off the top of my head. This might change as we get into conversation but, for now, that’s how it’ll work.

Just to be clear — this podcast is about writing as exercise for your mind, personal writing, writing for yourself. I don’t have any standard I’m shooting for, other than engaging in the activity, the exercise, of writing. And I’m not trying to produce anything. It’s about the process. And, just like doing physical exercise, I don’t hold on to what I write as part of my writing exercise. That’s not the point.

If you want to learn about how to write to make money or get published, there’re lots of other great podcasts available.

This is about writing for yourself, as a habit, a routine, a practice to exercise your mind. Writing for yourself helps you pay more attention to, be more aware of, your life, to create more memories. It’s about how writing can make the invisible visible. How you can bring to light what is uniquely yours and available only to you in your hidden or forgotten creativity.

And, quite simply, it helps you enjoy your life more and get more surprise and joy from it.

Now that I’ve told you a bit about the What? of the show, here’s a bit about why I created the Writing Is Great! podcast.

I’m in, the third phase of my life. I use the phrase graduating to the Third Phase because I think terms like retirement and aging have negative implications. I do have lots of opinions and thoughts about what that means, which you can find in my paper Some Thoughts On Aging.

In my experience, my mind gets better with every passing year, if I’m challenging and nourishing it. I do regular physical exercise to keep my body healthy and flexible. But, then, I also have my mind to take care of. And I realized I needed regular exercise to keep my mind healthy and flexible as well. So, the challenge for me was to find some way of regularly exercising my mind that I would want to do on a daily basis.

I did try numerous things and was, somehow, lucky enough to recover and remember writing. (I’ll talk more about how this happened in the podcasts). Writing brings me the same joy that running, exercising, singing, playing music, or painting brings to other people. And it stimulates, invigorates, and inspires my mind.

Now that I have recovered the joy of writing, I thought it was something worth sharing. So, this is my throw at liberating the potential of writing, if you like — of showing how writing is great. And my invitation to you to join in the adventure.

Ok, so now that you know a bit about the What? and the Why? of the Writing Is Great! podcast, I’ll finish this episode with a bit about the Who?

I live in the Sierra foothills in Northern California with my wife and, sometimes, some of our four sons, depending on where they are in their journeys — between jobs, after traveling, or between semesters at college. We also still have three dogs and three cats.

My wife and I are immigrants. I’m Irish (as you can probably guess from the accent), and she’s Scottish. We arrived in America when the two older boys were 18 months and six weeks old, so they have grown up here. Subsequently, we had another couple, who are all-American boys.

I’m fairly straightforward. I don't have any special skills. I’ve found that most of what I think and feel is pretty much shared by my fellow travelers through life. However, writing has really made clear to me that we’re all, each of us, special in our own way. Only you can write what you can write, no one can create or imagine that, and if you don’t do it, it’s lost to the world, to your world, and to you.

This kind of realization spurred me to create the Writing Is Great! podcast, despite much apprehension and many misgivings along the way. But here we are. I’ve no clue where this ride will end up, but I do hope that one or more of the episodes will help you discover or rediscover the gift you have to write.

I want to thank you again for joining me here at Writing Is Great! I’ve released another two episodes with this Introduction episode. So, if you’re curious and interested in hearing more, head on over and find the episodes. There are links to them on the website writingisgreat.com and you can listen to them there as well.

If you enjoyed the podcast, then please click on the Follow Show or Subscribe button.

I’m excited for you to listen, and I’m excited for you to begin your writing journey. The road is before us, let’s see where it leads us and where we get to.