I Could Do That

The other day I was driving home from the headache clinic and I turned on NPR.

Fresh Air was on. Terry Gross was interviewing Allie Brosh, she of the Hyperbole and a Half blog fame, and now the Hyperbole and a Half book fame.

It was a good interview. Allie Brosh is candid, interesting, funny. Her blog is cool. Her comic is terrific. Her writing is great. Her story is compelling.

Her story is also pretty... normal. I mean, she has depression. Like a lot of people. But unlike a lot of people, she has been able to talk about it in an interesting, entertaining, compelling way.

And because of that, she drew a lot of readers. And she got a following. And she got a book deal. And she got interviewed by Terry Gross.

Cool.

And I was driving along, listening to it, and thinking, without envy or irony or even, I don't think, hyperbole (ahem)...

I could do that.

I mean. I'm already doing a lot of it, right?

My story is compelling. Even, if I may say so, a bit more exciting than hers in some ways. The movie of my life would have a bona fide action scene in it. A real, live near-death experience! Blood and gore! Hallucinations! Drugs! Intrigue!

No cartoons, though. Hmmm.

But seriously, I was just thinking that as far as stories go, I've been able to draw people in, and keep them reading. I am gaining more time in my schedule to figure out ways to draw more people in, and then to figure out ways to take my story to people who might want to help me make a book out of it. And to people who might want to help me get that book in to the hands of people who might be helped by it.

That's the real goal, after all.

So I came home, and I sat down at my computer, and I started a list of the things I could do to get started on that. Some of them are writing things, some of them are brainstorming things. Some of them are exposure things. 

The point is, though, I made a list. I set some goals. I haven't done that in a while. It felt good to do it. It felt good to really want to do it.

I put Get interviewed by Terry Gross on the list.

I mean.

Why not, right?