Writers Talk

On the set of OSU's "Writers Talk" with host Shantay Piazza and Nicholas Dekkar of the popular Ohio blog Breakfast With Nick

I had the distinct honor and privilege to appear as a guest on Ohio State University's "Writers Talk," a talk show dedicated to discussing all things writing. The show is put on by the OSU Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing (CSTW) and since I am an alumnus of OSU, I was extremely excited to appear on the show to discuss web writing with fellow blogger Nicholas Dekkar of the popular Ohio blog, Breakfast With Nick.

The show was taped in February and the audio version aired March 19 at 7 PM on WCRS radio, 98.3 & 102.1 FM and again on Wednesday, March 21 at 8 PM on WCBE radio, central Ohio's NPR station, 90.5 FM.

This was my first ever recorded interview for OHventures, so I was a bit nervous. There are a lot of "uhs" and "ums" at the beginning of the show (which is very uncharacteristic of me), but it doesn't take long until I warm up and get more comfortable. Shantay was a great interviewer, and I may be taking her or another Writers Talk staffer on an OHventurer to be featured soon as a B-side! The video version of the show will soon be uploaded to the official YouTube site.

You can also download the audio file of the show by visiting this link. The half hour segment also includes an interview with OSU basketball player turned author, Mark Titus, who discusses his new book, "Don't Put Me In, Coach." 

Here are some excerpts of the interview:

Tell us about OHventures:

My blog is in the baby stages right now compared to Nick. I started in April of last year, so April of 2011. I wanted an outlet to express my creative writing. I always loved to write and I write a lot in my day job, but not so much on the creative level, so I thought a blog would be a great platform for that. I've started a couple of other blogs before, but I never really stuck with it. I think a lot of it was that I didn't have a focus. So I sat down and thought about, you know, what did I want to get out there and tell people, what did I want my inspiration be for others. A couple of friends suggested that since I'm always taking them on all these different adventures, like for my birthday we are going rock climbing instead of just going out to dinner, we have to do something crazy. They said, why don't you write about that, you are traveling around the sate and doing different things. I thought that would be a really good idea, that would be perfect.

What were some of the challenges starting your blog?

A couple of things were challenging, first was just finding the focus...you can't be all over the place, but you still need to have a little bit of lee-way. Again, my blog is focused on outdoor adventure and active lifestyle in Ohio, but I've written about a couple of restaurants here and there too that I think are adventurous restaurants in Ohio...I came to find that you can't really force it, and you have to write what you're feeling, and you can't be too structured, or else people can tell and people will know that it is not as genuine...I found myself a little too stressed, and you don't want that, you don't want that to show in your writing.