APPRECIATION #78: COMMUNICATION HEROES & QUICK LISTS

As a way of warming up, or getting inspired, or searching for something, I write lists. One of the lists I like to write is a list of my COMMUNICATION HEROES. Doing this helps remind me of what I am trying to do as a writer, and it reminds me of all the different ways it can be done. Sometimes I write it down, and sometimes I do it in my head.

It’s a fun game. Play along. Set a timer for 10 minutes, and GO!

Dr. Seuss, Mo Willems, Gary Larson, Bill Watterson, E.B. White, C.S. Lewis, Frederick Buechner, Bill Bryson, John & Hank Green, Ira Glass, Andy Stanley, Nicholas Kristof, Steve Duin, Kurt Vonnegut, Tim Ferris, William Stafford, Gary Snyder, William Carlos Williams, Billy Collins, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Sarah Vowell, Annie Dillard, Anne Lamott, Ann Patchett, Anne Frank, Mark Twain, James Thurber, Wendell Berry, Tina Fey, Jerry Seinfeld, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Maria Popova, Neil Gaiman, Austin Kleon, Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Malcolm Gladwell, Donald Miller, Brian Doyle, Jimmy Carter, Jim Gaffigan…

10 minutes is up.

This list is so incomplete… What about Nicholson Baker, Lewis and Clark, David Douglas, Van Gogh, Marilynne Robinson, Thomas Cahill, Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, Winston Churchill, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Neil Young, Dave Grohl, and George Orwell?

Notice how one idea will lead to another, or remind you of something else. Check out the ANN(E)(IE) progression/connection: Dillard, Lamott, Patchett, Frank.

The next time I sit down and do this, if I am looking at this list, I will see a lot of glaring omissions. If I were to write a list of TOP 10 I don’t know if they’re all even on the list right now. Where’s George Saunders? Where’s Basho? Where’s Aldo Leopold?

NOTE: If you’re looking for recommendations of something to read or pay attention to, I recommend ANY of the names above.