The Riff: PoN Redux

Fresh off the Power of Narrative Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, the state of my birth and first 21 years. It was a whirlwind weekend, as many of these things are.

Delivered my talk. Here’s the description:

Unauthorized: Tools, Tactics, and the Ethics of Biography: Biography is a rich genre but rife with challenges both practical and ethical. Brendan O’Meara discusses why unauthorized biography is superior to authorized, offers organizational tips for the task, while also delving into what feels inherently exploitative about biography and how best to proceed in the face of it.

There was room for 100 people in the Terrace Room, and I’d say about 20 people showed up for it. It felt pretty thin in there, but you deliver your talk the same be it for three people or 91. It felt rough, despite having rehearsed it a billion times. I’m a bit raw when it comes to presentations. The feedback I got through unsolicited emails and DMs has been surprisingly positive. So I guess it wasn’t as bad as it felt in my head.

As someone who is pathologically brilliant at kicking the shit out of himself, the talk was not as polished as I had hoped. Not unpolished for lack of effort. It was a bit nerves, and I found myself turning too much to the screen, which pulled my head away from the microphone. I think I said, “of course” a lot.

I started by thanking everyone for coming to the conference, for one. These things are not cheap and you have to pay for travel, hotels, and food. During my post-lunch time slot of 2:15-3:15 p.m. EST, there were four talks to choose from and the people who showed up to see this sewer rat talk had their choice of anything, and they came to mine. Or they could have taken a nap.

Starting with appreciation. Never a bad move.

I’d say the most popular part of my talk was the organizational component. I shared my “brain” template (which I tweaked based on a similar one Kim H. Cross shared with me) with anyone who wanted it, as well as my book proposal, and that seemed to make people feel like they left the party with a goodie bag and that their time was worth it.

I did record myself and I’m leaving a couple options open for that. Either I will put it on the podcast feed and edit out the parts that don’t make sense without the slides. Or, I’ll put it in the podstack newsletter with the slides that correspond to a clip of audio. [Subscribe to the podly Substack (Yes, I somehow made “pod” into an adverb, which is admittedly brilliant.)] Many of my slides were hand drawn and a few of them got some big laughs, so that was nice.

The conference proved something to me that I’ve been harking on for years: This idea of getting in front of people and being with people, among people. It’s good to be in real life — IRL, as the kids say — and not digitally interfaced.

Several people approached me and offered kind words about the podcast (some were nervous in the same way I was nervous to approach Dan Zak [I didn’t. What. A. Stud. What a stone-cold hottie.]). Many listeners used the CNF15 coupon code at checkout for PoN, or they found out about the conference because of the podcast and enrolled. All of which is validating on a number of levels.

As I often say, it’s lonely on this side of the microphone and it rarely feels like anyone is out there listening (I know this to be false.). It can feel, at times, futile. Like, why put all this effort in? It’s like the Bruce Springsteen song “Radio Nowhere.”

This is Radio Nowhere,
Is there anybody alive out there?

Experiencing events in person, conferences, shaking hands, workshops like the ones at Archer City, making the eye contact, handing out the business cards. Yeah, they’re alive; they’re out there.

As you know, this newsletter starts here, and goes up to 11!

The Books

1. Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women by Maggie Mertens. Maggie might be interviewing me in Seattle for The Front Runner at Elliot Bay Book Company, so I wanted to make sure I read this and celebrated it on the pod.

2. Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America by Will Bardenwerper. Definitely makes me not like Major League Baseball and commodification of players. Let’s face it, they always were, but now it’s even more clinical and soulless.

3. The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition by Jane Friedman. Jane’s a boss.

4. Love Letter to a Garden by Debbie Millman. Real excited for you to hear this podcast. It’s Debbie’s third trip, but this was a real crackin’ conversation. There was an extra bit of zip to this one.

The Other Stuff

5. Jaron Lanier is one of those tech dudes you WANT to listen to. He wrote an essay for The New Yorker weekend essay about A.I. lovers. He also wrote the must-read Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. After The Front Runner comes out, IG might be a goner for me. It’s reaching the end game. Then again, it might stay there as a placeholder? I have thoughts. Another day…

6. This Yale Review story by Bryan Burrough making nearly $500,000 for three stories a year for Vanity Fair made people feel things.

7. Perhaps a helpful article on story structure.

8. Do you even lift, bro? Cecilia Brown made a great short doc for The New Yorker.

9. Courtesy of Steve Knezovich’s “Read This” newsletter (on hiatus), 100 ways to share you work that isn’t social media.

10. Party like it’s 2008.

11. I’ve spent more than $2,000 out of pocket for audio gear, so come to Gratitude Brewing on Sunday, April 13, at 1 p.m. to hear me in conversation with Leah Sottile talk about her new book Blazing Eye Sees All.

ICYMI: March on CNF Pod

Episode 455: Will McGrath’s Season on the Sidelines for The Believer
Episode 456: Neko Case Wrote Her Memoir in Bed
Episode 457: Poynter’s Neil Brown Says Editing Isn’t Discussed Enough
Episode 458: Jaydra Johnson Had to Get Weird
Episode 459: Cassidy Randall Talks Forgotten Histories, Sticky Notes, and the Power of Listening

Maybe Patreon?

If you want to help support the podcast and possibly get some face-to-face time with me to talk through some shit, consider becoming a patron. You can join for free if you want to lurk, but to get perks, you gotta thrown down that Mastercard. I’m thinking of moving the CNFin’ Happy Hour to Patreon and see if it sticks, or do Live Q&As. I have an A or two, definitely one. https://www.patreon.com/cnfpod

That’s it for this month’s rager as we get closer and closer to the pub date for The Front Runner. I’m not freaking out. You are! Speaking of that, maybe consider pre-ordering.

Stay strong,

b.r.o.