S4E13 Sailing To the Edge

THE BLURB: Sailor, Author and Podcaster PAUL TRAMMELL talks SAILING TO THE EDGE and the ongoing ADVENTURE that is his daily life - the stuff he writes about: SURFING WITH SHARKS, CANOEING with ALLIGAOTRS, in general, craving DANGER and SAVORING SOLITUDE.

SHOW NOTES:
One of the things I love talking about in this podcast is the creative process. And what it takes to make the process process. It’s not like there’s this giant switch creative people throw to turn on their creative process.

The way I see it, each and every creative person has a kind of prism inside their heads. Life and life experience filter in through their eyes and ears and all their other senses. They pass through that prism inside the creative’s head. And whatever refracts out – that’s their art. Their craft. Their content.

Now, for this to happen, the creative person has to be in contact with that prism in some fashion. The creative stuff isn’t going to create itself.

There is work involved.

Serious, hard work. The creative process – what it takes for a creative to create – can, in fact, be arduous, challenging as fuck and downright deadly.

On his website – Paul Trammell dot com – here’s how Paul describes himself – and I’m using it here because I can’t improve upon it:

Paul Trammell is a nomadic author who lives on a sailboat, seeking adventure, solitude, and creativity, soaking up natural beauty outside the boat, and delving into the mysterious world of words when inside.

Paul’s written or co-written twelve books and a lot of short stories and poetry. He’s a podcaster, too – which is how we first encountered each other.

And, like me, he’s a man keenly aware of the actual Life’s Journey he’s on.

As you’ll hear, it took Paul a while to find his most productive creative self.

I can relate.

There were long roads that led to dead ends. There was alcoholism and a little too much partying. And then, Paul more or less stumbled onto the thing that ultimately brought him true happiness.

It’s not like Paul found a shortcut to something. That wasn’t the case at all.

He’s always been a creative hell bent on creating. Before it was podcasting and writing, he poured himself into music.

All the way.

But, I don’t think it brought him anything like his present happiness.

It wasn’t until adventure – a life of surfing and sailing and truly living off the grid because you’re in the middle of the ocean – took hold of Paul.

His life became the necessary component the prism inside his head needed to switch on. In a weird way, in addition to being a writer, a poet and a podcaster, Paul’s a performance artist, too.

How else would you describe a creative whose adventurous life is the source of his art? If he’s not adventuring, he’s not creating.

Sometimes – maybe oftentimes – in a creative life, the creative has to risk literally everything to create their best art. That’s Paul Trammel.

Sailing to the edge.

Please support us via our PATREON PAGE - patreon.com/TheHowNOTToMakeAMoviePodcastFanPage