What is your image of a writer? A loner who lives in their house full of books, an introvert who travels the world alone, a heartbroken person with a lot of life experience ..? These are the impressions I had for a writer. A person who lives on a different level that is not achievable for us. And the path to writing, if I ever can be one, was always assumed to be through life struggles, associated with enlightenment and reading a shit ton of books. I may not be a writer now, but one day, if I have enough life experience to imagine complex human emotions, I can start writing! Days, months and years passed by. I never felt adequate to be a writer.
A decade ago, when blogging was still a thing, I used to write quite often in Malayalam. One of the articles I wrote about cinema got noticed by my friend's mother, who used to edit a newspaper's weekly issue. And my article got inked for the first time! But even then, I had this huge impostor syndrome; this was dumb luck, and I am not a real writer. Even when I published some popular science articles in an online magazine, or wrote and fought continuously on Facebook on random issues, my impressions did not change. Real writers are different, and I am just messing around. Early 2021, I decided to learn the craft of good writing. I joined a short writing course and started this newsletter as a result.
One day I happened to see a video on youtube. An aspiring writer wanted to follow the writing habits of Murakami. Like Murakami, she woke up early in the morning and wrote for 5-6 hrs and later ran a 10K. Every freaking day! This changed my entire concept of a writer. I never associated discipline with a novelist. I never imagined a storyteller would wake up early in the morning and start writing. In my mind, creation is a chaotic, elevated process that needs inspiring moments. But here, I see one of the greatest storytellers of our times working like a machine to get the writing done.
I don't think anyone can become like Murakami if we follow his schedule. But it may increase your odds of being the best writer you can ever be. Waiting for the moment of inspiration or the so-called writer's block is often procrastination itself. I am not saying that you will get your best work every day. But the constant engagement with writing will increase the chances of having more inspiring moments.
Zooming out: an experimentalist’s perspective
I am an experimental physicist by profession. The major part of the profession is doing experiments. This means we spend a lot of time in the lab calibrating equipment, aligning lasers, programming microcontrollers to automate the experiment, and coding from the measurement and analysing the results. Sometimes we need to run to the mechanical workshop to drill holes or an electronics workshop for soldering a resister. But where does the research part comes in? It is when you combine the results and write a ‘story’ around it. In most cases, the process of writing will tell you the missing links, and then you plan the next experiments. When you do the experiment you are so caught up in the task, that you are not bothering about the actual objective. At that moment all you need to do is to drill a hole! But only when you look at the experiments in a larger perspective, by zooming out a bit, you can see the entire picture and its relevance in science. The writing may be a report or making slides for a presentation. This is why most of the research groups ask the people to write a weekly or monthly update report or give a presentation of what they are up to every 2 or 3 months. Without such intervention from the daily routine, I can find myself spiralling down the experimental loops without larger objectives.
We don't have such intervention in real life. There is no project manager or PI who asks us to talk about your day, week or month. Most of us go with the flow and surrender to the disordered chaos of daily life. We may do some reflection on the new year or birthday when we get a sense that time is passing on.
Writing helps you to zoom out or distance yourselves from the daily routine. Psychological distancing is a mental health tool that helps many people to overcome anxiety and traumas. One of the tools for psychological distancing is to write in form of journals. When you write down your issues, you will approach them from a zoomed-out perspective and it can sometimes give you solutions that will not be obvious otherwise.
Solidify your thoughts.
The best way of learning something is to teach what you have learned. Well, writing may be the second-best way. When you write about something in your own words, you are actively engaging with the subject. It works with your thoughts as well. Often, we are unaware of our thoughts. Mostly because we don't need it to be clear enough for every issue. I don't need to have a clear stand on which cheese is the best of what is the best way of cooking an egg. But even in the issues we are passionate about, the mere thoughts or Take this issue of the newsletter itself. I had many scattered thoughts on writing gathered from various podcasts, books and some of my own. But when I tried to structure it in my head, everything went away. Finally, I decided to write it down. That is the moment I engage with the thoughts and how to structure them to convey to someone else.
While thinking, you are talking to yourselves. Many parts of the subject are taken as granted and will be omitted. But when you write it down, you need to convey it to someone else. This very process will clarify your thoughts.
Writing also forces me to spend a bit more time on the issue and read up more to get a better understanding.
What to write
This is the perennial equation for many writers including me. For starters, you can write about your day. You will see the striking difference in your world approach when you start writing a journal. One of the problems I faced which led to procrastination is the thought of my article with high stakes. The fear of being judged or being an uninspiring writer is an overwhelming one. But taking it so seriously will stop your instinct. The famous effect of paralysis by analysis can hold us back.
My suggestion is to write many articles with lower stakes. Write about the movie you liked or a book you have read or a skill you have mastered recently. Then you don't need to be worried about the amount of research needed before writing which will stop you from getting it done. Once you are good with the writing habit, you can take on more involved articles.
Other things
🎥 Spotlight: an uncompromising movie
Have you observed movies about big disasters or war? It is hard to convey the message of the total harm the incident caused to the people. The way around is done by looking at the war through a subjective lens. A father and daughter, separated couple or two siblings. People develop intense drama around them which adds to the horror of the incident. But if the incident is a mass injustice that occurred over more than a decade, picking up one story is inappropriate. Spotlight is a classic example of how to approach a story like that. No unrealistic individual drama. The painful story of uncovering decades of injustice done by the church in Boston on covering up for child abuses done by hundreds of priests with thousands of victims. Watch it on Netflix
🎙️ Podcast on writing
The seen and the unseen podcast with Amitava Kumar about writing is quite engaging and informative. I am fascinated by the way he approaches each story. Eager to read his Bluebook.
📚 Three-body problem
I am back on fiction. I listened to the book three-body problem. This is one of the best science fiction novels I have ever read. Highly recommended for people who are interested in SciFi and philosophy. Catch it soon or you can watch it when Netflix makes it into a series.
🖋️ 5 reasons to write regularly
An amazing Twitter thread embedded in a newsletter post by Sneaky Artist Nishant Jain. Fewer words but speaks volumes. While you are there, check out his other posts too.