My Ultimate List of Writing Advice

July 17, 2021July 17, 2021 Neera

“Discipline in writing is important but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it. You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take the only discipline, but also self-forgiveness (which comes from a place of kind and encouraging, and motherly love).” — Elizabeth Gilbert
“You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.” — Joseph Campbell
“There are two pivotal tools in creative recovery — morning pages and the artist date. A lasting creative awakening requires the consistent use of both. Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow. The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly
“artistic” — think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well of images and inspiration. When choosing an Artist Date, it is good to ask yourself, “what sounds fun?” — and then allow yourself to try it. — Julia Cameron
“Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about too. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.”- Kurt Vonnegut
“Write a million words–the absolute best you can write, then throw it all away and bravely turn your back on what you have written. At that point, you’re ready to begin.”– David Eddings
All writers think they suck. “When I was writing “Eat, Pray, Love”, I had just as strong a mantra of THIS SUCKS ringing through my head as anyone does when they write anything. But I had a clarion moment of truth during the process of that book. One day, when I was agonizing over how utterly bad my writing felt, I realized: “That’s actually not my problem.” The point I realized was this — I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write. So I put my head down and sweated through it, as per my vows.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
“Don’t try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there is something in you, it will come out.” — Henri Matisse
“We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can’t steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that is how you will find your voice. And that is how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you. — Francis Ford Coppola
“Everything that needs to be said has already been said, but since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” — Andre Gide
Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows, Select only thing to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. — Jim Jarmusch
“I have always felt like this is so cruel to your work — to demand a regular paycheck from it, as if creativity were a government job, or a trust fund. If you can manage to live comfortably off your inspiration forever, that’s fantastic. That’s everyone’s dream, right? But don’t let that dream turn into a nightmare. Financial demands can put so much pressure on the delicacies and vagaries of inspiration. You must be smart about providing for yourself.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
“You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.” — Jennifer Egan
“Books are uniquely portable magic. If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” — Stephen King
“Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form if that’s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man. Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.” — Steven Pressfield
What “Keep Going” did for me was it helped me establish a repetitive, repeatable daily system for producing work. Because what I was really missing in my life was some sort of method to making work all the time. — Austin Kleon
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” — Marianne Williamson
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear. “ — Jack Canfield
Shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few time to get all the cricks out and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. This is just a fantasy of the uninitiated. — Anne Lamott
“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” — Annie Dillard.
“That’s all any of us are: amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.” — Charlie Chaplin
“On the spectrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and good is vast. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.” — Clay Shirky

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years, you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” — Ira Glass

Photo by Frame Harirak on Unsplash

Your Productivity Problem Is Over-Expectation, Not Distractions

July 15, 2021July 15, 2021 Neera

It is 7:00 AM. I am all set to write today’s article. The house is quiet. I have two hours to myself. I certainly can knock it out in two hours. The topic is “distractions,” and I definitely will not get distracted while writing about distractions.

The phone shudders!

I ignore it. Some notification, it can wait.

Ding! Ding!

Messages that I have notifications. I ignore them all. Great! I am successful in ignoring external triggers.

I write three paragraphs. They are crap. Maybe I need to read what others have written about distractions. Since Cal Newport’s Deep Work and Nir Eyal’s Indistractable have been published, it has been a hot topic.

I own both books, so I get up to get them. Luckily I have underlined the interesting bits. I read them. But they are taking me in different directions. Maybe it will be quicker if I go online.

I hop on to google and read Cal Newport’s blog and Nir Eyal’s articles on Medium. There was an email by Oliver Burkeman last week, who also talked about distractions. Maybe I should read that one too.

I open my email. Over 50 unread emails stare at me? I should quickly scan them, in case there is something important. Or uplifting.

9:00 AM. I have gone through my emails, still haven’t found Burkeman’s email, checked and responded to earlier notifications, and my article hasn’t gone beyond the three initial paragraphs.

Nir Eyal would say I gave in to internal triggers.

The external triggers are all the things in our outside environment that can lead us off track. They are all the pings, dings, and rings that can derail a well-planned day.

They are less of a problem.

It is the internal triggers that more prevalent and hard to control.

An internal trigger is an uncomfortable emotional state you seek to escape. For example, if you slipped off track because you felt bored, lonely, stressed, or anxious, you succumbed to an internal trigger.

According to Nir Eyal, we can master internal triggers by following a four steps process:

Identify the emotion preceding the urge.
Write what it is.
Explore the negative sensations that accompany it with curiosity instead of contempt.
Be extra cautious during moments when you transition from one task to another.

And for an extra measure, play a game with yourself, challenge yourself to find variability in routine, add a dimension of fun to the task, and you will stay focused on the task.

But the problem with all these techniques is that they don’t work when you need them to.

Cal Newport refers to an article in The New York Times, sharing his frustration with the contemporary advice.

“And, like everyone else, I’ve nodded along with the prohibition sermons imploring me to limit my information diet. Stop multitasking! Turn off the devices at least once a week! And, like everyone else, these sermons have had no effect.” — David Brooks, The Art of Focus

There is a reason for that.

When we can control distractions for a period, we think we can do that all the time.

We think we can control our brains all the time. But that is not true.

Distractions are the way our brain tells us it had enough. It needs a break.

Instead of giving it a break, we keep on giving it more concentration-needing work. A few months ago, I would have been over the moon if I could write 2 articles a week. Now I am writing 7. Of course, I have got better with time, but rather than being satisfied, I am targeting to write two articles a day. That too within two hours.

No wonder my brain is rebelling.

I am expecting too much from it.

Our brains need time to process information.

When we research and find new information, our brain needs time to assimilate it. Just like computers, it needs processing time.

The processing comprises connecting new information with old one and coming up with something brand new. That can’t happen in a matter of minutes.

In fact, it happens when we are doing mundane, low energy consuming tasks such as washing dishes, cleaning the house, going for a walk, or even checking emails.

Distractions are not the cause of the problem but are a solution.

Our brains want us to do something mundane to do what it needs to — to develop a new angle for the article.

Our problem is not the distractions but expecting too much from our brains.

We get distracted because we are constantly expecting our brains to be productive.

In our quest to tick everything off our To-Do lists, we forget we are creatures of nature, just like cats, dogs, horses, and birds. None of them have To-Do lists.

Not so long ago, we too were wandering in woods, living in caves, singing, dancing, and telling stories around a fire.

We are designed to be lazy.

When we are lazy, we are most productive because creativity springs out of boredom.

I am more productive when I am rested. I don’t get distracted, then. Whereas I constantly demand too much from myself, my productivity drops, and distractions are hard to control.

How do you rest your brain?

By incorporating rest into your schedule.

Shane Parrish, the founder of Farnam Street, urges his readers to “schedule a time to do nothing but think.”

We writers regularly take in large amounts of information, think it through from different angles, anticipate objections, consider opposing views, and then come up with our own unique perspectives.

While experience and research can provide us with some leverage, we still need to schedule some time in our days (and weeks) to do nothing but think.

Otherwise, either our productivity will drop, or the quality of our work will degrade.

Nir Eyal suggests Timeboxing as a technique to plan spontaneity in our schedule.

“If you schedule thinking time and you stick to your schedule, you can use that time spontaneously and creatively. If you don’t, you’re going to end up having no time to think, because you didn’t deliberately set aside time for it.

If you’re anything like I was, you’ll waste unscheduled time scrolling social media or reading the news, instead of using time thoughtfully.

But note that it’s fine to watch a video, scroll social media, daydream, or take a nap — as long as that’s what you intended to do ahead of time. If you’re not spending your time doing what you’d planned, then you’re distracted.” — Nir Eyal

Lower your productivity expectations.

“Productivity is a slippery term,” says Cal Newport, “I like to think it as the intentional allocation of your time and attention toward things that matter to you and away from diversions that don’t.”

By continuity bombarding your brain with heavy-duty work and giving it unrealistic deadlines backfires pretty quickly.

Identify the most important thing for the day and how long it will take for you to do that. Do it. Then allow your mind to roam freely. It will be much less distracted when it comes back to a heavy-duty task later.

Elizabeth Gilbert only writes for forty minutes each day. No more. Because from experience, she knows that her mind will rebel the next day.

Shrink your To-Do list.

We have finite energy and finite time.

Each day we only have 3–4 productive hours. Of course, on certain days, you might work longer hours under certain compelling conditions. But those days are limited.

Plan your schedule to only allocate what could be realistically done in 3–4 hours and make peace with that. That will have an added benefit of reduced stress and a heightened sense of achievement.

In Summary

Distractions are caused by external triggers and internal triggers.
External triggers (rings, pings, and dings) are easier to control than internal triggers (boredom, anxiety, and stress).
Our brain gives in to distractions more easily when it is tired and needs a rest or processing time.
Schedule regular rest periods in your schedule, in fact, increase productivity.
Lower your productivity expectations and shirt your To-Do lists. There is only so much you can do in a day.

Photo by Dan Barrett on Unsplash

Writing eBooks Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Do A Print Version

July 12, 2021July 12, 2021 Neera

It means you test the market before you start spending money on your book.

I love physical books. I love the feel, the smell, the texture of them. I love the way they sit on my bookshelf, on my bedside, and between the covers. I sleep with them. And I wake up with them.

I bought my Kindle seven years ago; all this time, I only downloaded free eBooks. My rationale was if I was to spend money, why spend them on ebooks when I can buy print books.

It was not until last year, during the lockdown when was not frequenting the book stores, that bought some digital books. It was convenient, I didn’t have to wait for many weeks for the books to arrive, and I didn’t have to pay the shipment fee (which is substantial since I live in Australia).

The books were on all my devices within a minute, and I could read them on any device — my phone, iPhone, computer, or Kindle.

Now I am buying a lot of books as digital books. In fact, just today I bought in last two weeks I have bought seven books and before that, eight last week.

Now, this was from a reader’s perspective.

Let have a look at it from the writer’s perspective.

Advantages of launching your book as an ebook first.

Test the market.

Printed books cost a lot of money. You would need to get the book formatted, typeset, and proofread. You also need to invest in a professional book cover, book description, and back cover blurb. All these efforts cost a lot of money.

Since Amazon changed the whole book industry by introducing Kindle in November 2007, the option to publish your book as an ebook has enabled writers to test the market before spending money on their books.

E. L. James published her book Fifty Shades of Grey as an ebook before getting picked by Vintage Books and sold over 125 million copies. After being rejected by literary agents, Andy Weir put The Martian online for free, one chapter at a time.

Launch your book at zero cost.

This is even better than traditional publishing. You can keep all the rights to your book, have complete creative control, and still can launch your book at zero cost. Amazon doesn’t charge you anything, neither does any other platform to put your book out there.

Sell directly from your website.

Publish your book as a digital book allows you to sell it directly from your website, eliminating the need to go through any platform. Many authors are doing that now. Particularly non-fiction authors.

You can sell your book at a much lower price than Amazon or other platforms, and money appears in your account straight away.

Many professionals use their books as a free giveaway to establish their creditability and build their mailing lists. While it could be expensive with physical books, it can be done at zero cost.

But of course, you can launch your book as a print version at the same time.

Print-on-demand has changed the landscape of physical books, just like Kindle changed the digital books.

Gone are the days when you have to empty your garage to store 5000 copies of your book. I know the stories of many authors who did just that. Needless to say, they were not able to sell their books and ended up dumping them in recycling bins.

Print-on-demand service means your book can be printed one book at a time. They are a bit expensive than the eBooks, but you as an author do not have to put in any money upfront.

Of course, you will have to invest in getting your book ready for publishing (professional book cover, formatting, and typeset). Once you have done all that, you can upload your files, and your book can be available to order within 24 hours. It is incredibly quick to get your books up for sale.

Amazon runs an awesome print-on-demand service. Many authors are impressed with their quality.

If you want to go wide (which means not exclusive to Kindle and available on other platforms), IngramSpark and Draft2Digital are the companies you can go through.

In Nutshell

Penguin Random House chairman and CEO Markus Dohle recently stated that it is the best time for publishing. Global book marketing is growing every year. People are spending more money on books than ever before. Industry revenue is growing, and there is a stable, robust business model for both physical and digital distribution and a healthy coexistence between digital and physical formats.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Writing Books Is A Mindset Shift

July 12, 2021July 12, 2021 Neera 1 Comment

I used to think people who write books live on another planet.

Stories were so sacred that I never thought of writing one as a child or during my teen years. Even when a few characters popped up in my head with superpowers, I didn’t feel the need to write their stories.

Years later, my daughter wrote a story for her Year 10 assignment. I helped her. It was an eye-opening exercise. I watched characters come to life. And my mind opened to the possibility — anyone can write stories.

The writing bug had bitten me. I learned that it is possible to create stories from the beginning.

But I didn’t start with short stories. I started with a novel.

I enrolled in a year-long course at the local writer center, where I floated a story idea going through my head for some time. Everyone in the course gave the story idea their thumbs up.

With whatever little knowledge I gained during the course and whatever little time I scraped from full-time work, teenage children, and aged parents needing care, I managed to develop that idea into the first ‘‘shitty draft.’’

Then I left it in the proverbial bottom drawer of my desk.

I had lost my shoshin.

Shoshin is a concept in Zen Buddhism which means “beginner’s mind.”

In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind, there are few.

Shoshin refers to the idea of letting go of your preconceptions and having an attitude of openness when studying a subject.

When I started writing the novel, I was in the beginner’s mindset. I was curious about the process of creating characters, putting them in trouble, let them make decisions, and then watched them react.

It was all fun and games.

But soon, I started doubting myself. I wondered why anyone would want to read my book? A book takes years to write; do I have the time to go through the process? What if I don’t find a publisher?

It was a time when book publishing was going through a revolution. Amazon had announced Kindle Direct Publishing (November 2007), and in just five years, ebook publishing hit its peak.

It took another ten years to change my mindset. Like everybody else, I had preconceived ideas about writing books.

Many of you, reading this article, still might have them. So let’s tackle a few of them here.

Books are too hard to write
Books take years to write
Why would anyone want to read my book?
There are already too many books in the world
It is too hard to get published.

Books are too hard to write.

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

— Ernest Hemingway.

Although in the past few decades, “writing” used to be considered as “bleeding on the page,” it is not the case anymore.

Have you ever written a university assignment or a thesis for your Masters’s degree?

What did you do for that?

You selected a topic (or given a topic), researched, hypothesized, made an argument supporting your hypothesis, gave supporting examples, wrote a conclusion, and you were done.

That is all there is to writing a non-fiction book.

Make your first book a trial one.

Choose any topic that either you know about or want to know about. Research it. Look at it from your point of view, add bits of your own story, and you will give the topic a unique angle.

If you are a blogger and have written many articles, you might already have a book in them. Put together many articles with similar themes and then weave them in a coherent manner.

Books are nothing more but a collection of blogposts telling a coherent story.

Books take years to write.

That is what most people think. However, talk to any professional writer, and they will tell you they write the first draft very quickly.

If you interrupt the writing of fast narrative with too much introspection and self-criticism you will be lucky if you write 500 words a day and you will be disgusted with them in the bargain. By following my formula your write 2000 words a day and you aren’t disgusted with them until the book is finished, which will be in about six weeks.

— Ian Fleming.

There are many advantages of writing your book fast. First, you are in a flow state. Second, you are not seeking perfection but getting the story on the page.

You are not messing with your sentences, searching in vain for the right turn of phrase. You know you can always improve a sentence in the editing process.

You are not agonizing for weeks, changing back and forth, getting to that perfect prose at the initial stage of writing. You are in the discovery phase and want to figure out where the book is going. You can always go back and connect the dot.

It is not the writing of the book that takes longer, but the other stages. Two of the most time-consuming part of the book writing process are — research and editing/rewriting.

As a new writer, I also used to think that accomplished writers write a book in one go.

Nothing was far from the truth.

Accomplished writers have a process they follow. In that process, they allocate time for each step.

How long it takes you to write a book depends upon how good your process is and how polished your skills are. Both are achieved by writing several books.

Many self-published authors are releasing several books a year.

There are already too many books in the world.

Thousands of books on every topic have been written. Every human emotion has been explored, and every piece of advice has been given. All human experiences have already been cataloged in countless books.

Then why should I write a book?

The answer is no one can explain as you do.

There are countless books written on writing. I have read many of them and some of them several times. These books are written so well and never fail to inspire me. If I look at them, I feel I could never write like them; why I should even bother.

But the truth is my learning is not just from one book but several books. Repeated reading, deconstruction, and repeated usage have helped me understand concepts, which I now explain in my own way. In addition, I have learned to put my own spin on the topic.

Let’s say ten new writers are given the assignment to write a book on writing, and each one of them is given the same ten books on writing as reference material; each one will come up with a different book. Each one of them will be inspired by the different bits of the same book.

It is like ten chefs cooking the same dish with the same ingredients following the same recipe. Even then, each chef’s dish will taste different. Each chef will do something different, which will make her dish different from the other one.

Why would anyone want to read my book?

Your voice and your perspective.

Your take on a subject might be different even though slightly. But, on the other hand, your arguments might make more sense. And combined with your story, it might impact someone.

Your story, your voice, and your perspective will make your book original even if the topic has been explored countless times before.

Your creativity and viewpoint will make your book stand out from a thousand others on the same topic. So trust your instincts and write your book in your own way.

It is too hard to get published.

“It provides some kind of primal verification: you are in print: therefore, you exist.”

– Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

When I took to writing, it was drilled into me to concentrate on writing and not worry about publishing.

Because getting published was not only hard but next to impossible.

In his book On Writing, Stephen King talks about collecting rejection slips as a badge of honor.

But then the world changed right in front of my eyes. The Internet came, blogging started, and some daring writers started self-publishing.

The publishing industry has changed forever. We live in the internet age where everything is online, yet most of us, when we think of publishing, think of physical books.

Today, readers are purchasing more books as e-books and audiobooks than print copies.

You don’t have to go through the gatekeepers such as agents and traditional publishers to get your book published. Instead, you can publish and sell your book yourself.

In Summary

Having a dream to write books and to be able to write them is just the mindset shift.

Once you identify that, there is enough knowledge around for you to be able to do it on your own.

Surely it helps if you do it with other like-minded people.

Join Whimsical Writers, and let’s achieve our goals together.

Want to go quickly, go alone, want to go far, go together. — African proverb.

Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash

Make Someone’s Day

July 11, 2021July 11, 2021 Neera

Give them a gift they least expect.

Have you ever faced the dilemma of what to get your spouse for their birthday?

Have you ever wondered how to reach out to a friend you haven’t been in touch for a long time?

Have you ever faced the conundrum of encouraging someone who is going through a tough time?

Have you been feeling particularly romantic today but don’t know how to let you’re beloved know without feeling embarrassed?

Send them a love note.

Writing letters is considered old-fashioned. We have become so reliant on technology that we hardly think of writing a letter to someone when we can send them a text.

But letters are so powerful. Today, perhaps more than at any other time in history, letters make a significant impact.

There is nothing like receiving a personal, heartfelt letter from someone.

Letters are unexpected and beautiful. It might take you less than ten minutes to write, but a letter can, quite literally, change someone’s day, week, month… or life.

Here is a challenge for you, write seven letters in seven days.

The idea came to me in a newsletter, in the form of a booklet, One Letter Today, by Alexandra Franzen.

She suggested seven types of letters for seven days of the week.

A love letter
A fan letter
A letter to re-connect with a friend
A thank you letter
A letter delivering an apology
A letter containing your heartfelt advice
A letter to your “future self.”

You can write all 7 letters in a single day or write one letter per day for the next 7 days.

Alternatively, you can write for the next 30 days…90 days… 365 days and watch how your relationships change for good.

You can play music or write in silence. You can light a candle or sip some wine. Or both. Or not.

Create whatever type of experience you need to write.

If a particular topic or type of letter doesn’t resonate with you, skip it! Write a different type of letter instead.

Write a love letter.

It will only take you a few minutes to write a love letter.

You can write it on a beautiful piece of stationery or on a small piece of card. You can scrawl on a Post-It Note or scribble one on a notepad.

When you’re done, you can tuck it into a coat pocket or swirled it into a tiny scroll drop it onto a colleague’s desk. You put your child’s lunch box or slip it into a mailbox.

The length, format, and delivery method do not matter.

You can write a few paragraphs or a line or just three words: “I love you.”

Done.

Photo by Dhaya Eddine Bentaleb on Unsplash

Write a fan letter.

Choose someone whose work you love and respect. A writer, an actor, a musician, a producer, a local barista, a co-worker — doesn’t matter. Write them a fan letter.

Publish it on Medium if you like and send them a link.

Or mail them the old-fashioned way if you can find their mailing address.

What matters is you writing from the heart, saying what you need to say, and creating a positive imprint in another person’s day.

Reconnect with a friend

You have a long-time estranged friend whom you want to connect with again. Send them a letter.

Or perhaps you’d like to deepen a relationship with a new friend. Write to them.

Or maybe you should honor a treasured friend by sending a letter.

You might have hundreds of friends on social media, but none of them will come to your aid if you were in real trouble. If you want people to enhance your life, you need to connect them in a meaningful way.

A pure heartfelt note can do that.

Write a letter to say “thank you.”

Your team at work did a great job. How about thanking them with a “thank you” letter?

A friend went out of the way to help you; there is no better way to thank her than sending her a handwritten note.

Or, perhaps you’d like to say “thank you” to your soulmate, your kids, your mom or dad, or to someone who feels like a parent to you.

Write a sincere, heartfelt apology.

Have you let someone down, left someone hanging, or flaked out on, shamed, harmed, or wronged then. Write a sincere, heartfelt apology note.

Perhaps you’d like to write an apology to a family member or friend that you haven’t paid much attention to lately.

Or perhaps you’d like to apologize to a client or colleague who hasn’t been receiving your “best work” this past month.

Or maybe you want to write an apology to yourself. For speaking cruelly to yourself, like an enemy, not a friend. Or for neglecting your physical health instead of treating your body with respect.

If you need a little more guidance and inspiration, here’s an interesting website to explore.

Write a letter containing a few words of advice.

Somewhere, out there, is a human being who desperately needs your advice.

Not because you are “perfect” or “have all the answers.” Nobody does simply because you has walked the difficult path that this person is currently walking.

You’ve been there. You’ve done that. You’ve learned a few things, and you can offer a few words of guidance or reassurance as someone who is a few steps farther along.

In Japanese, the word “sensei” does not mean “expert” or “master.” It means “one who has gone before.” For someone? You are a sensei. Perhaps you’d like to give some advice to a child, a younger sibling or a family member.

Or perhaps you’d like to share your advice online in the form of a “public letter” to your blog readers or social media friends.

Maybe you have some advice to give to a friend in need. Or a colleague. Or a client. Or even to yourself. We often forget to take our own advice!

Write a letter to your “future self.”

Why not…

Write a letter to yourself one month, one year, or several years in the future. Express your hopes and dreams.

Give yourself a few important reminders. Nudge yourself to do better. Offer a few words of encouragement. Make predictions.

Or just say: “I love you.” You can give your handwritten letter to a friend and ask them to mail it back to you later.

You can bury it in a time capsule and dig it up in a year.

Or email it to yourself — in the future! — using FutureMe.org. Your FutureMe letter will be delivered to your inbox on the future date that you determine. It can be public or totally private. So cool!

So what letter are you going to write today?

Credit: This article is impaired by a tiny but amazingly inspiring booklet, One Letter Today, by Alexandra Franzen.

Need more inspiration, download it.

Photo by Lucrezia Carnelos on Unsplash

First Read, Then Write

July 5, 2021July 5, 2021 Neera

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote profound words in one of his journals that are not as well known as his other quotes but have the power to jolt every beginner who has aspirations to become a writer.

He wrote:

“Meek young men grow up in libraries believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote those books.”

What he is saying is profound on two levels. On one level, he is encouraging us to go to the library and read the works of great men. Then on the other level, he is whipping us to take their word as gospel.

An avid reader himself, Emerson read a lot. But more importantly, he questioned a lot. He was a ferocious reader. He was known to take long walks and write everything felt, observed, and inferred during his walks.

But what is less known about him was that Emerson enrolled himself to study divinity at age twenty-one. Graduate study in divinity in1824 meant almost entirely Bible study.

Emerson was intrigued him was the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament. Proverbs is not gospel, and it is not a great narrative like Genesis. It is a minor book.

Emerson wanted to write a book like the book of Proverbs. Not to annotate but to write his own scripture. He wanted to write one of those books that collect and embody the wisdom of their times. Emerson looked on Solomon as a fellow writer, someone to be imitated, not just venerated.

Almost thirty years later, in the last paragraph of his final essay in his 1850 book Representative Men he wrote, “We too must write Bibles.”

Books have that kind of power.

Recently I came across Robert D. Richardson’s masterpiece, First We Read, Then we Write. Richardson wanted to write William James’ biography, but he realized he didn’t have enough intellectual firepower to tackle William James, so he decided to write biographies of Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson first.

It took Richardson ten years to write three biographies.

His method was to read everything his subjects had read, in the sequence in which they read it, tracing their intellectual development.

Better readers become better writers.

Reading helps develop critical thinking. You shouldn’t just read for pleasure but also to broaden your horizons.

Read books rather than just articles. Read books outside your genre. Old books which have withheld the test of time are better than new bestsellers, which come and go.

Reading will inspire new ideas. By making reading a part of your routine, you can continually expose yourself to new ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Read like a writer. The art of reading like a writer doesn’t come instantly. You need to work at it. Read with a pen and notebook. Underline what intrigues you. Whenever you come across a new idea, stop, make a note, either in your notebook or on the side of the book itself, so that you can transfer it to your notes-taking system later.

Reading exposes you to a variety of writing styles.

Writers are shaped by other writers.

The books we read and the writers we follow influence us and impact our writing style. The writers who shape us are almost like unofficial mentors.

By reading widely and closely, voracious readers can learn at the feet of the English languge’s most talented writers.

Reading in different various genres exposes you to different styles of writing. Learn how you can incorporate them into your writing. For example, many non-fiction books borrow fiction techniques of storytelling. They have a hero’s journey and narrative structure and dialogues, which make them an interesting read.

Similarly, reading literature can help you write better scientific books. Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind has literary tones.

Reading allows you to study grammar in context.

Ever tried to read a grammar book? It is boring.

But read a well-written and well-edited book, and you will get lessons in grammar that are easy to learn and joy to watch in action.

Think of reading a novel or short story as a hack that lets you study grammar without having to work through a textbook.

Good books clearly communicate their messages, and to clearly communicate, you must have a good knowledge of grammar.

When reading books, pay attention to the grammar, notice how professional authors use punctuation, sentence structure, active and passive voice, action verbs, and basically tackle any grammar questions you are struggling to understand.

Reading helps you expand your vocabulary.

While reading, build our vocabulary. Whenever you come across a new word, jot it down, check its meaning and try to use it in your writing the same day. You will never forget it that way.

According to lexicographer and dictionary expert Susie Dent, “an average person’s active vocabulary is around 20,000 words, whereas a writer’s vocabulary is expected to be 30,000. Shakespeare used 31,534 different words in his works.

Read voraciously and read with purpose. Recognize what other authors do best and learn from them. All you have to do is study their work.

Stephen King famously said:

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write. Simple as that.”