Category: Writing

Are Our Reading Habits Scr*wed Forever

Neera

Before smartphones and before the internet, I used to read newspapers, magazines, and novels. Now it has been more than a decade since I have read a newspaper. I stopped buying magazines ages ago and I have to force myself to finish the novel even if it is well-recommended and I am enjoying it.

Instead, I spend hours on LinkedIn, Medium, blogs, and countless newsletters I subscribe to. I have tried to get away from it all and get back to some serious reading but failed. Serious reading bores me now. I want a fast-paced bite-size reading I can do in between chores and my own writing commitments.

Hamish Mckenzie, cofounder and Chief Writing Officer of Substack wrote an article, Time To Read, in which he admitted, “If I picked up a book instead of reflexively opening Twitter every couple of hours, I’m sure I would have read through my way through a library in the last 10 years.”

Social media is conspiring against our better instincts. It wants to feed us continuous dopamine hits and we keep accepting its offer.

The economic model for supporting content on the internet sucks. It doesn’t put readers first. The readers are addicted to Twitter and TikTok because these companies are zeroing in on the most titillating content to keep readers in a perpetual state of not-quite-satisfied-but-close. Social media companies are serving advertisers, not the readers.

For hundreds of years, publishing giants, newspapers, and magazines were making money through advertisements. But the internet vaporized that model. The new publishing giants, the social media companies, have a new model — ad-overload.

In all this mayhem, the writers were forgotten. They didn’t have the security of an agency behind them. They are not only expected to write for free but to continuously produce an unbelievable amount of content.

Medium came up with the concept of a Paywall

Medium.com was one of the first publishing companies to come up with a plan to pay writers for their work. They introduced a Paywall. They charged readers a monthly subscription fee and paid writers a portion of that based on the number of views and clicks.

The model became so successful that millions of readers and thousands of writers flocked to the platform. They ranged from amateurs to experts, all writing being able to find readers. But after enjoying an unbelievable amount of success for 3 to 4 years, Medium.com started on a downward spiral. There were several reasons for that and one of them being Medium started concentrating on readers (from where the revenue was coming) and ignored the writers (who were doing the hard yards to make Medium a success).

Thankfully things are beginning to change in mid-2022. The new CEO, Tony Stubblebine, is trying to turn the ship. While Medium was on a downward spiral, a new model emerged, introduced by Substack.

Substack model is different

Substack didn’t pay the writers as Medium did, but it allowed them to charge their readers directly. Writers could send their work directly to readers’ inboxes and charge whatever they thought it was worth. Substack made it possible and took a 10 percent cut of subscription revenue generated by the writers on the platform.

Substack can succeed only when writers succeed.

It’s a better model because one of the better ways an internet publishing company can provide value is by helping writers find more readers and make more money. And the best way to do that is to make sure readers are happy. Doing the right thing for the writer means doing the best thing for readers.

The way Substack is providing a great reading experience is:

  • by providing clean, simple, fast-to-load posts
  • no Ads
  • no pop-ups
  • directly in the inbox
  • option to read in the App
  • growth within the platform.

On Substack, readers have a closer relationship with the writer they care about. And writers have the ability and space to go deep into the issues that really matter to them.

A writer’s primary loyalty is to readers, and they get rewarded for using their attention wisely. They don’t have to play a game with an algorithm or trick readers into clicking like they had to with Medium. They are independent and not at the mercy of a company.

If they disappoint readers, the readers have the power to unsubscribe with just a click.

Readers don’t subscribers to newsletters

They subscribe to writers.

They want to know what their favorite writer’s thoughts are on a range of topics, what their experiences and learnings are, and what their life is like.

I subscribe to several newsletters, but in fact, I subscribe to the writers.

I want to read what they are saying. When I am reading a writer’s post, it’s just me and the words. I bury myself in the writer’s thoughts and eloquence and ideas.

The future of online writing will be different

The first thirty years of the internet were built on the mistaken business assumption that online reading isn’t worth as much physical reading. So they focused on clickbait or social flotsam and jetsam.

But the internet is still just getting started, and so is Substack. The way we’ve thought about online writing and reading for these first 30 years won’t be true for the next 30.

Big things are still to come. Writers will have the power their work directly with their readers.

And the readers will have the power to choose which writers they want to read.

Lack Of Energy, Not Time, Causes Writers To Stall And Crash

Neera

One of the biggest hurdles of writing has nothing to do with writing at all.

It has nothing to do with time, either.

Instead, it is a lack of understanding of how energy works.

As I have set myself a challenge to write 27 articles in 20 days and came up with a genius plan, to write five articles a day, three days a week, I am finding I am running out of energy much before I am running out of time.

I would start strong. I would open five documents, and start working on them, and before I know it, several hours have passed, and I have achieved nothing.

I would be on the computer, mind you, for all this time — reading, researching, writing, rewriting, working on headlines, and creating sub-heading. After all this intense work, my eyes would get tired. Soon after, my brain would refuse to concentrate and I know I was functioning on the reserve battery and would soon crash.

There is a way around this hurdle.

Understanding my energy pattern.

Energy isn’t something we think about while writing. Instead, we worry about the content and the time we have to write it. However, energy is the main reason we get stuck.

Energy is not about being a superhero and continuing till the work is done. Despite some super willpower, you can still run out of energy on a consistent basis.

We run out of energy because:

  1. Lack of pre-work
  2. The scarcity of input
  3. Your energy levels

Lack of pre-work

Pre-work is all the things we do even before we start writing. Writing is a several-step process. You got to select a topic; outline it, and do whatever research needs to be done before you can start writing.

Sometimes we get stalled because we don’t have enough information. That leads us to the next point.

The scarcity of input

You got to give time between selecting a topic and letting the brain come up with ideas to write about the topic. When you choose a topic, give it a loose outline and leave it for a few days, subconsciously, your brain is looking for ways to present an argument.

Your brain is looking for connections between whatever you read and whatever is already stored in your mind. By giving it time, you come back with a unique angle on the topic. This is when you will feel energized to write about the topic.

Your energy levels

Your energy levels are not the same during the day. For some people, their energy is at its peak in the morning and as the day progress, their energy depletes. For these people, writing an article after dinner is a bad idea.

I am one of these people. Invariably I leave the article writing too late in the evening and then pay the price for it.

On better days, my strategy is to select a few topics, preferably five, create five documents, and outline five articles. Then next day, do whatever research is required for those topics. On day three, I start writing them one by one, preferably in the morning and definitely before dinner. After dinner, I do tasks that require low energy. Tasks such as selecting an image, adding a footer, and a CTA (call-to-action).

If I can’t finish an article, because it is too late at night and I am running on reserve, rather than pushing through it, I leave it till morning. Sometimes it takes me just ten or fifteen minutes to finish and publish the article.

Takeaway

Rather than managing your time, manage your energy.

Identify your peak, medium, and low energy times of the day.

Identify which tasks need low, medium, or high energy and do them at

Plan your topics in advance.

Spread the writing tasks over several days.

Get the outline done.

Make sure your research is stored away, ready to use.

Finally, write the article.

Edit it on another day.

See what can you outsource.

I Am Going To Write A Book In Public

Neera

As a part of the NaNoWriMo challenge.

Tomorrow is the 1st of November. All around the world, thousands of people will glue to their laptops, writing a novel.

They will write 50,000 words in 30 days.

That is 1,667 words a day.

This annual event is known as NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month.

Each year, I take part in the challenge. I have been doing that since I found out about it in 2011.

Sometimes I win it, other times I don’t.

Winning means writing 50,000 words before the clock strikes midnight on 30th November.

Many times, I manage only a few thousand words. But I participate each year, regardless. The only exceptions are when I am traveling in November. However, twice I wrote during the travel. It killed me and ruined all the fun, so I decided not to do that again.

In NaNoWriMo terms, I am a rebel writer.

Which means I write things other than a novel.

In 2011, I wrote a short story and managed to write only 2,340 words.

In 2012, I wrote my memoir and wrote 13,458 words towards it.

In 2013, I wrote a collection of short stories and won the challenge.

In 2015, I wrote the first draft of my first novel and won it again by writing 52,504 words.

In 2016, I wrote a travel memoir and cranked up 40,516 words.

In 2017, I wrote 14,169 words in diary-style personal writing.

In 2018, I wrote 55,757 words long self-help book and won it again.

In 2019, I wrote a collection of blog articles (15,437 words).

In 2020, I wrote the draft of my second novel (17,370 words).

In 2021, I wrote a memoir again, Diary of A Wannabe Writer (16,670 words)

This year, I am planning to finish the first novel I wrote in 2015 and get it ready for publication.

But somehow that doesn’t bring in the excitement of a challenge.

So I want to up the ante, and write another book in parallel.

In public.

On LinkedIn and Medium.

Starting tomorrow.

If I have intrigued you enough and you too want to write a novel or a book in November, you can join NaNoWriMo here.

I am going to need all your encouragement and support.

An online friend on LinkedIn wrote, “You have taken on quite a challenge there.” My response was, “The worst that can happen is I fail. But I will fail doing something. Which is not a failure but a step forward. I will learn from my mistake and do it better next time.”

I have changed my relationship with failure.

I don’t see them as failures anymore. I see them as opportunities to learn.

Back in 1993, I started a business. Selling artificial jewelry. I failed at it miserably.

Then again, in 2001. This time in health supplements. I failed again.

Then I tried my hand at selling real estate, in the middle of the worst recession Australia had ever experienced. Needless to say, I didn’t sell a single house. I had failed again.

Now, thirty years later, when I look back at them, they were not failures; they were learning opportunities.

I learned more from my failures than from my successes. “Writing” was my biggest failure. In my first performance review as a middle manager, my boss said to me, “The only thing standing between you and a senior manager role is your written English.”

Bingo!

A learning opportunity!

I rolled up my sleeves and got on with turning my weakness into a strength.

– I enrolled in writing courses.
– Joined writing groups.
– Started a blog.
– Read books.
– Then wrote some.

Today, when someone says to me, “You write very well,” I smile. I tell them it is because I am not afraid of failures.

The next 30 days will show whether I fail again and learn some lessons. Or able to use what I learned about writing in the past 3–4 years and write a book in public.

I do crazy things like these now and then.

If you have been following me for a while, you would know that back in January 2021, I posted on three social media platforms for 100 consecutive days.

Then again in April 2021, I announced that I will write 100 articles in 100 days. And I did that too.

Then, in June 2021, I set myself a challenge to write a book in a week and I did that too. I even wrote an update each day, sharing my progress.

This is something like that.

A challenge to push the boundaries and do some more under pressure.

I have been trying to talk myself out of it but the idea won’t leave me. So I am going to go ahead and do it.

What is my plan?

My plan is to fictionalize a non-fiction book.

It is going to be an interesting idea, and I am very excited about it. At least for the time being. I can’t say whether this excitement will last for the entire month.

I will not chase the 50,000 words (I am a rebel writer, after all). Instead, I am going to weave a story around the messages I want to get across. If I could do that convincingly, the skeleton will be done and the book can be beefed up in subsequent edits.

When I announced this crazy idea on LinkedIn, I didn’t realize that LinkedIn posts have a limit of 3000 characters (which is about 500–600 words). So my plan is to write an abridged version on LinkedIn and a full version on Medium. I hope it will work.

From experience, I know there will be days in the month when I cannot write. Such days come, we all know that, so I am giving myself permission to skip a few days here and there and make up for them when I can.

To save you from a flood of emails, I will publish the daily chapters in my profile and will give you updates from time to time, along with the links.

As I am writing these words, my inner critic is lifting its head and before he talks me out of sending this post, I am going to hit publish.

See you tomorrow!

Bye for now.

The Power Of Subtraction

Neera

Richard and Maurice were running a barbeque restaurant in Los Angeles, but it wasn’t doing very well. So they took a brief break to decide what to do.

They audited their sales receipts to see which products were selling more. Once they found out, they wondered: why don’t we focus on these products that are doing well? So, courageously, they slashed their menu from 25 items to a mere 9.

That’s when “McDonald’s Barbeque” actually started growing. The McDonald brothers could improve their food and reduce their costs by reducing their product line. And serve more customers per hour! That’s how Ray Kroc got interested in partnering with the brothers and franchising McDonald’s.

Subtraction is the key to excellence.

Ask a good chef how to make the soup more flavourful, and he’ll tell you to add a few more spices to it. But ask a great chef how to make the soup more flavourful, and he will tell you to boil away excess water.

Ask any Pulitzer prize-winning author, and they will tell you that the art of editing is more important than the art of writing.

Why does subtraction work?

As James Clear says:

There are two paths to improvement”

Option 1: Do more great work.

Option 2: Do less bad work.

Doing less of what is not working intensifies our focus on doing more of what is working. And that is why subtraction helps us succeed faster. By subtracting the inessential, we enable the essential to shine much brighter.

Adding is easier. Subtracting is not.

And that’s because we are hard-wired to add.

Leidy Klotz and his colleagues from the University of Virginia have conducted various experiments that prove that we humans are inclined towards addition.

When an incoming University president asked for ideas to improve things on campus, only 11% of the suggestions involved getting rid of something. Instead, 89% of requests were geared towards adding and doing new things.

In a study where college students were asked to improve their essays and resubmit them, only 17% did so by removing parts of them. 83% of the essays had a higher word count.

Takeaway

  • Subtract the inessential to intensify your focus on what works best.
  • Add monthly reminders to your calendar with a prompt question: “What can I subtract from my workload to focus on core projects?”

How To Write An Article In An Hour

Neera

For a long time, I have been struggling to write an article in an hour or less.

An hour is all I have in a day to write an article, that too in snippets.

In the past few months, I have been trying a strategy.

Now that I have nailed the process, I am ready to share it.

Keep in mind that it may not apply to longer articles (1000–2000 words) or researched based articles, but it works like magic with 750 words articles.

It’s a four-step process and it’s divided into fifteen-minutes blocks.

Without much ado, here it is.

First 15 minutes

I select a topic from the list of topics I have been collecting over the week or, if a brand new topic comes to mind, I pick that. For m, the trick is to pick a topic where the energy is.

I put a timer on and write uninterrupted for 15 minutes on a notepad.

Strictly on paper and strictly for 15 minutes.

This gives me an opportunity to put out whatever I know or feel about a topic.

I normally do this first thing in the morning when my mind is fresh.

This is my first draft.

Having the draft done first thing in the morning is a great feeling. My day is set now.

I will leave it now for a few hours before I can get back to it.

Second 15 minutes

Around mid-morning or in the afternoon, I set the timer again and go back to
the draft and type it.

While doing that, I refine the sentences and add new material to it. Throughout the day, my subconscious is thinking about the article. It is digging examples, stories and other related information to enrich the article.

I race the clock again and finish it within the allocated 15 minutes.

Third 15 minutes

I set the timer on for the third time and do the following:

    • Add an image and the footer,

    • select the tag words and

    • write an SEO description.

The article is now 80% ready for publication.

Now I will leave it for a day, allowing my subconscious to mull over it.

Fourth 15 minutes

The next day (or week), I come back to the article and line edit it, making sure it reads fluently, all the arguments are there, and I have connected the loose ends.

Last but not least, I will make sure the heading is appropriate and enticing enough so that it invites the readers to read it.

Sometimes, I will pass the heading through the headline generator apps to refine it.

Then I schedule the article or publish it straight away.

There it is, my four-step process to write an article in an hour.

Closing Remark

The magic is in racing the timer.

The more you learn to race with the clock, the better you will get at it.

Let me know how you go with it.

Have You Got Stuck Recently Thinking About What You Should Write

Neera

Here are 3 things you should consider.

Your story

If you are stuck figuring out what you should write, then your focus is in the wrong place. You are getting fixated on things like subject matter and niche. And all these are not essential to developing your calling as a writer.

The words you say are the paint on the house. The foundation is the belief behind them, which is something most writers miss.

As writers, we must begin, not with what we say, but with how we say it. People care more about the why than the what.

In other words: voice trumps the subject.

Everyone has a story. The easiest way to find your voice is to tell yours.

People connect to other people’s experiences, especially when it’s painful to embarrassing. When you share yours, you’re inviting others into a place where they feel heard. Write one true, vulnerable story, and see how people connect.

Your purpose

Your work has to have a purpose.

If you make something because you like it or because you think it’s necessary, the best you can hope for is a small audience who agrees. In the worst case, you’ll have an audience of one — you.

But if you can answer the question, “who is my work for?” and “what does my work do?” you will attract a large audience who will benefit from your work.

Many people say, “I’m a writer.”

Fewer can say, “I’m a writer whose words help people overcome mental health issues.”

Even fewer can say, “I’m a writer whose words help people overcome mental health issues, particularly depression, with a focus on actionable frameworks.”

When you get clear on why you are doing something, the who and the how becomes easier.

When you know your purpose, you discover the audience.

No matter what you make or what you make it about, you have to make it for something. Your work has to have a purpose.

We all need to figure out “who are we writing for” and “what does my work do?”

Does it entertain or inform?
Does it solve a problem?
Does it provide a service?
Does it make a person’s life easier?

Answering these questions can help unlock your true potential.

Your business

What is your business?

A blog is not a business. A podcast is not a business. A YouTube channel is not a business. Content is marketing.

A business is activities that produce and sell goods and services for profit. A business model turns your blog, your podcast and your YouTube channel into a business.

What is a business model? A business model is a plan for the successful operation of a business, identifying sources of revenue, and the intended customer base, building products to meet their needs and selling them while making a profit.

Understanding these concepts is important.

Many writers do not understand the basics of a business.

In the writing industry, the following story plays out time and time again. It typically goes something like this:

A person discovers blogging for the first time while sitting in their cubicle at their day job or waiting on the kids to get home from school. They get lost in this new world they’ve discovered, reading everything they can find on the subject. They get their nerve up, buy a domain, and start a blog. They’ll worry about the money part later — the goal from the outset is simply to have a creative outlet… And then they wake up a year later wondering when the money part was supposed to happen. Did they miss a step?

Well, yes, they did. They forgot to make a product or service. At some point, every professional creator has to turn the corner from blogger-looking-for-a-creative-outlet to creator-trying-to-build-a-profitable-business.

The key change along the way? Start making money by building a product or service and selling it to your audience at a price that makes sense.

It’s important to choose a business model right in the beginning so that you can design your website, your content calendar, and all the rest of your marketing efforts to help build that business model.

Here are the four fundamental online business models you can choose from:

  • Ads, Sponsorships, & Affiliate Marketing
  • Physical Products (t-shirts, mugs, anything personalized)
  • Digital Products (books, novels, ebooks, workbooks, journals, planners, posters, wallpaper images)
  • Services (workshops, courses, coaching)

While Affiliate Marketing seems to be an easy way to start, it actually needs millions of visitors visiting your site for you to make any money from it.

Digital Products and Services are a good starting point.

Forget about Ads and Sponsorships until you have millions of views each week.

Your homework this week:

  • Choose your business model.
  • Make two digital products.
  • Offer the first one for free so that people get to know your work. (Mine is at the end of this article).
  • Put up the second one for a low price so that people don’t hesitate to buy.

Every professional has tools specific to their trade.

Plumbers have tools; electricians have tools, and so do the doctors and engineers.

Writers too need tools to be effective in their trade.

Download my latest book, Writer’s Toolkit, for free.