I need to stop treating the weekends as special. I stay up late on the night before, ergo I get up late. I am getting more lone time, I convince myself. I have now realized that's not the case. The late nights can give me some hours when all are asleep. But I enjoy the early mornings much more.
I am fresh, I can sit and relax with calmness surrounding me. No one's awake. Not in my house or on the outside. The only "noise" is the crickets in the dark, busy with their routine; that calms me.
I get to hear the nature wake itself up to the rising dawn. I need not plug my ears to shut out any distracting sounds. Every sound is stimulating; I read better, I write better. As someone who gets distracted by the slightest of the noises, that's also the best time to get into a meditative state, something I am trying to do daily now.
My habit of treating weekends as different from the regular work days has been ruining the routine that keeps me freshest throughout the day.
I always wonder what drives the journalists that sit in their air-conditioned newsrooms to go on a monologue. Questioning every other person, related to every news that has happened today. Or yesterday. Or in the last week. Or in the last year. The freshness, the relevance of the news they are reporting on, commenting on does not matter to them. What matters is their perceived notion that a journalism degree gives them a right to question, to mock, and these days, even scold everyone else.
They scold; absolutely pointing and shouting at their "guests". Of course, even these "guests" know they are only here for getting scolded. There are those guests that get all the attention, all the respect. And then there are the remaining asses warming the chairs in the studios. Many only get to talk for once or twice. I wonder do they themselves care. Or are they just picked randomly from the support staff?
It is tiring to watch the debates on the news shows. Or the monologues that precede them. I've anyway long stopped watching any form of news for that matter. These anchors, though, need to remember that they are anchors, not judges.
We never call anything that’s good ‘content’. Nobody walks out of a movie they loved and says, ‘Wow! What great content!’ Nobody listens to ‘content’ on their way to work in the morning. Do you think anybody ever called Ernest Hemingway a ‘content creator’? If they did, I bet he would punch ‘em in the nose.
Another issue of Slanting Nib & A Keyboard newsletter is out today. It features a few well-written essays that talk about the partisan debates around the different forms of the books, starting with their evolution over the years, from "the clay tablets to the e-book format". The physical, emotional and psychological effects of eBooks and paper; a love letter to audiobooks. This issue has it all.
Do give it a read online. If what you read interests you, please subscribe. If you are already subscribed and have been enjoying the issues, I will appreciate if you forward them to your friends.
“One technology doesn’t replace another, it complements. Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.” – Stephen Fry
People who love books and reading cannot love eBooks, goes the adage. Penelope Lively calls them “some sort of bloodless nerd”. So much has been written and published by the authors and the public in general on their love for the specific forms of the books. Some people have had contrasting thoughts; talking about eBooks, Douglas Adams had famously said that one should “not confuse the plate for the food”. But he had also quipped that “we notice e-book readers, we don’t notice books”.
So, what is it, then? This issue features a few well-written essays that talk about the partisan debates around the different forms of the books, starting with their evolution over the years. I want to remain unbiased; I will try to be that. After all, I am just the guy serving the plates; it’s the food on those plates that matters.
With a fascinating look at how books have evolved over the years from “the clay tablets to the e-book format,” SFBook Review presents a snapshot of the publishing history. “As books have now reached the 21st century with the creation of the increasingly popular e-book, we thought it would be a good idea to take a look back at the long and involved history of the humble book.” Here’s a snippet on the birth of the “cheap” novel.
With the continued spread of the written word, along with a growth in education and the continued reduction in print costs, the first mass-market paperbacks were born. In Britain there were two distinct markets these mass publications were aimed at, the juvenile market with the “story papers” and the working class adult which were known as a “penny dreadful”, “penny number” or a “penny blood” - due to the fact that they each cost a “penny”. Eventually these novels were exclusively aimed at the working class youth market and the term story paper became interchangeable with penny dreadful.
Equally insightful is the evolution of audiobooks. Did you know that the first audiobook was recorded in 1952?
Undoubtedly, the individual preference of a form of the book matters the most. Nonetheless, the heartily debated topic, a cultural divide of sorts, is researched equally well, forcing us to rethink how we respond to the written word. Which form does our brains prefer? Financial Times has a detailed write-down of the physical effects of the increased screen times or connectivity associated with the eBooks; at the same time, it also presents more emotional or the psychological aspects associated with the inherent differences of the media forms.
As researchers examine the differences reading in different media make, they are also having to distinguish carefully between the different things that we do when we read. Take, for instance, the difference between “deep reading”, when you really get immersed in a text, and “active learning”, when you make notes in margins or put down the book to cross-reference with something else.
In this love letter to audiobooks, Maggie Gram confesses her love, her liking for audiobooks and attempts to address the criticisms that this format of the books receives. Is reading the only true form of reading? Or “reading is only reading when it requires the constant assertion of will,” as many critics of the medium might say. That’s the question, the disapproval that Maggie attempts to answer in this heartfelt essay.
Less dude-like people, people less invested in making fun of you, will just cock their heads to the side and ask you why you do it. As if liking books were not enough! As if it weren’t the best thing in the world to have someone read to you! As if you had something better to do! I thought about starting this essay by insisting that I listen to audio books for work, so that I could not be mistaken for that other kind of person, that kind of person who listens audio books because it brings her some kind of unsophisticated pleasure. I am not, I wanted you to know, your Aunt Paula. My kitchen is not decorated with rooster towel racks and rooster potholders and rooster trim. I am a very serious person.
As I read through the collection of short stories from Olivia Parkes, I knew what a brilliant writer she is. She leaves you spellbound by her inimitable narration of the short story “Schrödinger’s Cat, But for Marriage” about a failing marriage. With some brilliant analogies and flirty humour, she brings a smile to your face; makes you pause and read the passage again at various points. I couldn’t word the recommendation better than the Halimah Marcus. “Read this story to find out what the breakdown of social order in a marriage looks like. Read this story to find out whether the cat lives or dies. Read this story to take your arguments a little less seriously, and to cherish the paradoxical moments, as with Schrödinger’s cat, when you both get to be right.
A library is many things; it has adapted itself with changing times and is now a lot more. Going beyond the selection of paperbacks and hardcovers, many libraries also serve digital editions of the books in both text and audio form now. Libby is a perfect companion app for such public libraries. With your existing library card, you can borrow eBooks and audiobooks from the digital media collection of the library. So why spend money on buying digital books?
PS: Shouldn’t an app that’s an extension to a public library be featured in an issue all about the library? Well, it should. But what’s the fun in that.
One Final Inspiration
Anyway. Let this be a lesson to all novelists to read the full context of the things you’re looking up for your books but if you do make mistakes, at least let them be hilarious.
“A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas - a place where history comes to life.” — Norman Cousins
Though it’s an apt characterization, a library has been labelled in many more ways. For some, it’s a getaway, a place they tip-toe into to gain a momentary respite from their daily grinds. For some, it’s a vast ocean of knowledge they dip their minds in to get enlightened. For writers, it can be both. And so much more.
This issue features a few essays that depict what libraries mean to a few writers and what, according to them, they should mean to everyone else.
In this lecture explaining the importance of using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, Neil Gaiman emphasizes on why it’s an obligation for all us, citizens, to support libraries and to inculcate the love for books among children, right from early ages. Highlighting first the significance of reading books, specifically fiction, he goes on to make one understand why it’s absurd to “perceive libraries as a shelf of books”.
Libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information. I worry that here in the 21st century people misunderstand what libraries are and the purpose of them. If you perceive a library as a shelf of books, it may seem antiquated or outdated in a world in which most, but not all, books in print exist digitally. But that is to miss the point fundamentally.
One would agree whole-heartedly with the title when it’s a mix of prominent personalities – an astronaut, a sci-fi writer, a painter, a cartoonist and a children’s author – convincing you about it. “Early-1971, in an effort to attract as many youngsters to the premises as possible, Marguerite Hart — children’s librarian at the newly opened public library in Troy, Michigan — wrote to a number of notable people with a request: to reply with a congratulatory letter, addressed to the children of Troy, in which the benefits of visiting such a library were explained.” From among the responses from the likes of Neil Armstrong, Isaac Asimov, and Dr Seuss, here’s a snippet from the letter from E. B. White.
A library is many things. It’s a place to go, to get in out of the rain. It’s a place to go if you want to sit and think. But particularly it is a place where books live, and where you can get in touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books. If you want to find out about something, the information is in the reference books—the dictionaries, the encyclopedias, the atlases. If you like to be told a story, the library is the place to go. Books hold most of the secrets of the world, most of the thoughts that men and women have had. And when you are reading a book, you and the author are alone together—just the two of you.
Susan Jacoby’s love letter to New York Public Library, particularly its newly restored main reading room and its Center for Scholars and Writers. As she recounts the time that she spent in the library as the world changed outside, you can’t help but wonder if there’s any other apt description for this place than “an oasis of civilization” as she refers.
In a compartmentalized and bureaucratized American academic culture, the library is one of the last bastions of respect for those who try to carry on an older but increasingly archaic tradition of independent scholarship embodied by men like Kazin. My current research is concerned with the marginalization of secularism and free thought – the lovely, anachronistic term that appeared at the end of the 17th century – in American history. The range of the library’s holdings on this quirky and controversial subject has given me a new appreciation of the courage and vision of past generations of New York librarians, who collected material without regard for the received religious and political opinion of their time.
A writer, editor and a teacher, Lena has published many short stories as part of publications and anthologies; one among them is the brilliant short story Mystery Lights published at CRAFT magazine. Though it’s not a mystery, Lena has you glued throughout as you learn more about the central character Windy and the other supporting characters. As the main plot about the show around Marfa lights is slowly unravelled, it glides into a crazed climax that brings a smile on your face. You can’t help but wonder if the Marfa town and the notorious lights that form the backdrop to this story are indeed magical.
Though libraries act as a repository of all the words ever written and published as books, many are also published independently online. Nonetheless, they can be equally significant, powerful and meaningful for an individual. As a free read-it-later service, Pocket allows you to catch up on these articles without being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of the written works available. With an optional premium subscription, it can also be your permanent library of articles and stories that you read online.
One Final Inspiration
Your writing doesn't need to be 100% original.
∙ There are more than 1,000 biographies of Winston Churchill.
∙ Yuval Noah Harari sold 12 million copies of Sapiens and instead of doing new research, he presented ideas in a new way.
Have any recommendations or feedback for me? I’d love to hear from you. Just hit reply, or you can even email me.
Thank you for reading and sharing.
-Amit
I came across this short little post I'd written 9 years back, ruminating on how we are so different. I believe if there's anything that this year has proven, it is that just my small wish of uniting us my name was so naive.
We, the people of India; the divided people of India.
We are divided by states. We are divided by religion. We are divided by language. We are divided by accent. We are divided by names. We are divided by color.
Writing in Markdown is not always easy. If you are providing an interface, an editor of any form, you shouldn't force your users to write in markdown. Especially if you are expecting them to use your application on a mobile device. It's a complete mess on the smaller mobile screens.
Every time I've to write in Markdown on my smartphone, I shudder. Especially if I've to insert a link. Do not make me type all the markups. It is just not easy.
It is a lot simpler to select some text and tap a button, either to make it bold or insert a link. Sure, insert the markup in the background or in the editor, I don't mind that. Just don't make me type the whole damn stars and brackets sequence.
Don't get me wrong. I love Markdown. It is the simplest markup format, a lot better than writing the posts as HTML. However, it's not too intuitive to write on the smaller screens, without a physical keyboard.
So please don't force me use that. Provide me an option of a toolbar.
This was such a thrilling documentary. I have rarely used that adjective for a documentary. But this one is so very different. I cannot fathom someone's possession for their passion can blind them to the risks rather conspicuous to the rest. I was aware of the free soloing as a form of climbing. What took me by surprise was the level of planning that goes into the preparation. In hindsight, it was foolish of me to think that wasn't the case, that the act was spontaneous.
1917
I can't think of a better way to captures the immediacy of war than how Sam Mendes does with 1917. The single-take narration grips one right from the beginning and never lets off even for a moment. I was with the characters throughout their journey, feeling their anxiety, their pain. I entered every new terrain, turned every dark corner equally uneasy. What Mendes and his cinematographer Roger Deakins manage to achieve is absolute brilliance. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and was left gasping by the end. A cinematic masterpiece.
Greyhound
Another war flick that, sure, aimed to be different. A fast-paced action thriller about battleships is not very common. However, the economical 75 minutes of the runtime itself felt too long. The fights felt repetitive and with no other thread to hold the plot together, it was easy to skip over. Tom Hanks sells the character though. However, I am tired now of seeing him play the perfect guy. He needs to play some grey characters now, someone with a few flaws.
Bonus - Quarantine Special
I also finally watched the Quarantine special episode of Mythic Quest. This is the best show on Apple TV+, period. And this special episode was exactly what I needed now -- an understanding of what I and most of us are going through in current times. What's commendable is that it does so without giving up on the hilarity. As the episode came to the climax, it had me jumping with momentary joy. With my eyes full of happy, hopeful tears and my fists clenched, [spoiler alert] I joined Ian to shout out loud "Fuck you Coronavirus".
The sixth issue of Slanting Nib & A Keyboard newsletter is out today. It features a few essays that depict what libraries mean to a few writers and what, according to them, they should mean to everyone else. A mix of prominent personalities out to corroborate, with their powerful words, the significance of library, and how a library is many things -- now that's something I wouldn't want to miss.
So, do give it a read online. If what you read interests you, do subscribe. If you are already subscribed and have been enjoying the issues, please forward them to your friends.
I subscribed to Pocket Premium today. Recently, I have been reading a lot of articles on the web. And most of the times, it is on Pocket. I save the recommended articles from newsletters, blogs or Twitter to be read later and catch up on them towards the end of the day. Or when I have some free time at my hand.
What's in the Premium option that made me upgrade from the free tier, you ask? Well, first of all, I wanted to support a service that's part of Mozilla family. I've been a long time Instapaper user, but since Mozilla acquired Pocket, I have been using the later as my primary read later service.
I have also been using Pocket extensively to find the right articles to be included as part of my newsletter. I read a lot, heavily curate and include just a few of them. So my Pocket list and archive are always full of some great writings from many brilliant sources. I do not want to lose any of these wonderful essays.
I wanted to make Pocket a sort of my online reading library -- it's even better if it's permanent as Pocket promises with an upgrade to Premium. The upgrade also offers full-text search which comes handy when finding that one article that talked about some peculiar topic. The biggest draw was the unlimited highlighting. The 3 highlights that the free option offered was limiting when each long read that I saved was full of thoughts worthy of absorption and introspection.
I have paid for a year; the pricing that it offers in-app is worth my current extent of the use of the service. I will re-evaluate after a year again. For now, Pocket stays the service of my choice.
I didn't want to read another self-help book. But this one had been recommended to me for so many days, so many times that I had to read this once. Going in, I absolutely knew what to expect of the book. I got just that. It just was structured well enough to keep me going.
James Clear has got a nice framework in place -- make good habits obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying. One can understand why that is important. He also presents it with enough examples and detailed description. I just wish it was shorter. A few chapters feel repetitive and only to be there to meet the page count goal. We could trim almost a third of the book and it would still be equally effective.
Anyway, the rating is for the simple way James presents the framework. There's something to be learnt from this, for sure.
I recently wanted to attempt meditation again. I have already tried getting into a habit of regular meditation sessions many times before this. However, as always, even this time, I couldn't go through the sessions for any significant duration of time. I can't seem to understand what I am missing.
Maybe my mind is just not wired to be able to get something out of the process. Or maybe my surrounding, my current lifestyle is too chaotic to lend me space, the time to meditate. Thoughts always rush into my mind. From work. From home. From things done well. From things not yet done. I would never get into the zone where I am listening to my breathing. Maybe I am just too distracted within.
And the fact that meditation can probably help me overcome that inattention is also why it is even more frustrating that I can't appreciate this practice. I have heard many people claim how meditation calms their mind. Get the clarity of thoughts. Focus. So I feel this can help me be not this distracted. But then while I am meditating, I feel helpless to control how my mind wanders around.
I have tried multiple apps. I have tried guided sessions. Nothing seems to help. At times, I am even judging the voice that guides me. And I just sigh in disappointment.
I gave meditation a real try. It's not that I hate it. It's not that it's hard. It's just that my brain does not want to do this. It's really pushing back.
I was nodding incessantly as Grey spoke about his frustration of not being able to appreciate the benefits of meditation. I feel equally frustrated when I hear someone talk about how the sessions leave them more mindful, more relaxed. It just doesn't do it for me.
I spent the last weekend idling around; I did not do anything that I have always considered "productive". No reading novels. Or catching up on my read later lists. Or writing. Or working on the short story in progress. Nothing. I spent the whole two days lying on my sofa, enjoying a movie marathon with my family. I did all that without judging myself, as I had recently decided.
It's so easy to idle the whole days away. As James Clear has said, "our real motivation is to be lazy and to do what is convenient". It's only understandable then that it takes too much effort to break this built-up inertia of not doing anything. Time, then, is spent generously lazying around, scoring easy joys.
The thought also reminds of this exchange between Dan Buettner and James Hamblin during one of their interviews.
Buettner: In the long-term view, you’re better off buying experiences than some new gadget. Buying things does produce some spike in joy or appreciation, but that wears off over time. A good experience actually gains luster.
Hamblin: Despite knowing that, when I actually go to spend money on traveling or even just tickets to something, I think about how soon that will be over and gone. And if I buy a couch, I have it for years.
Buettner: But the joy from the couch wears out. You’ll still flop down on it, but it won’t provide that bump of joy.
With time as the most valuable currency, what is, then, the parallel in real life to the "gadget", the thing that time can buy? Is it the worthless, hollow hours that one spends on streaming the same, old movies or TV shows? Or is that an experience?
What Buettner refers to as joy when talking about the product vs experience discourse, is satisfaction when moved over to real life. We should judge if the activity is an experience by the longevity of the satisfaction it brings.
There's no doubt that a whole day of movie marathon can lend momentary joy. But does it do that without being a burden on your mind? If so, then it is an experience. Else you have just carelessly wasted the most valuable currency for owning a thing and it will soon stop giving you joy.
What are other examples of such experiences that time can buy?
Another issue of Slanting Nib & A Keyboard newsletter is out today. It features essays that provide a brief history of how punctuation evolved, its significance, some valuable tips and witty guidelines on using the marks.
This week's issue also introduces a slight twist in the featured author's section. With every issue going ahead, I will feature specific writing from the writer being featured instead of a broad collection of works from him. It can be a short story, a poem or an essay.
Again, do give it a read online. If what you read interests you, do subscribe. If it doesn't interest you, do let me know what doesn't work for you. I would love to hear it all.
I have published 5 issues of the newsletter and I have set the tone for the newsletter now. Setting the tone was the next mini-milestone for me. The newsletter has already been featured by Inbox Reads and Thanks for Subscribing and I couldn't have asked for more. Now, I wish to continue the journey and focus on how I can interest more people to subscribe. Your feedback will, for sure, help.
“I found a great many pieces of punctuation and typography lying around dormant when I came along - and I must say I had a good time using them.” – Tom Wolfe
A lot has been said and suggested by authors, amateur and experienced, on how we should and should not use punctuation. Setting aside the perpetual debates around specific punctuation marks, the importance of punctuation in making writing intelligible for a reader is never in doubt.
This issue features essays that provide a brief history of how punctuation evolved, its significance, some valuable tips and witty guidelines on using the marks.
Richard Nordquist at ThoughtCo. takes us deep into the meaning and importance of punctuation. More than being an essay about a brief on punctuation, it details the history of punctuation, its relevance before and after the introduction of printing, and the recent trends in the use of punctuation. Dr. Nordquist has it all covered.
The beginnings of punctuation lie in classical rhetoric—the art of oratory. Back in ancient Greece and Rome, when a speech was prepared in writing, marks were used to indicate where—and for how long — a speaker should pause. Until the 18th century, punctuation was primarily related to spoken delivery (elocution), and the marks were interpreted as pauses that could be counted out.
Benjamin Samuel at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency describes the great power comma possesses in our writing. Backing his argument with some pertinent examples, he delivers his point with an abundance of wit and tinge of humor that is a signature of every article at McSweeney’s.
If nothing else, one ought to know how to treat a comma. Abandonment or abuse of the comma muddles discourse, and this lack of respect is akin to neglect, to a lack of appreciation, to an unreasonable rejection of the very foundation of all worthy human interactions. (…) It simply cannot be said too often that punctuation, not just the noble comma, is crucial to communication and comprehension. Truly, a poorly constructed sentence can set worlds crumbling, can alter perceptions irreparably.
“If the rules you learned about commas and semi-colons don’t mean much to you, forget them and try this.” That is how Kim Cooper begins this helpful guide on punctuation published for Writing Center at Harvard University. This is a handy list of suggestions on how one can check the selection of punctuation like commas and semi-colons, dashes and hyphens as part of her writing.
If you don’t want your reader to pause, there shouldn’t be a comma, there, because as, this demonstrates it’s very difficult to figure, out, what you’re saying when your punctuation, makes the sentence unreadable. Your sentences shouldn’t leave your reader hyperventilating from the constant shallow breaths that over-punctuation requires. Nor should they be gasping for breath at the end of a long, unpunctuated sentence. (Consider yourself responsible for your readers’ cardiovascular health.)
Caleb published a short dark story “Swarm Creatures” as part of Carve magazine’s Summer 2020 edition. He has woven the story wonderfully with some intricate, mysterious elements. With his vivid imagination and a fascinating way to word it, he gorgeously mirrors the darkness and the messy calmness of the swarm with mind within the central character.
The swamp is impressive, a gargling pool stretching as far as we can see from our backyard, tall ghostly trees sticking out of it and obscuring the horizon. We’ve been renting the same house two years but never explore too far back, some sense of reverence holding us.
This is a pretty comprehensive guide to punctuation, though primarily focused on the current style of American punctuation, meticulously created by Jordan Penn. It also has clear examples of how American style differs from the British style. In Jordan’s words, he “consulted dozens of authorities, both online and in print. Where the authorities disagree, I either have explained the various positions or have presented the style I believe to be most useful”. This should be a pretty handy reference guide for anyone writing at any level.
One Final Inspiration
"I wonder if you're like me, if you collect and squirrel away in your soul certain odd moments when the Mystery winks at you.” —Denis Johnson
Have any recommendations or feedback for me? I’d love to hear from you. Just hit reply, or you can even email me.
Thank you for reading and sharing.
-Amit
Is 20 percent project still followed at Google? One where every employee is recommended to spend 80% on the official job and 20% on the project of their choice? I wonder because every time we hear about the success of this particular experiment at Google, we hear about the same old handful of products. Mainly AdWords and Gmail.
Have there been no other successful products from this experiment? If yes, why don't we hear more about them? If no, what has changed at the company? Has it grown too large to back small, hobby-like products? Is the environment not conducive for the small, hacky projects?
Marissa Mayer had famously quipped regarding the project, "I’ve got to tell you the dirty little secret of Google’s 20% time. It’s really 120% time".
Maybe as the companies grow, the employees lose the sense of closeness, the sense of attachment they felt earlier. The sort of dedication that Mayer referred to just can't be expected from an aloof employee.
Twitter is a lossy compression medium. You compress an idea into a few phrases, and people must expand it, often getting something else.
The next issue of Slanting Nib & A Keyboard is out now and should be in your inbox if you have already subscribed. It features a few brilliant essays from some well-known voices on the importance and effectiveness of writing styles.
If you haven't yet subscribed, do give it a read online. I appreciate each and every bit of feedback I receive -- it helps me stay motivated to keep doing this every week. I have been extremely delighted with the feedback I have received until now on past issues.
On a personal front, I am reading a lot more to curate each issue of the newsletter and there's nothing more positive that can come out of this whole exercise.
“I write lustily and humorously. It isn’t calculated; it’s the way I think. I’ve invented a writing style that expresses who I am.” - Erica Jong
I fully concur with that last sentiment from Jong; every writer has, irrespective of what she writes, a unique style. I believe if you have read from a writer enough, doesn’t matter if it is in the form of books, essays or blogs, you can identify who words them.
This issue features a few brilliant essays from some well-known voices on the importance and effectiveness of writing styles.
Joan Didion wrote an earnest essay in 1998 in The New Yorker featuring some words that Hemingway wrote — and also those that he didn’t. It is an insightful read about a writer who, in Joan’s view, “had in his time made the English language new, changed the rhythms of the way both his own and the next few generations would speak and write and think”.
In September of 1954, Hemingway wrote to Bernard Berenson from Cuba about the adverse effect of air-conditioning on this thing he was doing: “You get the writing done but it’s as false as though it were done in the reverse of a greenhouse. Probably I will throw it all away, but maybe when the mornings are alive again I can use the skeleton of what I have written and fill it in with the smells and the early noises of the birds and all the lovely things of this finca which are in the cold months very much like Africa.”
Paulo Coelho is known for a style of writing which is distinctly spiritual. He, however, does not consider his writing to be about spirituality, “I am free to do something different every time”. It is his apt belief that “every human being on this planet has at least one good story to tell his neighbor” that I firmly associate with.
In this essay, he reflects “on some important items in the process of creating a text”.
Above all else, the writer has to be a good reader. The kind that sticks to academic texts and does not read what others write (and here I’m not just talking about books but also blogs, newspaper columns and so on) will never know his own qualities and defects.
So, before starting anything, look for people who are interested in sharing their experience through words. I’m not saying: “look for other writers”. What I say is: find people with different skills, because writing is no different from any other activity that is done with enthusiasm.
Here’s Kurt Vonnegut again with a few more advice on writing style from his vast treasure trove of published and spoken words. His advice, just as his books, is eternal.
Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you’re writing. If you scribble your thoughts any which way, your readers will surely feel that you care nothing about them. They will mark you down as an egomaniac or a chowderhead or, worse, they will stop reading you. The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not.
I have been reading Matt since, back when he used to write mostly about technology. Since then, he has gone on to publish some thrilling novels. Matt has a clear mind and an astute way of putting complex thoughts into words. Besides, he has a long list of some profound essays reflecting on his life and some advice on writing & productivity. Here’s an excerpt from one of his essays where he talks about confidence.
Confidence is a little trickier to muster when you’re pre-judged due to the incidental fact of being female, or when your viewpoint can be dismissed as down to uncontrolled emotion, or timidity, or hormones. When perceptions of your physical power become an albatross around your neck, and when the default compliment is not about your abilities, but rather your appearance.
A short, simple app that intends to be “a spellchecker, but for style”. You may decide not to agree with all the suggestions it provides. Nonetheless, it is an extremely valuable editing tool.
Too often, our words are like our thoughts — innumerable and disorganized. Almost any bit of writing could use some cutting.
It is always useful to run your prose through someone who can tell you as a reader which parts are unnecessarily difficult to understand. You can then consciously decide if it is intentional on your part. If so, leave it there. If not, listen to Hemingway. Make it easier for the reader.
One Final Inspiration...
Tell the story while you build to build an audience for what you’ve built.
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Thank you for reading and sharing.
-Amit
Each human being has been granted two qualities: power and gift. Power drives a person to meet his/her destiny, his gift obliges that person to share with others which is good in him/her. A human being must know when to use power, and when to use compassion.
I have unsubscribed from most (all?) of the daily newsletters about news. I am already bombarded with news that's mostly about world's burning. I do not want even my inbox to welcome me all the crazy updates from the world, but especially US. Most newsletters cover that and it's the same news repeated in all. Same essays, editorials from same sources. The Atlantic. NYTimes.
I had already done a similar exercise with tech newsletters. And podcasts. Again, it's same stories that I have already seen someplace else. Why read them again in the inbox? It just fills my newsletter to-read list.
I want to feel relaxed, open to read some meaningful words. Some essays that mean, matter for those who wrote them. Not a quick rewrite of what's already been told zillion times.
I'm being very selective with what I subscibe to now. I want to read something that's heartfelt. Not something that's link log of trite news updates. Most daily newsletters deliver the later.
Seriously, I am tired of proving to Google that I'm human by selecting grids with zebra crossings in them. This task has to be a lot easier for bots than it is for me because I suck at it every time.
I think, maybe, just maybe we need some other ways to test if users online are humans. Just test us for what we suck at.
Keep showing usoptical illusions and check how we freak out. Our eyes keep making a fool of our minds and we let them. Of course, we are already being crazies by training computers to fall for optical illusions. Why, why?
Show us a street full of people coughing and sneezing around openly and ask a single question "what's the risk that you will get coronavirus if you walk out on this street without a mask?" Apparently, no human will say 100%.
Show the departure time of the flight. Show us the distance to the airport, the traffic en route. Ask us then when should we leave the house. Bots will always make us reach in time. Humans, on the other hand, will be either too early or too late, even when provided with all the data.
Show us a video of people playing basketball and make us count the passes. Then just make us randomly predict when will the pandemic end. If a user selects "before August starts", has to be Human. Yeah, and also show us next the walking, chest-thumping gorilla that we missed in the video.
Just put a simple multiple-choice question, "What will you name some random street?" with one of the options as "I don't know… name it whatever the fuck man". Majority humans apparently will select that.
You get the idea. Don't judge us by our smartness. If there's anything that the last few months have proven, it is that we ain't an intelligent species. It is our dumbness, our frailties that make us humans now.
The problem is that most of us have come to accept micro-stresses as just a normal part of a day. We hardly acknowledge them, but cumulatively they are wearing us down. And what’s worse is that the sources of these micro-stresses are often the people — in and out of work — with whom we are closest.
The point is that these micro-stresses are all routinely part of our day and we hardly stop to consider how they are affecting us, but they add up. They may arise as momentary challenges, but the impact of dealing with them can linger for hours or days.
I know the burn out caused by the micro-stresses. It is pretty common especially with enterprise roles. However when you look at the possible relationships that can lead to such frictions, it is only natural that the causes can be, many a times, way closer to home.
A really insightful look at the problem and possible ways to mitigate them.
The third issue of Slanting Nib & A Keyboard newsletter is out today. It features thoughts from a few brilliant minds on what makes writing natural. Be it in a notebook to be relished privately. Or be it published to be critiqued openly. Again, am pretty satisfied with how even this issue has come out. The featured writings are inspiring for me.
These past few weeks have been a great learning experience. When I had started planning for this newsletter around a month back, I gave myself a small target - publish 3 issues. Don't think about subscribers. Don't think about the future or the tone or the structure. Just make sure 3 issues are consistently delivered over 3 weeks and what is included in every issue excites me. I feel I have managed that.
With the first checkpoint reached, I don't intend to stop yet. I want to continue towards the next goal - set the tone.
