How does someone decide what to write about when they haven’t been writing for a long time now. One morning I wake up and decide, I am going to write from today. But who do I write to? What do I tell them? Why should they care?
Should what I decide to write be dependent upon if someone cares or not? Yes. If I want them to read it. No if it doesn’t matter to me.
Let’s go with the second option today. What will I write about today, just because I want to write about it. It’s been a long time since I have written anything here. So, I set a timer for 60 mins just to see if I can even get words on this page.
Now, let’s think of 20 ideas that I can write about.
Yes 20.
We will judge them after they are done. Together. Okay? Yes.
20 Ideas
How unhappy I am with the world of every era. I can find the best and worst thing about it if I look deep enough.
You can find the best thing & worst thing about someone if you just look deep enough.
Skeletons are everywhere.
Why parents suck? Am I still in my teenage mindset or do they really suck
After every catastrophe, how does the world stabilizes itself. How does it forget the war and pain it has to go through?
Is pain only felt at individual level? At communal level it becomes obsolete?
If I am just a minuscule speck of dust in the vast space, why is my brain letting me think I am something of a grandiose?
How was the first tree born?
4 hours a day. 28 hours a week. 1460 hours a year spent on phone.
Damn! My average PC use is 12 hours
Why am I only thinking of gloomy things lately?
Let the dirty water flow
When keep the tap turned off long enough. The dirty water flows out and fresh water starts to pour. Right now, I am letting the dirty water pour out. Too much garbage in my head.
Why does the world feels small when you aren’t traveling?
Why is intelligence artificial?
Who gave the copyright of intelligence to humans?
One product, one customer, one media platform, that’s all you need to move forward your business.
What’s the difference between pick me, trying to hard & some xyz person?
What turns people off? Why is desperation on top of the list?
If I was to start filling my mind with good things, where would I begin?
Why US dropped nuclear bombs in Hiroshima & Nagasaki? How did Japan whitewash it’s image thereafter.
The Judgement
Now let’s see. The first three ideas are basically the same.
The 4th one, “Why parents suck” could become a good reflective personal essay if I don’t rant and keep it interesting to read at the same time. Why interesting to read? I have my own bar to meet for anything that I publish online.
The bar is now. too low, by the way. The only bar is: I shouldn’t want to barf when I read it sometime in the future.
The 5th one, “how the world stabilizes after catastrophe” isn’t a great idea, but it’s a nice seed of thought. A few follow-up thoughts are coming up:
How Russia’s war & art go hand in hand
WWI & WWII stabilization
Japan vs China
Japan colonizing Korea
Effects of war: India vs Pakistan
Funny war stories
I don’t know what I meant by the 6th one about pain at communal levels anymore.
7th, the speck of dust question: Ego. I’m talking about ego.
8th, how was the first tree born: I just looked outside my window and wrote it. Am I actually curious to know how the first tree was born? It’s hard to think that one tree was born individually.
The 9th one about my phone usage would be such a ranting session. I don’t like using my phone much. If I had an unparalleled amount of wealth, the first thing I would drop is my phone.
11th, why am I thinking gloomy things: Not anymore. 12th helped. Let the dirty water flow. Because of this idea, the 11th isn’t happening anymore.
13th, “why the world feels small when you aren’t traveling” would be quite interesting and introspective to write.
I love 14th & 15th, the artificial intelligence questions. I’m super curious about why we named it “artificial intelligence” and why we regard human intelligence in higher regard when, more than intelligence, emotions are acting as responses and making decisions.
16th, one product, one customer, one platform: I firmly believe this is the way to move forward in business.
17th, the “pick me” vs trying too hard vs something: Blah... not interested in stupid commentary.
Feeling proud that I wrote for 35 minutes so far. 25 more to go.
Apparently, you can write about 1,000 words in an hour when you’re writing in flow without stopping for anything. Letting your mind flow without any hesitation.
19th is a good personal diary entry thing, some “make me feel good” shit. But it’s valuable, so I’m not discarding it at the moment.
The last 20th one has been inspired by the book I’m halfway into: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
Just googled it. Turns out it’s a TV series now. For some reason, I’m turned off by the idea now. Like I don’t want to read anymore. Seeing it as a soap opera has diminished the book’s value for me.
I guess the ego and ungratefulness thing has been super hyperactive lately.
Now What?
Alright, now that the 20 ideas have been shared and we’ve passed judgment on them, what can we do now?
Still have 15 minutes to go.
We can edit it, I guess?
But where to begin. Editing your own work can seem so tedious sometimes. But I’ll have to begin somewhere.
So what I’m going to do now is go back to the top and see what needs fixing.
Part of me wants to keep the messiness. It shows the process. But another part of me knows I’ll cringe at “coming” and “this” later.
Alright, typos have been fixed. The obvious ones at least. But the ramblings stayed.
Turns out the dirty water does flow out if you just keep the tap open long enough. I started this not knowing what to write about. Now I have 20 ideas, and at least 3 of them don’t make me want to barf.
That’s something.
Alright, I will take my leave now.
See you, (sometime soon)
Akanksha 🌻
There is this book titled the "the Artist's way". The author talks about something that she calls "the morning pages".
She says that every morning, open your notebook and dump all your thoughts on paper. Write 3 pages non stop without any judgement.
You basically did that in this post.
The author claims that once you dump your thoughts, it creates space for new ideas. She claims that this practice has improved creativity for all kinds of people, not just writers.
I have been doing it for about a month now. Not sure about creativity, but, ranting everyday seems to help. You just feel lighter.