Why You Need to Be a Selfish Writer
Footprints You Can Follow to Sculpt a Better You
What’s up. I’m back to changing the newsletter categories on you. Just learning in public ya know?
I’m trying to make it easier to make the newsletter skimmable and give you some quick wins while also allowing you to dive deeper if you would like.
You can tell me how you feel by clicking the comment button at the end of the newsletter (or replying to the email).
Welcome to Your Lazy Sunday: A Newsletter to help you
Embrace Your Lazy
3 Lazy Questions for the Week
How can I treat my life like an experiment?
How can I turn disappointments into valuable feedback?
How I can win even when I lose?
Sculpt Yourself
Why You Need to Be a Selfish Writer
Almost every writer on the internet writes the same boring inspirational bullshit. I’m making a stand right here, right now. I’m tired of it.
Most internet writers today write easy answers (work hard, be yourself, etc). Easy answers sell. Easy answers may lead to a bigger audience. But they lead to nothing else. What good is a bigger audience, if you aren’t helping them or yourself? And in fact, a smaller audience has its own unique benefits (check out my friend Charlie’s short article about this)
These writers have warped what writing means for us. Writing isn’t about easy answers. Writing is about discovery. And for all of us (“writers” and “non-writers” alike), writing can be a tool with outsized rewards.
If you want to have better relationships with your family, be happier, and have a more meaningful life. You need to write. But in a very particular way. You need to become a selfish writer
Be Selfish to be Selfless
We write because we crave the wave. Yet deep down we know that the number of likes you get on a social media post or how many people read your blog is a stupid metric to determine the quality of your thoughts.
We may fool ourselves into thinking we are trying to be selfless. We are trying to grow our audience because we want to help more people. But this doesn’t mean we should write cliche after cliche. In giving the audience what we think they want… we actually end up adding to the nothingness of the world.
To be truly selfless, we must be selfish first.
First, stop writing for the wave. Instead, think of writing as discovery.
Writing as Discovery
I write to discover. Now you know the reason my writing is jumbled up and contains so much insider language (sorry not sorry). I use this space to write for myself, first.
As long as I am discovering something in my writing, I consider it a success.
People think writing is hard because they think writing has to be original and beautiful. Selfish writing is amazing because you don’t have to be a great writer (Hell look at me lol).
And you don’t have to be original. At least not in the way, you think.
You just have to write something you haven’t written before. Don’t aim for originality. Aim for a new thought, feeling, or belief.
Selfish writing is humble writing. Instead of puffing yourself up about how much you know… It shows how much you don’t. You learn to tread the unknown with curiosity rather than fear.
Selfish writing is the ultimate therapy. It’s insightful, profound, and also somehow fun.
Thanks for that admittedly interesting rant, you might say. But what does this mean for me?
How can I use writing to sculpt a better version of myself? How can I fit writing into my busy schedule?
Great questions! It starts with creating a morning pages lazy habit and creating your own your personal language.
Click here dear reader to read more.
Develop a Better Petri Dish
You are what you eat, so here’s some nutritious content:
A great 5-minute art-doc about famous artist John Baldessari who passed away earlier this year. The doc is narrated by none other than Tom Waits. It’s not only a lot of fun but also shows how to make entertaining, well-edited videos.
If you like very beautiful, very slow, romantic movies watch the Hindi movie “Photograph.” Here’s my review that I think captures at least a bit of its beauty.
Put this quote in my review above and quote in a previous newsletter. But I love it so much that I wanted to share it again.
“Life is a mixture of happy and sad things. Movies are so lifelike — that’s why we love them.”
“Then who needs movies? Just stay home and live life.”
“My uncle says we live three times as long since man invented movies.”
“How can that be?”
“It means movies give us twice what we get from daily life.”
—Dialogue from Edward Yang’s Yi Yi
Live thrice as long, and go watch some movies.
If you liked this newsletter and/or have any comments, click the button below.
Till next time my lazy,
Pranav
Love that Yi Yi quote. If someone asked me why I love movies so much, to be honest, I would be stumped for words. It's because movies give me so much that can't be expressed in one or two sentences. But this quote is definitely one way that I would express that answer.
And you make a good point about writing to discover something new for yourself rather than making something arbitrarily original. No matter how personal your story is, someone out there will relate to it.
Enjoyed the read. Your change up keeps me interested and I am always asking questions about you as I read. My reflections on writing are; you write what is in you. There is something in you that needs to be expressed; a vision, a voice, a story. Each of us are motivated by different things. When I did write I found satisfaction in being understood. When I was able to articulate a thought or emotion that someone else identified with that was satisfying to me. And depending on your voice, message, etc you will have a different audience. Not everyone wants to reflect or grow, they may only wish to be entertained. I have not been reading much lately. A little slump, depression? Trying to figure it out and find a path back to engagement. Keep writing!