The Step ‘0’ to Becoming a Writer
When you don’t know what to write about, start with your stories.
Starting my writing journey feels like trying to get on a train in Japan during peak hour: just another body among a sea of busybodies trying to get on the ride to earn a decent living. The more great writers I come across on Medium, the more I feel myself shrinking smaller and smaller. It’s intimidating, overwhelming and eventually, my little friend, Imposter sneaks in and has a rave party in my head.
I started writing not because I want to be authoritative or expert on a certain topic, but to articulate my thoughts, develop ideas and learn about myself through the writing process. I had a few false starts where I would pour a lot of effort to make one article perfect and then Imposter pays a visit, I lose motivation and eventually I don’t post again for a few months or a year.
This time is different.
Thanks to some quality time in solitude (a.k.a COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne which apparently was one of the harshest in the world), I decided that I’m going to become a writer!!
Here’s my plan:
Step 1: Write consistently on Medium and build an audience.
Step 2: Create digital products (ebooks, videos, courses, guides) and build a newsletter.
Step 3: Market and grow income streams.
Simple! 🥴
Other writers like Tim Denning, Matt Lane and Zulie Rane have generously shared their writing journeys and tips on how to make money on Medium. I read how they have been able to make hundreds or even thousands of dollars through their writing and built up a community of subscribers/followers over time. Combine this with a few other kinds of income streams and they’re able to effectively replace a salary of their 9–5 job.
But like losing weight, knowing how to do it is not enough — you need to DO it.
But what the hell should I write about?
It’s been daunting trying to figure out what I know, what I have learned, what I still need to learn, and who actually wants to hear what I have to say. What gives me the right to tell people how or what to do…I hung out with Imposter for a while until I found the missing step in my plan —
Step 0: What are my stories that can make an impact on the people who want to listen?
My Stories
I haven’t climbed Mt Everest, found a cure for COVID-19 or training to become an astronaut for space exploration. While these are phenomenal stories, we need to remember that it’s not a prerequisite to start writing and tell our own stories. Here are some of mine:
- My fascination with business strategy started when I was an 8-year old helping my migrant parents sell random things at the flea markets.
- I’ve had 5 careers in 5 years: In-house lawyer > co-founder of a startup > project marketer in real estate > digital strategist for a film company > human-centred designer in a consulting firm.
- After my 11-year relationship with my high-school sweetheart ended, I spent 3 years healing, re-creating myself — then I met the love of my life on a dating app.
The beautiful thing about starting with your stories is that they are uniquely yours and no one can ever invalidate them.
Impact
When you begin to reflect on your life and navigate through your stories, be sure to pick those that are filled with emotions. You don’t need to think too hard either because we’re naturally subject to the cognitive bias known as the Peak-End Rule:
Intense positive or negative moments (the “peaks”) and the final moments of an experience (the “end”) are heavily weighted in our mental calculus.
That is, the stories that are the easiest to recall from your memory are those which you’ve experienced intense emotions and those that were most recent. Mine are the key experiences where I have learnt the most about myself (even when I didn’t know it at the time) and have changed the course of my life. I have also spent years analysing what happened, how it happened, why it happened, and what was the impact of that experience on my life. The process of writing has helped me better articulate these life lessons in a way that is transferrable to another. For example, changing careers so many times taught me how to overcome fear, have the courage to take risks, adapt and learn how to build a personal brand.
Now that you’ve got the key stories and figured out the lessons you’ve learnt from them, find the people who can benefit from what you’ve learnt.
People who want to listen
I’m relatively extroverted which means I have had some practice with telling my stories. I’ve shared versions of them to many people on different occasions — friends, employers, employees, acquaintances, people I meet at networking events, work presentations, speaking engagements and university alumni presentations. I would hone in on particular story and lessons depending on the audience and topic.
When I did a keynote for university students about the gift of fear and letting it go, I shared my career journey in detail and the emotional rollercoaster of navigating 5 different careers in 5 years. These students sent many messages to me afterwards sharing their own fears, how my presentation resonated with them and that it had inspired them to pursue things they wanted to do in spite of the fears they felt inside.
I opened up about my experience of fear in all it’s forms and glory (fear of failure, judgement, missing out, disappointment) in front of a lecture hall of people, which is probably one of the most vulnerable things I’ve done. It is also one of the proudest and most fulfilling moments of my career so far.
The more real and vulnerable you are, the more people will want to listen to what you have to say.
Your vulnerability in sharing personal stories is an invitation to people to connect from your heart to theirs. Sometimes, Imposter makes an appearance and that’s okay because she just makes us human.
We don’t need to have lived an extraordinary life before we share our own stories, our thoughts, our ideas and life lessons. We shouldn’t wait until we reach our goals before we start writing. What we need is to keep learning and living to our fullest potential so that we have more stories to tell.
The only way to know whether my aspiring career as a writer will come to fruition or not is to fail fast. I’m going to use this as my experimental platform for trying different styles, topics and strategies where I will share my results transparently with you. If you found this post helpful, let me know in the responses!
