Hey there! Just a heartbeat after a four day break to let you know that Read365 is not going anywhere yet. (Well, I desperately needed this comeback.)
Yesterday, I started reading Yazihane by Murathan Mungan. The book is a collection of essays by several writers, including Orwell and Ursula K. Le Guin, on why on earth writers write. Interesting read indeed if you want to get some insights on the nature of writing.
Responsibility to Write
For all those who are over 30 and haven’t published anything online to express themselves, I have to say that if you want to publish some notes online regularly for some reason, then you have to acknowledge that the act of writing is now more than a task. It is a habit, and therefore you must approach it again from perspective of habit building.
I now know that I will always be extremely busy according to the good ol’ Parkinson’s Law. (Not really.) And if I still want to keep this endeavor alive, I need to make it part of my life. I just cannot allow myself to say “Ah, there’s also this that I still have to do today…” Because such an act of writing will always expand much beyond any particular day. It now becomes something you should maintain, nurture and grow. And something you grow with.
Let me make a list of the responsibilities that comes the mere intent to realize such a project:
- Do the daily reading together sessions on your reading harbor on YouTube.
- Out of what I read, take notes of any piece of knowledge that I could experiment with in my own life.
- Write a daily journal entry like the one you’re reading right now.
- Synthesize pieces of knowledge out of what I read, and delivering the synthesis through the weekly synthesis letters.
- Determine what to read next, that’s fairly relevant to me at that particular time.
- And on top of all above, actually experiment with what I distilled from the books I read, and try to implement them in my own life, and write down the observations in order to inform you about them in the synthesis letters.
But why should you care? Everyone has stuff to do after all. Well, then you also start a blog and write down your own responsibilities, okay? This is what I am trying to inspire you all to do. Read the right thing. Let your mind synthesize what you read. Express yourself. Become visible to others. And spark new connections. Now go and write something.