A little while ago, I watched the IP Man movie series which has stayed with me to date.
The series is about Yip Man (October 1893 - December 1972), a legendary martial arts teacher who started the Wing Chun (a form of self-defence that requires quick arm movements and strong legs to defeat opponents) form of martial art. Yip Man had several students. Many of them became martial arts masters in their own right, the most famous among them being Bruce Lee.
What makes the IP Man series striking was the lack of fights scenes. Most of the time,, the master was shown spending time with his family, having tea, meeting friends, and struggling with everyday life. There was also politics, war, and philosophy. But one thing was consistent all the way through - Yip Man practicing his craft.
There are a lot of lessons in the movie about values, civility, and the true philosophy of Kung Fu, but the main one was - don’t fight when it doesn’t matter. Focus your energy on the biggest obstacles so you may overcome them when they appear.
The opposite of important work isn’t busywork — it’s rest.
When you trade all your rest for busywork, you have no energy left to do what matters.
“It’s very easy to spend a decade being incredibly busy and stressed every day, feeling like you’re working incredibly hard, and creating a ton of movement — but not moving forward,” Sam Altman, in an interview.
Hidden in the IP Man movie series is the rule of 70/20/10.
70% of the time, you rest.
20% of the time, you train.
10% of the time, you fight.
We too, can incorporate the rule of 70/20/10 into our lives.
Authorpreneur Journey Step 10
Today I am going to stay with the theme of daily practice.
If you want to become an authorpreneur, it is a no-brainer that you need to write and you need to write a lot.
Three things I have learned about being prolific.
Write a daily journal. Preferably first thing in the morning. That is when you are not tired, and have fresh thoughts in your head are ready to fall on the pages. Julia Carmen, writer of the ‘The Artist’s Way’ call this writing morning pages. She recommends stream of consciousness writing filling at least three pages. Write whatever comes in your head, without editing, correcting, or improving. You can do it online as well at 750 Pages, my favorite app. This single exercise is like martial arts training.
Take notes whatever you are reading. Preferably describing in your own words. In the good old days, when I was in school, it used to be called comprehension. It will give you lot of material to use in your writing as well as help you find your voice.
Follow the three-bucket system. I first learned about it from Jeff Goings. Three-bucket-system is exactly what the name suggests. Think of three buckets labelled — IDEAS, DRAFTS, and EDITS.
Your job is to add something to each bucket every day.
It doesn’t matter how much. You can add just one idea into the IDEAS bucket and only one paragraph in the DRAFTS bucket and EDIT something small, but you mustn’t miss any of the buckets. Soon you have a system going. You will never run out of ideas and you will have plenty of drafts ready to edit.
Your homework this week:
Set yourself an alarm to wake up half an hour early and start writing moring pages.
Get yourself a nice diary for taking notes. Write down one line, one paragraph or one idea from whatever you are reading that you think you can use in your writing later on.
Get your three bucket system going.
Writing Industry News
The biggest news of the week was that Facebook blocked its 17 million Australian users from posting links to any news item - either local or international as a backlash against the Australian government proposing laws that would make Facebook pay for news content.
I was one of those users.
I couldn’t post my newsletter link in my Facebook post.
This highlights two things for the writers.One, don’t depend on any of the social media platforms for your business. Have your own website (or podcast, or platform for courses, etc.), preferably a paid version because then you own your shopfront. No one can kick you out of your home.
Two, not only the traditional book publication model has broken, but the traditional media model has broken too.
Traditional journalism isn’t a viable career option for the new generation of journalists. Even the big publications such as New York Times and New Yorker are contracting rather than offering in-house journalists positions to bright journalists (example Anand Giridharadas, author of newsletter The Ink). No wonder the journalists are gravitating towards Substack and similar platforms where they not only can make a living but also enjoy the freedom to write whatever they want to write.But Substack is not the only answer. Hamish Mckenzie, the founder of Substack, proposes another in his recent post, A proposed cure for media angst about Substack. He writes:
“Traditional media companies know how to produce compelling media products, and they have the resources necessary to seed the next generation. They can fund and support writers who want to start their own publications based on the same principles that are helping Substack writers succeed. These companies have editorial and legal resources to assist writers under this model, and they can also help with distribution, driving subscribers to the publications and then sharing in the spoils.”
What Am I Up to?
This week one of my articles, How ‘Pottering About’ Has Become My Productivity Strategy, got accepted by The Ascent, a Medium publication with 159K readers. It was a drought-breaker because I was very apprehensive of sending my articles to big Medium publications for the hassle of doing several edits and hence delaying the publication. This one got published without a single change.
I also published two articles, Five Pillars Of Authropreneurship (Part 1) and Five Pillars Of Authorpreneurship (Part 2), in my own publication Authorpreneurs. I encourage you to subscribe to it if you are interested in making writing a career.
This week I talked with Anar Rafiq, a reader of this newsletter. She was brave enough to take my offer to spend 15 Radical Minutes on Zoom to get to know each other. We talked as if we have known each other for years. We decided to stay in touch. I have created a Whatsapp group, Whimsical Writers. Any reader who want to go far with their writing journey can join thisWhatsapp group by expressing their interest through the comments section.
What Intrigued Me This Week?
Tom Kuegler, a young but quitesuccessful writer on Medium, wrote:
“If you read 52 books per year starting at age 20, then by age 30 you’ll have read 520 books.
That’s staggering.
If you can’t do 52 a year, try for 30 per year. That’s still 300 books!”
That intrigued me.
I used to be a ferocious reader, finishing a book in three days flat.
Since I started writing, I have become a painfully slow reader. Particularly with fiction. I am always analyzing, taking notes, learning. I barely read 12 novels a year.
It is not so with non-fiction, though. I devour them quickly.
I am going to up my game with fiction reading.
Here is how my writer to reader journey is going to look like.
That’s it from me this week.
Take care.
Neera Mahajan (www.neeramahajan.com)
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