On Writing

A letter to 20 year old Ankush.

Dear Ankush,

I am writing to you from the year 2023 with the intention of sharing with you some important lessons I have learnt over the years on the power of writing.

Take a look around your home. Be grateful for the environment that your dad has created by piling up books in every nook and corner. Today you may have little interest in reading, but tomorrow you will be enchanted by the mental vistas that it opens up and then you will realize the value of the gift that you have been blessed with.

Your dad has been urging you since your school days to jot down notes after you read anything. You may have dismissed it as nagging in your school and college days, but in time you will appreciate the wisdom of those simple but powerful words of advice.

Writing will open doors for you on the professional and personal front, doors that you never even knew existed. 

Writing is like telepathy. As you write and publish your work, your writing will connect you with like-minded people from around the world whom you would have never imagined meeting.

To write anything of value, you will need to have a well-stocked mind. To have a well-furnished mind you should read widely in areas that interest you. 

Some think that their best ideas come when they dwell in an ivory tower and ruminate. So be it for them. But that does not match with your innate inclinations and temperament. You are, by nature, someone who prefers to inhabit the real world. A world of people. Follow your natural inclinations and commingle freely, read diverse books, listen to various podcasts, drink in freely from the vast reservoir of thoughts and ideas of the great thinkers and doers

Follow the “journaling” path recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way and by Matthew McConaughey in Greenlights. Besides its healing benefits, it will also free up your creative juices. And then hold on to the fruits of your labors with the same zeal that your grandfather once did.

When we get an idea, when we get inspired, the truth crosses us and when the truth crosses us, we feel like this truth is so clear and that it makes so much sense that we'll never forget it. Newsflash - You will forget it. That's one of the values of writing - it prevents the rusting of your mind.

Writing is not easy for anyone. The literary journal The Paris Review has, over the years, conducted interviews with famous writers regarding the writing process. The writers include many of the greatest literary figures of the 20th century. Among these are Nobel Prize winners such as Hemingway and Faulkner. The interviews have been compiled in four volumes (to date) titled Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews. Perusing these books, you will understand the difficulty of the writing process for even the greatest literary giants. One recurring theme is that one cannot wait for inspiration to strike. The act of writing is a discipline that one has to subject oneself to, whether or not some luminous epiphany has flashed into one’s mind.

But, of course, your taste in books may not extend to works of literature. That is perfectly okay. You can find inspiration from popular works. Self-help books can be a source of valuable insights on life and living.

Apart from the authors interviewed in The Paris Review, popular creative writers in different genres have also repeatedly talked about how hard it is and the need to abide by a regular protocol.

Paulo Coelho, author of the international bestseller The Alchemist, says that he struggles to write every day. According to him, the only way to do it is to sit himself down and just write.

Phill Collins says that writing is like running. Since running at a hard pace every day is tough, why would writing every day to perfection be easier?

To Eminem, note-taking is like stacking ammo, and he follows a 9-5 process with writing. He does not wait for ideas but captures them along the day as they present themselves.

Kendrick Lamar says that writing and taking notes is like time travel. By writing down key words, he says that he can remember emotions that would be lost to the entropy of memory.

Stephen King, in his book On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft states: “There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun.”

Seth Godin, on the Tim Ferriss Podcast, has said that: "There is no writer's block, there is a fear of bad writing. What will the world say when it encounters my bad writing? The way through is to do bad writing. If you do it enough over time, good writing will slip through.”

There are times when you may wonder why you are spending so much time and effort on the difficult work of writing. Know that it is natural and normal to feel that way. Others who have embarked on this journey feel likewise.

Writing gives shape and permanence to our thoughts and feelings. Some of us write for ourselves, some for others, some for fame and fortune.

Like sweeping the floor, writing should be done every day.

Like entrepreneurship, writing is a lonely job.  But the people who matter will respect your efforts.

Your job as an investment professional will lead you to read books about legendary investors and how they operate. Pay particular attention to one book: The Most Important Thing by fabled value investor Howard Marks. One seemingly innocuous sentence in the book should serve you as a guiding principle: “I was always writing for myself and not for anyone else.” The profundity of this statement stems from the fact that though his newsletters are now read by millions, nobody understood anything that he wrote for 10 years after he started issuing them. 

In an interview with Barry Ritholtz, Marks was asked what feedback he got to the article he first wrote. Marks replied that for 10 years he received no response, and no one told him that they got what he was writing. When Barry asked him what kept his drive to keep writing, Marks responded with three points: 

●      He was writing only for himself and that he enjoyed the creative process.

●      He thought the topics were interesting, and he wanted to put them on paper.

●      He believed that writing tightened up his thinking. 

The world will tell you it doesn't need another writer, another value investor. Ignore the gratuitous judgments.

Writing is a way of journeying to one’s higher self. Of searching, struggling, striving.

I will leave you with a quote from William Faulkner’s interview published in The Paris Review:

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

This is thrilling advice not merely for writing but for life itself.

With Love,

Ankush Datar from 2023