It Took Me 8 Years to Find My Muse as a Writer
I had to suffer for years before I started enjoying the process and built my talent stack
At 13, I wrote my first poem to cajole my then-conservative parents into letting me go out with friends.
It worked, and I got a green signal to watch a movie with friends.
That was the first time I found power in my words. Then I wrote a farewell poem for my high school homies, they loved it, and some even wept while reading it.
To focus on my career and plan my future, I stopped writing after school, ignoring that this could also be a good route. But, unfortunately, those weren't the days for creators; those were the days of engineers and doctors.
The career change and other adulting mess made me forget the power of words I learned as a teenager.
Then my heart got broken for the first time while I was preparing for UG. It shattered me, but it was a blessing in disguise.
That heartbreak took me back to the solace I found in written words.
I have been writing on and off ever since. I recently celebrated the eighth anniversary of my first blog. To come up with a name like that in my teens and starting a blog when no one else was doing it makes me feel proud of my 16-year-old self.
Like any other writer, I hate to read what I wrote back then, but I wouldn't be here if it weren’t for that crappy writing.
The Definition of Writing Is Personal
Never before did I feel the same emotion for writing as I feel today.
When people ask me how to write, I don’t know how to put the lessons of all these years in a single sentence. I don’t know if I should talk about the mindset of a writer or the technicalities that builds a poignant story.
Even though I have been writing for years, I have never felt comfortable calling myself a writer. I didn’t want to be a writer; I only wanted to share my rawest thoughts online — gutsy for a teenager living in a small city in India.
After eight years, I finally feel confident enough to add a writer to my LinkedIn profile while having a full-time job as a designer. It’s a big deal for me as the definition of a writer has always been fuzzy.
Am I a writer if I am drunk and write from a cabin? Am I a writer if I don’t write for expensive clients and exotic topics?
I had some wrong notions about being a writer; nobody in my family is remotely associated with art and literature. Being a writer is as spooky as being a witchfinder.
But after eight years of writing, failing, and experimenting, I have finally started to enjoy the process, call myself a writer, and be confident enough to hare my writing journey with the online world.
Some people write for money, some for expression, and until you figure out why you’ll be toiling between commercialized work and your creative calling.
Finding My Muse Took 8 Long Years
After spending writing for free on Quora, I did some freelance work. I worked with Indian and overseas clients, and I learned to make my voice sound smarter than it was.
I added industry jargon and sprinkled some more exotic words to sound like the stuff we read on Google's first page. AI can do a better job in such cases. I didn’t want to be replaced by a line of code or another human, for that matter.
I had to find my voice — a voice that was not only loud but fun enough for me to keep humming in. Finding our muse or voice may sound like the things we read in the books or an artist’s biography, but it makes the artist work relentlessly on their craft. It works even if we believe it or not.
But then I was confused between listening to the traditional advice of sticking to my niche and writing self-help articles.
I wanted to write a story that only I could write.
It takes years to become a great writer who’s known for one thing. Writers like Stephen King and RR Martin have been writing for more years than my age. There was no way I could compete with them.
I knew I wasn’t the greatest writer, and I still ain’t one, but I am above average in writing, deep thinking, technology, and design. I found my unique voice in the amalgamation of these interests.
Specialization hampers your curiosity and stops your mind from wandering and learning. It puts you in a BOX.
Generalization, on the other hand, is governed by curiosity and the unique mixture of your interest. Innovators, entrepreneurs, and creators are bringing back the generalization, which is the renaissance of polymaths.
“In a wicked world, relying upon experience from a single domain is not only limiting, but it can also be disastrous.” as David Epstein talks about in his famous book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.
Finding the Sweet Spot
More than learning to write English, it was about finding myself, finding things that make me unique and give me a slight edge in the populated market.
As a writer, designer, thinker, and artist, I have found my unique voice by skill stacking. And writing about various topics allowed me to explore my creativity and curiosity.
I wrote about spirituality. I wrote about logo design, about NFTs, and some personal philosophies. I explored all my interests and routes as a polymath.
As a marketing designer and content creator, my job gave me the credibility to write about design, creativity, and content marketing. My curiosity for philosophy and lifestyle experiments made me explore the new field and quench my thirst in other new domains.
The struggle I did before that was painful and with mediocre results, but after that, my work has been flowing, and sometimes even I don’t know how I manage to write some of the stuff I write.
The sweet spot comes when I mix two or three of these things to create something unique and captivating, for example.
- Writing this about the new technology of smart contracts or NFTs concerning a small creator, I got to cover a unique perspective that the mainstream media wasn’t talking about.
- Writing this story about art direction and how it can help small creators and solopreneurs create an aesthetically pleasing feed.
- I also mixed technology and relationship and wrote this piece about How Instagram Is Spoiling Your Relationships?
Now many people can write these posts, but the co-relation, anecdotes, and domain expertise in some cases cannot be copied easily. So it has become my second nature to combine two random ideas I am pondering about and write about them.
It’s so exciting and fun. And as much as I enjoy writing them, my readers can vibe in and enjoy along :)
Parting Thoughts
Words are the easiest way to share unique ideas with the world.
When you find an idea you’re crazy about, you figure out how to write without knowing enough about the language.
The process of writing and finding your voice is intimate, the solitude is liberating, and the free-thinking is no less than healing.
I hope you get to experience that at least once in your life.
“Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.” — Stephen King
If you want to read all my posts on Medium, do consider getting the membership for unlimited post reads. If you use the link below, I’ll receive a small commission.
