Editor’s Choice — Top 10:

How To Have a Big O When You Write

Let’s have a look at our top 10 stories today

Do you feel anything about the topic of your next story? If nobody is going to connect emotionally with what you are going to say — you don’t need to write it.

Write things you feel.

But first, check if your feelings are intense enough. If you value your obsessions, you’ll find it easy to write more engaging material.

Franz Kafka believed you should write about your intense obsessions:

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” ~ Franz Kafka

Suppose you are an African American. You see injustice and discrimination others don’t notice. If you obsess about correcting the inequality all the time, write about it. Imagine you are a woman who wants to see women take control of their lives. If girl power is your obsession, write about it. If you are obsessed with technological innovations, write about these advances.

When you are obsessed with something, you believe in what you are feeling. You feel confident about the topic.

I, for example, obsess about writing well. It has lead me to write about writing well. I honestly believe I can convert my learning process into a book about writing that might become a bestseller.

Don’t underrate your feelings, hunches, and obsessions. As a writer, they are your primary weapon to become a top writer. Please do not adjust your feelings because everybody believes they are inappropriate. Homosexuality was a mental disorder not so long ago.

Believe in your feelings. Feel confident that your obsessions are not meaningless.

If you find articulating your innermost impressions difficult, that is why you need to learn to write. “I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones. And which can only be experienced in those bones,” Franz Kafka wrote in a letter to Milena Jesenská, a Czech journalist, writer, and editor.

You have to respect your eccentricity. A well-adjusted writer doesn’t exist. Writers are a novelty.

When your obsession strikes you, go with it. Let it grow and explode. A thought growing intense with time and exploding into a wonderful idea is like a writing orgasm — the writer’s big O ( or WBO) 😃.

I am leaving you with a slightly altered paragraph originally written by Franz Kafka: “I think we ought to write only the kind of stories that wound or stab our readers. If the story you’re writing doesn’t wake up the reader with a blow to the head, what are you writing for? We need stories that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone you loved more than yourself, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A story must be the axe 🪓 for the frozen sea within your reader.”

Here is a list of our top 10 stories today — by writers who try their best to have their WBO's:

10. To Enjoy Writing Again, Stop Criticizing Yourself

Tonya S. Ware is a freelance writer. Bachelor of Journalism. She writes about encouragement, life-lessons, personal growth stories, and writing.

She is an excellent writer. Her writing style is elegant, direct, and appealing. Don’t forget to check her other work.

Has writing lost some of it’s charm and appeal for you? Do you enjoy it less because you’re fed up with the rapid gut punches?

No doubt, you’ve written great articles. You gave the time and effort needed to polish them to perfection. You poured more heart and soul into your articles than Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, did when she belted out the urgent need for R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

9. How Positive Thinking Can Benefit You in Uncertain Times

I wrote it. One helluva piece of advice — I hope 😃.

What can you do when everyone around you is screaming that you are finished? Are they trying to discourage you? No, sometimes your loved ones actually believe that.

A study at Yale confirmed that nobody is normal. We are all weirdos — something we dread so much. Is it a mad, mad, mad world out there? Is this true?

8. Pluck the Weeds Out of Your Life

Vanessa Robinson. Writer and Observer: Injustice, History, Family, Love, and Politics. Electrical Engineer. Completing First Historical Fiction Novel.

She is a good writer. Her writing style is easy to read, honest and makes total sense. Do check her other work.

It was interesting to watch Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix deliver advice on clearing out your house. I watched the first three episodes of the series and then stopped. Nothing personal; I just realized that I was experiencing clutter overload. I mean, how many times can one watch someone’s kitchen be de-cluttered?

7. The Upside of Feeling Horrible

Remington Write writes because she can’t not write.

She is an excellent writer. Her writing style is simple, direct, and engaging. Do check her other work.

I haven’t had one cold this year. We all know why. We’re staying home most of the time and when we go out, we — most of us anyway — wear our masks. When we get home we promptly wash our hands. All the things our kindergarten teachers told us to do. And look! They were right. Who knew?

The first winter after my partner, AleXander, moved back to New York City from his twenty years in Vermont he had five colds. One right after the other. This year? Not one.

6. Your Idea, Your Dream, Never Doubt That You Are Capable of Achieving Anything

Marcel Badia’s goal is to help connect the global and entrepreneurial community networks to engage with each other and have a positive impact on their lives.

He is a superb writer. His writing style is honest, easy to read, and thought-provoking. Do check his other work.

Everything you know has first been an idea in someone’s mind. And everything you have right now, everything you’ve already accomplished, also started out as an idea.

There will be many other ideas that stayed along the way, separated by certain problems, pushed by external forces that you did not see coming.

5. The Tremendous Cost of Distractions on Your Time and in Your Life

Bill Abbate is a leadership writer and executive coach. He is a very nice guy.

He is a great writer. His writing style is informative, direct, and engaging. Do check his other work. He is a prolific writer as well.

Never in history have there been so many distractions in life. Can you imagine living in a simpler time, before electricity? No telephone, no internet, no email, no texts. All you had for light was the sun, a candle, or an oil lamp. The only interruptions in life were other people, the weather, and the need to find food and water.

While I have no desire to go back to such times, I long for the peace and quiet of long ago. The only way to achieve such a thing today would be to move off the grid, far away from civilization. I doubt many of us would want such a primitive lifestyle.

4. The Artist’s Way to Curate Your Own Life

Reylia Slaby is a Fine Art photographer, writing about her love for creating, and how others can use art in their lives.

She is one fine writer. Her writing style is emotionally appealing, honest, and very engaging. Do check her other work.

Plump tears streamed down my cheeks as I hid in the bathroom at my first photography exhibition. I had spent weeks preparing for this day, only to be sitting huddled up in the corner, bewildered by how my body was speaking to me. Why is this happening? I whispered between abbreviated breaths.

3. Coming To America 2: Yet Another Racist View Of Africa

Rebecca Stevens A. says, “I write about racism, but there are so many other things I would like to write about instead. Help me dismantle racism so that I can get to that.”

She is an outstanding writer. Her writing style is elegant, honest, and very engaging. Do check her other work; you’ll love it.

I’d been looking forward to watching Eddie Murphy’s Coming To America 2 all week. Yesterday evening, I eagerly put it on, gleeful and excited to finally return to the imaginary African kingdom of Zamunda. I’d watched the first film when I was 17 and loved it. Last night, however, for me, the movie’s sequel was a huge disappointment.

2. First Sign of A Highly Intelligent Person

Greg Prince is bringing real feelings along with messages of inspiration and imagination to life. Awakening is the symptom of his infectious condition — poetry is the condition.

He is an excellent writer. His writing style is witty, poignant, informative, and winning. Don’t forget to check his other work.

If you have to find a reason to determine a person’s intelligence level, something is already askew. That’s right. Whether you’re evaluating a workmate, a potential employee, or a friend, a little worm in your thinking showed you need to know the level of the wet noodle’s computation powers you’re interfacing with.

1. 29 Cut to the Chase Lessons About Money You Can Use Right Away

At number one, it is Tim Denning. He is an Aussie Blogger with 100M+ views. He is a writer for CNBC & Business Insider. He is inspiring the world through Personal Development and Entrepreneurship. You can visit him at timdenning.com.

He is an exceptional writer. In this piece, his writing style is honest, informative, well-researched, and extremely engaging.

Almost everyone reads him and loves his writing style. If you are new to Medium, or if you’ve never read any of his articles, do check his other work. It will be time well-spent.

Do you understand how money works?

If you knew, you’d work fewer hours in your lifetime.

The time you save can be put to better use. Because time is far more important to you than money.

Let’s cut to the chase about money.

This post is part of the Top 10 Series — you can meet 500+ top writers with these links:

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Final Thoughts

If your story was selected in the Top 10, please share another story with a brief introduction and a short convincing review — in the comments. (Please write the review in the third person and start it with your name.)

I must have missed something today. I cannot read every story on Illumination and Illumination-Curated. I try — and fail daily — to read all of the great articles.

Please join our private Facebook group for Illumination writers to post your articles daily. Also, I invite you to become a writer for my publication — positive minds.

Iꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰɪɴᴅ ᴀɴʏ ᴍɪsᴛᴀᴋᴇ, ᴛʏᴘᴏ, ᴏʀ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴇʀʀᴏʀ, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ʟᴇᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ᴘʀɪᴠᴀᴛᴇ ɴᴏᴛᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴄᴏʀʀᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ. Tʜᴀɴᴋs.

To be included as a top 10 writer read these curation guidelines carefully.

You can read my curated stories here.