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Abstract

didn’t even realize that I subconsciously started to believe that this was not possible. I just thought that maybe stars haven’t aligned, maybe this is just a phase when writing is hard and it will pass. But of course it is hard if you think it is hard. It is only hard if you expect it to be hard.Today I didn’t think of it this way. To be honest, I didn’t think of it much at all. I didn’t come to my laptop with a clear intention of writing a specific article that will end up being published. Today was more like an experiment. Let myself write as much as possible and see what happens. And magic happened.Words just flow on the pages, so effortlessly, as if my mind has a mind of its own. Like I don’t have to think about it, the thoughts are already there. It is almost like my thinking and doing are synchronized, which reminds me of that quote by Gandhi:“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”I have just surprised myself, I’ve heard this quote such a long time ago and haven’t come across it in years. Honestly, I didn’t even know it is there in my memory but it just came to me. Perhaps my mind does have a mind of its own?Many people don’t feel confident enough writing something without having done a lot of research. I almost feel bad that I usually don’t do any research, or very minimal, which usually involves just getting clarification for things that I already know. Like that Gandhi’s quote, I had to google it because I didn’t remember all the words precisely and also didn’t remember who said it, but that is hardly research. I knew the meaning, and I knew I want it there.If I need to do a lot of research about the topic before approaching to write about it, this simply means that I don’t know enough about the topic which for me raises a question: Why write about it at all?If something interests you, it doesn’t mean you necessarily have to write about it. But spending the last 7 years in academia made me believe otherwise. You research to write a paper, and to write a paper you have to research. Which makes sense in a learning context, because I am there to learn, so of course why would I write about things I already know about? Sure, sometimes I would include things that I’ve learned somewhere else, but mostly the purpose is to learn new things and to solidify that knowledge by writing about it.As a creative however, who writes for the purpose of creating and making people feel something through my writing, I don’t have to learn in order to write. I write things because I have already learned about them, either through books or personal experience, and most of the time both.If I have to write about something novel to me, my writing suffers. Because it is still so fresh and I can’t possibly acquire enough knowledge about it in a few hou

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rs of research, so I don’t feel confident writing about it.It is like I have just planted a seed and I am forcing it to sprout by writing so prematurely. What comes out of such writing is an unripe idea, the idea that I cannot feel fully confident about.Spending days to research a topic, to write an article on it, hardly makes sense either. Well, it depends on the purpose of your writing. Are you first and foremost a knowledge translator, and writing is your medium? Or are you first and foremost a creator, and knowledge is the means, like the building blocks that give you something to work with?Answering this question is fundamental to understanding who you are as a writer and what content you want to create, but also what your work process even looks like. Do you spend your day mostly researching or mostly writing?If you feel like you have a reserve of writing that is going to be exhausted, perhaps writing is only a medium for you. Perhaps writing is the secondary, to another goal that you want to pursue. It is important to figure out what that goal is.Or perhaps, you too are a creator, but like me you got confused and tried to be a knowledge translator — although an important job but is suffocating for someone who wants to create freely.Try setting a day aside for an experiment to write 5000 words and see where that journey takes you. If you are in fact a stressed-out creator trying to be a knowledge translator, doing this will relieve the pressure, and writing will become a piece of cake.If you are a knowledge translator, perhaps you are better to follow academia type of structure: setting aside time for research and even developing a list of readings for each topic you want to write on. Writing then becomes a by-product of the primary work that you do, and that you probably mostly into, which is research.<a href="undefined">Shaunta Grimes</a> wrote <a href="https://readmedium.com/are-you-an-idea-introvert-extrovert-or-ambivert-d5aaf7b1fb62">a fascinating article</a> on how different writers generate their ideas. The knowledge translators I am referring to, would be outward thinkers, or as Shaunta calls them — idea extroverts. This makes me an inward thinker who was forcing herself to think outwards, and that is as much of a struggle as it is for an introvert trying to be an extrovert.Perhaps you are like me have been trained to write for an audience, whether in academia or otherwise, and feel like writing is no longer as enjoyable for you. Or perhaps you have read a bunch of tips on how to be a successful writer, which more often than not tend to describe the extroverted way of thinking. Either way, figuring out which type of writer you are is crucial and can not only improve your writing dramatically but also make the process much easier and more enjoyable.</article></body>

How a Confused Creator Tried to be a Knowledge Translator

And why it is important to know which type of writer you are.

I write and wonder how much more writing I can do. It is funny but implicitly I believe that there is some kind of cap, some limitation. Like I can exhaust the resort.

This belief doesn’t serve me well. It holds me back from exploration but also brings about a lot of impatience. The desire to publish things that I write as soon as possible.

There is also so much pressure. Like I cannot waste this precious reserve on just about anything. Meaning if my mind is not at the right place and I haven’t yet thought my ideas through, I shouldn’t write.

But that is simply not true, and I have proven that to myself over and over again. The best stories often emerge when I sit down to write without any agenda.

It is just the limiting belief that I acquired somewhere along the way and it became a guiding principle to how I approach my writing, which ironically resulted in less output and probably also reduced quality.

Behind this belief is fear: the fear of not being enough, the fear of not having enough. Creativity, like other gifts of life, is abundant. But it comes down to your perception about it.

“Your breath, the most precious substance of your life, is freely given to you. You have enough to last for as long as you live. You accept this precious substance without even thinking, and yet you doubt that life can supply you with the other necessities” — Louise Hay in The Power is Within You

The mere shift in my belief turned me to a different reality. All of a sudden I wrote around 3,000 words and still writing and somehow the words are not running out! What? How surprising! As if I ever run out of words talking to people who I have something to talk about. And here I am, just talking to an imagined audience and I could literally project anything into that audience and hence continue on and on writing for hours.

After reading Luke Wiese’s piece How I Write 5,000 Words a Day, I got inspired. I woke up next day and decided to conduct an experiment. What if I too can write 5000 words a day? What if I just simply make myself a schedule, and decide that from 1pm to 5pm I am working, and by working I mean mostly writing.

Not researching topics and coming up with ideas. No, just sitting down and writing. And that is exactly what happened. I easily spent 3 hours writing without a break, almost reaching that 5,000. This was much more than I wrote in days.

I didn’t even realize that I subconsciously started to believe that this was not possible. I just thought that maybe stars haven’t aligned, maybe this is just a phase when writing is hard and it will pass. But of course it is hard if you think it is hard. It is only hard if you expect it to be hard.

Today I didn’t think of it this way. To be honest, I didn’t think of it much at all. I didn’t come to my laptop with a clear intention of writing a specific article that will end up being published. Today was more like an experiment. Let myself write as much as possible and see what happens. And magic happened.

Words just flow on the pages, so effortlessly, as if my mind has a mind of its own. Like I don’t have to think about it, the thoughts are already there. It is almost like my thinking and doing are synchronized, which reminds me of that quote by Gandhi:

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

I have just surprised myself, I’ve heard this quote such a long time ago and haven’t come across it in years. Honestly, I didn’t even know it is there in my memory but it just came to me. Perhaps my mind does have a mind of its own?

Many people don’t feel confident enough writing something without having done a lot of research. I almost feel bad that I usually don’t do any research, or very minimal, which usually involves just getting clarification for things that I already know. Like that Gandhi’s quote, I had to google it because I didn’t remember all the words precisely and also didn’t remember who said it, but that is hardly research. I knew the meaning, and I knew I want it there.

If I need to do a lot of research about the topic before approaching to write about it, this simply means that I don’t know enough about the topic which for me raises a question: Why write about it at all?

If something interests you, it doesn’t mean you necessarily have to write about it. But spending the last 7 years in academia made me believe otherwise. You research to write a paper, and to write a paper you have to research. Which makes sense in a learning context, because I am there to learn, so of course why would I write about things I already know about? Sure, sometimes I would include things that I’ve learned somewhere else, but mostly the purpose is to learn new things and to solidify that knowledge by writing about it.

As a creative however, who writes for the purpose of creating and making people feel something through my writing, I don’t have to learn in order to write. I write things because I have already learned about them, either through books or personal experience, and most of the time both.

If I have to write about something novel to me, my writing suffers. Because it is still so fresh and I can’t possibly acquire enough knowledge about it in a few hours of research, so I don’t feel confident writing about it.

It is like I have just planted a seed and I am forcing it to sprout by writing so prematurely. What comes out of such writing is an unripe idea, the idea that I cannot feel fully confident about.

Spending days to research a topic, to write an article on it, hardly makes sense either. Well, it depends on the purpose of your writing. Are you first and foremost a knowledge translator, and writing is your medium? Or are you first and foremost a creator, and knowledge is the means, like the building blocks that give you something to work with?

Answering this question is fundamental to understanding who you are as a writer and what content you want to create, but also what your work process even looks like. Do you spend your day mostly researching or mostly writing?

If you feel like you have a reserve of writing that is going to be exhausted, perhaps writing is only a medium for you. Perhaps writing is the secondary, to another goal that you want to pursue. It is important to figure out what that goal is.

Or perhaps, you too are a creator, but like me you got confused and tried to be a knowledge translator — although an important job but is suffocating for someone who wants to create freely.

Try setting a day aside for an experiment to write 5000 words and see where that journey takes you. If you are in fact a stressed-out creator trying to be a knowledge translator, doing this will relieve the pressure, and writing will become a piece of cake.

If you are a knowledge translator, perhaps you are better to follow academia type of structure: setting aside time for research and even developing a list of readings for each topic you want to write on. Writing then becomes a by-product of the primary work that you do, and that you probably mostly into, which is research.

Shaunta Grimes wrote a fascinating article on how different writers generate their ideas. The knowledge translators I am referring to, would be outward thinkers, or as Shaunta calls them — idea extroverts. This makes me an inward thinker who was forcing herself to think outwards, and that is as much of a struggle as it is for an introvert trying to be an extrovert.

Perhaps you are like me have been trained to write for an audience, whether in academia or otherwise, and feel like writing is no longer as enjoyable for you. Or perhaps you have read a bunch of tips on how to be a successful writer, which more often than not tend to describe the extroverted way of thinking. Either way, figuring out which type of writer you are is crucial and can not only improve your writing dramatically but also make the process much easier and more enjoyable.