From Waging Cards To Waging Words
My writing goals and plans
I’ve been mildly panicking about getting out this second newsletter.
I had planned to write about How The Legendary John Cleese Cultivates A Creative Mindset. But I took Cleese’s advice to heart and ‘killed my darling’.
So here I am at 9:31 PM on a Wednesday, taking on Hemmingway’s advice instead…
“Write the truest sentence you know and then go from there.”
My affair
Over the last week, I’ve been reflecting on my last relationship. It’s been exactly a year since we broke up (this isn’t a bleak melancholic relationship post, I promise).
In our last argument, my ex asked me what my backup plan was if I failed in my coffee business. I told her, “I’ll become a copywriter.”
“You’re dreaming. What are you actually going to do?” she angrily replied.
Well…
Here we are one year on, and I’ve become a copywriter. Chugging full steam ahead towards making writing my vocation and single.
Did I fail in my coffee business? No, not quite.
As my friend Beccy (go check out her awesome newsletter about modern identity and culture) puts it, “A business doesn’t fail when it runs out of money. A business fails when the founder runs out of steam.”
That’s half the truth.
A few friends pointed out my coffee business is a passion project. But writing and behavioural science is my ‘thing’.
Deep down, I knew they were right. So at the end of Febuary 2022, I put my business on the back burner and went all in on pursuing writing.
I’ll confess the signs of my love affair with writing were there all along. For the last two years, I woke up and wrote everyday — secretly hiding from my then girlfriend the courses I was doing and the groups I was joining to improve my writing.
At the time, I just didn’t know how to make it as a writer, and also, I didn’t believe I was good enough.
But as the saying goes, if there’s a will, there’s a way.
It has been two years since I’ve made any kind of money. My poker winnings have kept me afloat, but unfortunately, my bank account isn’t a bottomless pit of money. I knew if I wanted to make it as a writer, I’d better get a constant source of income. Fortunately, in the act of starting my coffee business, I learned the craft of copywriting. So that was a good place to start.
Through a lot of luck and charm, I managed to seduce my first part-time client without a CV or experience into hiring me. But that’s a story for another time.
I like copywriting, but it isn’t the only goal. The others include:
Become a personal essay writer in behavioural science and evolutionary psychology.
Write a weekly newsletter dissecting the greatest writers and their process.
Pitch an article for The Behavioural Scientist and get accepted.
Write a non-fiction or fiction book.
Making writing my full career.
What does behavioural science, evolutionary psychology and writing all have in common?
People say that 90% of communication is non-verbal.
I’ve always understood this as a poker player. After all, it was my job to understand, analyse and contextualise non-verbal cues.
The actual words are only 10% of what you hear. The rest is emphasis, tone, body language and facial expression. These all tell you more than words can ever say.
We all cannot help but communicate. Even when someone says very little, their silent body language can speak volumes about who they are. Communication is how we interact with the world. And it’s important because you need to get along with people.
To put it succinctly, I want to master communication. Behavioural science, evolutionary psychology and writing all revolve around communication, non-verbal and verbal.
If you had told me five years ago that I would be on a journey to become a writer, I would’ve called you crazy.
But here I am, gone from waging cards to waging words.
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OH... tell me more about playing poker. What does it feel like when you pick up the cards? Decide on your strategy? Win? Lose? Thank you for sharing your journey with us!