Over the past 3 years with Pointless Overthinking, I’ve loved getting to know our community of bloggers and blog-lovers. I’m surrounded by inspiration and aspire to give back even a fraction of the amount of motivation I’ve received.
Through this community, I connected to a podcast created for writers that explores topics of the writer’s journey such as: the fear of failure, rejection, trusting the journey, and more. It will debut on May 4th and I will definitely be tuning in.
I happened to be one of the writers (albeit, a self-proclaimed writer) interviewed to share any tricks of the trade. I’ll share a preview of my interview with you here, in hopes to build some excitement for the release of The Mindful Writer podcast.
Q1. You write poetry as E.L. Jayne and are a part of Pointless Overthinking, a blog about understanding the world we live in. How did you come to be a part of Pointless Overthinking?
I just finished a teaching job in Italy and wanted to make it a priority to make a meaningful interactions each day with someone on my blog.
The first day of this practice, I commented on @troyheadrick2015’s post, and he answered something like, “Thanks for your response, I can see you’re a critical thinker by nature and we’re looking for more people like you to join our team. If you’re interested please feel free to email me.” I sent him 3 articles I wrote: “I’ve studied abroad 3 times and I’ve learned nothing,” also, “American Students Abroad: Culturally Savvy or Road to Tragedy,” and “The Unattainable Open Mind.” We would see how the readership took to them, and go from there. Luckily, it went well. I became an author with my own credentials soon thereafter.
Q2. How do you find time to write? What advice or words of wisdom can you share with listeners who are having a hard time making time to write?
Since I’m a philosophy fan, I’ll quote what Nietzsche said about writing. He said, ‘If all it takes to be a writer is to put words on paper, then everyone is a writer. But those who devote themselves to the craft, who write everyday, they are writers.’ Bottom line, find some time in each day to write.
Further, something I didn’t touch on during the podcast episode, is my opinion that great writers are also great readers. If you want to be a great writer, read as many books as you can. Find an author’s whose style you love and make it your own.
Immerse yourself in the culture of book-writing and book-reading. If you want to be an author, try to understand the market and what readers like. Unless you have a unicorn of a book idea—then go for it.
I certainly feel the more I read, the more I am inspired to write my own stuff again. Whenever I’m feeling lackluster inspiration, I pickup my current book and read until I can get back into that metaphysical flow of things.
At Pointless Overthinking, we have a team of 13 talented writers who lead double lives as professors, pilots, playwrights, and life coaches, from Hong Kong, Kenya, Turkey, and more. I’m truly grateful to write alongside such inspirational, intelligent, and open minded people. We are all here to connect with our readers and make this world a little less lonely of a place.
Would you also say that great writers are great readers? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
E.L. Jayne’s poetry blog can be found here.