Wednesday, 10.28am
Sheffield, U.K.
It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator’s skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen. – William Bernbach
The number 42 has a special significance for me. Other than its appearance in the Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, it also happens to be the number on my birth certificate. I didn’t have a name – just baby number 42.
And so it’s pleasing that on the 42nd day of 2026 I’m going to reach a goal I set myself ten years ago.
I have always wanted to write. It’s the way I make sense of the world. It’s how I process and understand what is going on, and the way in which I deal with the ups and downs of life.
I write for me. Because if I didn’t write I would explode.
In 2016 I came across a quote by Ray Bradbury, in which he said that you should write a million words to throw away if you wanted to be a writer.
Those first million words were practice, trash, what you had to do to find your voice and your style. A practice that you had to do to become a writer.
So I set a goal. A million words in ten years.
I set up a WordPress blog. And got started. And here are a few things I’ve learned on this journey.
Write first thing
We all have competing priorities. My children were ten years younger when I started. I was getting more unfit as I got older. Work was hard. Family life is challenging. There’s always something important to sort out.
But what you do first thing in the morning tells you what’s most important to you.
I started by setting aside time to write – getting up at 5 or 6 before everyone else was up, and wrote for an hour or so before it was time to get ready for work.
But that wasn’t always possible, and so sometimes I had to get the writing done last thing at night.
Somewhere along the way I started making a note on each of my posts of the time I sat down to write, and looking back, I can see that they’re outside the working day. Early starts – late nights – it doesn’t really matter.
What matters is, as Hemmingway wrote, getting the seat of your pants on the seat of your chair.
Make it as easy as possible to write
I once read a book on Feng Shui that said if you want to do less of something put a barrier in front of it.
Want to watch less TV and read more? Put a plant where it obscures the TV a little. That worked for a while for us.
Conversely, want to do more of something? Make it as easy as possible to do.
I’m a tech guy. So I set up a system where I can log into my machine and use the same workflow every time. One powered by Free Software.
I draw a picture using MyPaint. I run a script that sets up a post template with an image link and edit it in vi. Then I switch to emacs and post it to WordPress using org2blog.
This isn’t a workflow for everyone – you’re not going to touch it unless you’re a diehard GNU/Linux user – but I think everyone needs something like this. A friction free process where you sit down, do the work, hit publish – and the work is done.
Don’t let your fears and critical self stop you
We’re all afraid of what the world will think of us. What if we write and share something and people don’t like it? What if they laugh at us?
That critical self stifles our ability to express ourselves. It kills us before we get a chance to live.
The reality is that no one cares. Everyone is more concerned about their lives and problems than about you. It’s going to take a huge effort to get noticed at all.
Those days of obscurity are a gift. You can write, experiment, have a go at things without worrying about it.
The best time to plant a tree is ten years ago
The second best time is now.
Doing this work. Doing the thinking and writing has made a difference. It’s a small thing – a few words a day. But they’ve helped me develop a new skill, develop my career, find a niche to add value, and work on a programme of research.
None of which might have happened if I hadn’t taken the first step, and published the first few words ten years ago.
But this is only the start.
I saw this period as a time for practice, a time to develop my skills.
The reality is that I don’t feel a better writer now than I did ten years ago.
Each post is still a struggle. A fight to find words. A mess as I work through these thoughts. They are, as Anne Lamott puts it, sh**ty first drafts.
The focus on publishing, on putting stuff out, has meant there isn’t time to go over and polish material. I like some sentences. Others need work. And there’s filler and irrelevant thoughts that wouldn’t make it into a “real” journal.
So that’s the next challenge.
So far, I have written for me. Because I like to write.
Now I have to learn to write for others, and create words that others will enjoy reading, listening to, and find useful.
I’ve written a million words.
Now, I’d like to work on a million good ones.
Cheers,
Karthik Suresh
Handcrafted insight 