The take away on non-fictional writings

Non-fiction had always been my soil. I have loved it very much. Today out of my busy schedule I managed to hear them and that was a great blessing. I myself write more in non-fictional writings so their sharing was a guiding light in my writings. Thanks to Ashdin Doctor and Reema Ahmed.

Ashdin Doctor - Mumbai-based popular habit coach.

                        - Founder of Awesome 180 - Habit coaching program

                        - The habit coach- The popular podcast

Take away from him:

My best learning from him were many.

1. In present era everything is at our fingertips on social media and internet. They know everything. To attract this crowd for paperback publication we need to be creative. We should give them something that they don't find on net- a unique story line presentation, a creative presentation of the matter that touches their heart, and an unexpected insightful message that is not found anywhere. It should have something the readers are looking for.

2. Second thing which impressed me was when he mentioned a book”Nobody wants to read your shit.” He says that just for writing don't write. Write with a heart and let people connect to you with what you feel? Let the natural flow of sequels build an environment that appeals to your readers to introspect them or maybe reflect their views on them.

He further said that he encouraged us to write so that we also learn as well as my readers also have matters to learn. Secondly provide stuffs which people would love to read. There are many things that happen around us, and we need to present them in such a way that either a lesson is hidden there, or a story that people would love to read. I liked when he mentioned to use their (reader's Point of views(POV)) to express and explore. That is a very strong appealer.

In addition to this I liked when he shared his views that he explored 3 act formats and put those ideas into his podcasts and books too. This 3 act format means in your story there is a hero. Now as the story moves forward, there comes a bad person. Finally, there is a side person. Now the story proceeds when the bad person does something very bad to this side person. Just then the hero comes and rescues. Yes, I also agree with him. Such stories are really appealing.

Reema Ahmed- Neurolinguistic life coach.

                        - trauma and relationship counselor

                        - Co-founder of candidly a platform to explore issues of gender, abuse, sexuality, 

                            media.

Take away from her:

1. I liked her concept of how she plays various roles very efficiently. The biggest quality is being expressive. She uses her thinking which is well laced with empathetic feels. This makes her write-ups very expressive. Yes I to feel expressiveness of our thoughts with empathetic feel touches the heart, and we are readily drawn towards the matter.

2. Another thing was when she mentioned that we all write with a certain frame of mind namely,

                                                    - Blame frame

                                                    - Guilt frame

                                                    - Outcome frame

                                                    - Get something from someone

So exploring these frames of our minds helps us to understand all the ins and outs of human mind. This gives multiple threads of stories. So, we see that we just can't see sing story but various perspectives arises like the general trauma that occurred, parenting perspective, the environment that allowed it. Yes, I also feel we should add different frames of minds to bring a better insight.

3. Yet another appealing learning from her was when she mentioned our desires to maintain moral high grounds while we write. She said that what she was preaching, she herself failed to do and that was making her feel guilty to preach. Then she mentioned the dangerous words we use for this- THE SHOULDS, THE MUSTS, AND THE HAVES. She says let the things be a bit messy with your experiences but never become an advisory. I think I to become like this dangerous preachers at times and so this just struck me rightly. This segment specially spoke to me to doubly check theses dangerous words in my writing and interactions and delete them. Everyone has their right to be express and experience their way.

The whole session was full of learning for me as I myself is a non-fictional writer. So, every of their words were like showering flowers of knowledge for me. The other best take away I could recollect are as follows:

a) Their call to never stop learning. Yes our life is full of stuffs that teaches us a lot. The point is are we ready to learn. For example, failures didn't come to make us negative but to learn that there is yet another way to win this battle. On the other hand, success teaches us that we finally succeeded in targeting the bulls eye. So, do we hold such perspective or waste our time being negative and bitter.

b) We should allow the variety of streams of experiences to enrich our thinking and broaden our perspectives. This adds meaning to our writings.

c) The best find was when they talked about researching over the topic before they write.

            - They said to research well before you being to address those topics in your write-up.

            - Put a deadline to your research always because it is never ending. 

            - Just don't research and put it in your writing. Connect with them and how that makes 

               meaning to you. Then use those meanings to in your write up.

            - Ashdin further said that after research write what you think. After you are done then go 

            and read the competing literature so that these ideas do not influence your individual 

            ideas.

        - Another important thing they mentioned was we can never draw a line between fiction 

          and non-fiction discretely. For imagination to bloom you need to have experiences on

          which you build your imagination. On the other hand, for experience to occur you need to

         walk on your imagination and try out something new. So, we should hold together and 

        walk.

        - Yet another was how do we maintain privacy in our non-fiction writing. This is very 

           important for me because I to use them always in my stories.

• Taking their consent is very important. It is ethical to respect everyone's privacy.
• They change symbols, gender, names etc.
• No context of theirs being mentioned.
• Since, I write non-fictional a lot, these talks were very helpful to me. I feel blessed to be connected to them.

Since I am a non-fictional writer, I was blessed with this session. I learned a lot. Thank you to both the writers for profound guidance and lessons. I wish them best.

This was for a #blogchatter writfest season 7 , 2023 session on non-fiction on 23 May, 2023.