Omar Thinks: Writing
Writing is wild. Five years ago, I thought, no way, this won’t be me. I’m not the academic. I’m not the writer. I was halfway through graduate school, knee-deep in chaplaincy. People before pages. Last year, my friends and I tried to write on a Substack. That was an experience because our long texts turned into something structured. It’s been a few months here riding solo and I’m enjoying the experience. I guess this is growth, huh? Wish me luck guys! I’m going to keep trying to improve. Thank you for being here for the journey.
Articles about writing are plentiful on Medium. I’ve learned a bunch from them and continue to take from writers’ experiences. In preparing for this short piece, I thought about writing something similar. I also thought, what is it to write? Sometimes we need help trying to get something going. Once I asked my younger brother what to call this publication. After a quick exchange, “Omar Thinks” was born. I listen to David Perell’s podcast How I Write whenever something catches my interest and one of his guests said that it is important to write. Get the words out.
I heard something similar from Shadi Hamid, writer for the Washington Post. Medium has given us a blank canvas to do that.
With a growing family, consistent writing gets tough. I use Notion and thankfully they have a good mobile app. I’m able to squeeze sentences in between moments. Writing has also helped me make space in my mind’s shelf. It has become my way of structuring thoughts where it used to be random conversations with friends. I do miss the immediate pushback and feedback though. At this point, I’m now nearing one hundred followers here. Thank you everyone. I really appreciate your views and reads.
Writing sparked this strange creative/intellectual part of my brain. It’s weird. I wonder if there a difference between being creatively intellectual and intellectually creative. Am I being complicated? Let me know in the comments. This state of being is interesting to me because it gives me a break from dad life and husbandry. I really enjoy it and shared thoughts about it.
Being human, we need to switch it up once in a while. It makes things new and gives us a break from other demands or duties in life. Even dad life.
If you find yourself between writing and not writing, write. Get those words flowing. See where your mind takes you. There’s a reason why mental health professionals encourage journaling. Apple even designed a dedicated app for it. Seeing thoughts in the form of words allows the writer to better engage with feelings. No more do they get lost in the ocean of you. Rather they are limited to an 8 1/2 by 11 paper. They become easier to deal with. Everyone has a story. Everyone has a voice. Be responsible with it. The internet needs more good stories.
I think I struggle at the moment with finding my “niche” here. Many advise to do that. I started a Blogger that was supposed to be dedicated to coffee. And then some of my coffee work here caught a buzz.
So, I changed my mind and siloed my work into my own publications. Maybe I don’t need a niche. In the meantime, I’m going to keep at it. Looking at this post, I guess writing is also about writing what you wrote. Writing-ception. Until next time Medium, peace.
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