LETTER
Letters in a bottle
If Zero(deliberate capitalisation) people follow The Writer’s Soup, shouldn’t it be reason enough to not write a letter? Let’s work on the quality of the question. If Zero people follow The Writer’s Soup whose inbox is this letter going to show up in? No-ones. Then why the fuck am I writing this letter? Maybe I have gone mad. But maybe there is an urgent madness to my writing. Those two are worlds apart. Whatever I write gets read by one or two people. No one I know is active on Medium. Those two readers are complete strangers. This letter will also show up in phantom feeds, will be disseminated by ghosts, and will die a quick death. I am hoping for more than that. Letters in a bottle, fossils buried by choice so the future reader can chart her path back to where I started.
Writing can not happen in the absence of a reader. If you think it can, you are a moron. Since I have no readers, I have to imagine one. Letters in a bottle is an action. A mad action but an action still. What do you do when you arrive at the banks of a river chased by savages? Ford the river on the snouts of alligators.
I started this publication to help struggling writers get money and exposure. I had neither money nor exposure myself, so we can conclude it was a disastrous business model to begin with. But I absolutely love literature in all its forms, from saccharine agitprop to poems walking the solar surface in flip-flops. To call a loser in love a failure. Dear future, we have arrived.
Today was a holiday in my country. I spent many hours working on a short story that has already amassed twenty five pages. I don’t know what I will do with it after I finish. I will read it to my wife. But after that, I might just bury it. But I do know one thing. I will not stop writing. Letters in a bottle will be a reminder of this time. Of struggle, of habituating myself to insignificance.
I have linked all my articles to patreon. I have got nothing to show for it. So Letters in a bottle is going to be free of any patreon plugging or donation seeking. That way I get to keep my dignity and ride my moral high horse without losing anything.
written by Ranju Mamachan

