First post

500 words

This, after 2 weeks of thinking and pondering on what to write about, is my first attempt at the 500 words a day challenge, or commitment, whatever it’s call.

I used to read, and write, a lot. I used to enjoy and be addicted to read as much as possible, somehow along the way my interests became games and TV shows and films and other brain numbing activities.

The thirst for knowledge and experience is still there however. I still have ideas to share, stories short and long to write.

Since I loved historical fiction so much, I had an idea of writing a novel that narrates a fictional account of a major even that changed history. The more I thought about this story, the more excited I became, to be able to incorporate intense personal emotions such as love, fear, loss, grief, and then to juxtapose that with the incredible tsunami of the historic even that’s the back drop to this. I fills me with excitement when I think about it.

Yet, I haven’t written even one word about it.

This is why I have decided to start writing.

Well…This and the fact that my father advises me to write every time he sees me. Why don’t you write, Nasser? You have the language and the knowledge and the insights, all you need to do is put pen to paper. If I were your age and had your language, I would be writing volumes, etc…

So, this is it. I’m writing, and like the first time an overweight person goes to the gym, I’m getting tired in my head, I think I’ve written a thousand words like the gym first timer thinks he’s run 3 kilometres, but like he sees he hasn’t finished his first 500 meters. I look at my word count and see I’ve really only hit the 310 word count.

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My focus is shot, my phone next to me is calling out to me with its flashing sound. The computer just made that facebook notification sound, and I want to catch up on the latest offering Last Week Tonight has for me, but I’ve started, and I need to finish my first 500 words.

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The discipline of writing, well, in fiction or nonfiction, is an art and a science. I know the art because when I read G Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen, or Amin Malouf’s Leo Africanus , I am taken by the story so quickly that before I know it I’m a hundred pages in. Not all writers have that effect.

It’s a science because my work in digital marketing segments, analyses, and a/b tests content in front of thousands of visitors, readers and engaged users to come up with the most call to action, headline or ad copy. Hence your inability to read an article most of the time without then clicking on a link to another article. You think that’s just a coincidence this happens?

It’s not.

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