Husain Journal

Ever noticed how few writers draw so vivid images by their writing as if you were watching a film? Ever smelled that mouldy basement odour, setting your teeth in the creamy coatings of that thick chocolate, hearing the screeching of that broken bench, and felt like writing with the same appeal? Well, I’m intrigued by the idea of showing images in my writing instead of just furnishing information. Painting moving images through our writing connects to our unconscious mind and addressing all the senses of our reader. “When you trust images to do the work for you, most of what spills on to paper is unconscious.” Adair Lara Want talking about twinkling stars? Instead of telling that the stars were twinkling, show their reflection on the rippling waters. Drawing pictures on paper isn’t that easy. It requires a great effort of our concentration, of being present in the moment to observe things around. If we're saying that ‘The weather was inclemently cold,’ we...

Maybe you would have come across a great advice and had even felt its fascinating merits tapping the core of your heart. But, lack of implementation or mental laziness – or whatever you call it – had kept you from plucking its fruitage. The same happened with me when long time back I heard the super successful blogger Jon Morrow advising his readers to give subheads to their pieces. To my joy, recently I was shaken by the idea of doing whatever is presently in our hands to scale up our progress, so I started to take this top tip in earnest. Here’re 6 benefits that come when we begin to use subheads in our works: 1. They give clarity to the reader William Zinsser said that the reader’s subconscious need is for order and to feel that everything is fine at the helm. If this need of his remains unfulfilled, he feels deprived of the clarity that he searches for. He feels put off and looks at the nearest opportunity to click away from the piece. With proper subheads, poi...

Want to make your points stickier and more impressionable? Tie them up with something which the reader is so familiar with that he can feel it like the beating of his heart. Because he knows in his bones how hard is a rock, he will quickly grasp what’s it to have a rock-solid confidence. Because he knows like the flow of his blood how pure is the morning dew, he will better understand it if you liken it to a lady’s tears. Branching out from the same tree of comparison, metaphors, similes and analogies are 3 fruits of language, as old as expressions. They’re figures of speech, so anchored in our daily talks, that we don’t even notice that we’re pulling them out. If sprinkled with care, they add juice and flavour to the prose. But if they get in the hands of those who know not how to use them, they’re like blunt blades that don’t trim the grass neatly – instead they make it look untidy. Talking about the difference between metaphors and similes: A metaphor says A is B, w...

Ever felt your role models were supermen? That heavens have showered upon them powers you’re deprived of? Those high-flying humans would have had invisible wings which you don’t have, right? Wrong. No one's perfect. But, for years this shitty idea clouded my worldview, and it incrementally curbed my onward speed. Oh that I had the belief in the blissful truth that people who I look up to also had their portion of imperfections – you would have been seeing a much more updated version of me. Because believe it or not, it’s true as hell that our beliefs to our destiny are what frames are to clay. But if this looks wishy-washy then reading this will sweep off your doubts: This guy’s belief tore all scientific data – It’s 1954. experts everywhere are citing a mountain of empirical data to tell you that it’s impossible for a human body to run a 4-minute mile. Any questions or arguments countering this fact is foolery. What’s decreed is decreed. But then an un...

Blood would have rushed to my head. The next moment you would have seen a wild look in my eyes, swearing at the critics, dragging them by their hair, beating them violently. And it likely had doused down the fire of the struggle there and then. Any short-sighted, quick-tempered guy would have presumed it bravery to knocking the bloody shit of those stupid folks and had went on record to admit it. But King was King for a reason. Though Dr Martin Luther King was falsely slapped with a series of excoriating accusations as evident in this interview, I was deeply moved by him because he didn’t get enraged, and continued to record his objections and rights in a logical and firm way. He was reproached for provoking violence and fanning the fire of unrest which had 2 people killed and worth $300,000 property destroyed, but never did it appear that he was losing his cool and logic. We know that Dr King was fighting for the rights of negros in the United States because since age...

I think and talk enough about how to improve myself. I do the same about shedding my unproductive activities. It’s not that I’m not implementing what I’m reading, but it feels that there’s more that I need to do to ramp up my improvement further. I also feel that brooding all the time about improvement and success can turn counterproductive. I must have days when I should write only for pleasure. Writing can be a great pastime to entertain my mind. These days I have written quite a bit, and now I’m feeling like putting it down for some time, maybe for a day. Today I don’t feel like writing on my blog, but the word that I have inadvertently omitted needs to be put back because it’s rendering the entire sentence meaningless. Had it been a typo, I could have afforded to go without changing, but it’s a clear mistake, and this is the reason why I have to set it right forthwith. No matter however much I strive to write lightly, it happens that I feel a heaviness in my heart when it...

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.” Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM I have since long been charmed by the idea of giving more time to producing rather than just consuming knowledge. Consuming or gathering knowledge on your topic of interest is good, but sometimes this is a clever way of running away from producing. Take my example. I secretly dream to become a great writer so that I can travel the world and live on my own terms. So to make this audacious dream a reality, I read books and top blogposts on writing. But when it ultimately boils down to producing my work so that others can judge it… I reason with myself that the time isn’t not yet ripe for it, and therefore I have to do more homework. Doing more homework, i.e. reading more books or listening to more podcasts, looks a good idea. But at the heart of it lies my fear of producing – my fear of making mistakes or getting rejected or ridi...

Does this describe you? You’re so overfilled with stuff that before you know it, scores of highly important tasks slip through the cracks and vanish. After all, state of things earlier were not as jumbled up as they’re now, right? And no matter how terribly you try to mute it, that same question scratches the core of your heart – Will I ever be able to organise and clear up the traffic of my affairs? Read on, I’m going to mention a bunch of attention-chewing habits that could be contributing in messing up your life. The hot metric to instantly ment away your crutch activities This piercing truth might sting you right on your face, but let me tell you a dirty secret about us. We invent clever, fox-cunning excuses to dodge the tough – the results-fetching stuff so to embrace the easy and mundane. But if easy tasks would have made our audacious, soul-stirring dreams true, every second person had cut it. So success lies in challenging and blood-squeezing work. For e...

Oh, end of another bone-stiffening day. You sigh, rub your misty eyes, and slump down on your soft bed to taste some ice-cream. You’re tired and drained yet a part of your mind desires to push more. But you direly feel like resting a little. It’s vital to refresh your creativity and health, right? As it slips around your tongue, you try enjoying the crispy texture of the ice-cream, but you can’t, because a bunch of work files are open in your mind. And you think… Can I ever get successful in enjoying the little pleasures of my everyday life? Maybe you’re overambitious, maybe not. But you certainly require changing the approach you have for your work. Fortunately, these mind-quickening points can inject fresh electric in you when you’re sucked up: Forget work and talk about war Rewind to June, 1942. German air force is bombarding England to hold sway over Europe. The Commanding General of the European Theater of Operations for the US Army, Dwight Eisenhower is plunged ...

Ever felt looking over a massively successful work that you yourself would have created it equally well? Ever felt that you yourself would have delivered the same level of talk and had written the same kind of a novel? I guess that like me you too would have felt so. And maybe then you also would have felt that people get fond of just average or above average things…So if you had simply released your work, you would have made an amazing splash. Or you might have got this question in your head: Were these people simply lucky that they got so high popularity for their works? Maybe they would be having great connections, right? So far being lucky is concerned, well, I believe in the oft-repeated wisdom that the harder you work, the better your luck gets. And so far having great connections part is concerned? Maybe yes, maybe no. But that’s not so relevant. What’s the reason for their success, I think, is their bravery and courage. Yes, their courage to put forth their work i...