Ryan Holiday, the author of The Obstacle Is the Way, wrote this article that shares some of the best writing advice. I chose 9 rare tips that are useful for your writing process.

Always jot down your ideas

The brain can only remember four things at once. Do you have an idea when you try to fall asleep? Do you have an idea when you go for a walk? Get your phone, notebook or something to jot them down. Keep them where you would always look at when you work on your projects.

Copy passages from your favourite books with pen and paper

There is no tactile memory when you highlight and save it on your computer. Keep a commonplace notebook where you copy these passages. It can be anything — passages from a book, incidents, dialogues and slang. …

I’ve been thinking about building my audience and earning money from it for months.

It is possible because someone has succeeded by providing incredible value to their audience. They have a newsletter and a course that earn them more money than they can ever earn in their corporate life.

Being your own boss is not an easy road. It took me a few months before I started to reach more people and build my audience on my poetry Instagram. It slowed down after I started to build my newsletter on creativity and Twitter.

Content batching

I found a useful way to create content for each platform. Batch content for one platform each day. For instance, write a few articles for Medium one day, write a few poems for Instagram one day and write 1 or 2 newsletter articles one day. …

Have you ever felt tired in the morning? Do you wake up and not want to look at social media or YouTube one day? If you feel these feelings even once, I will show you how to reverse the situation by doing dopamine detox.

There are days when I would scroll through YouTube to decide which video I would watch at that moment. The whole day flew by. There are days that I wake up, write poetry and articles, have a healthy breakfast and lunch, and do meditation and yoga.

We have these lazy or productive days. It is usually decided at the moment we wake up in the morning. When we feel tired in the morning, we are more likely to do nothing and let the day pass. But we would feel energized on some mornings. It would lead us to be productive and treat ourselves the right way. …

Off my mind

They say you need to
kill your darling in the story
but you are not a character
in a story
You are a human being
with flesh and blood

Yet I reflected that
I have been idealizing you
for almost three years

All the poems that
I wrote about you
yearning for you
despite the physical distance
between us

It is time to let go
even cards told me to
stop thinking about you
while I could never take you
off my mind

Where does this go?
Probably an ending
where we have
our own happy ending
separately

Yet I still wish you
health and happiness
as it is a wish
I hope for the ones who I love
them staying
in a corner of my heart
including…

Charles Edward York trained for many years as an artist and for 5 and a half years as a tenor before wholly committing to writing and poetry. He has published 14 poetry collections on Amazon and Lulu Publishing.

Celeste: You have published 14 books on Amazon. How did it start?

Charles: I started the day after I was fired by a corrupt boss at a college library. I made a decision that I was going to dare to do great. It turned out became the title of my second book of poetry, Dare To Do Great.

I have been writing poetry since I was 17 but I did not publish anything until I published my first book Deep Blue Love in 2005. Mostly what I wrote about in the beginning was love and relationship poems with a few poems addressing social justice issues. …

I learn a lot from Austin Kleon. His books come to great use when I need some advice on my creative endeavor. I got his latest book on creativity Keep going. It is such a suitable book to read for uncertain times, even more important when you are a writer or an artist. It teaches you to manage your time when you are a creative entrepreneur.

Make your own routine

When you feel that you cannot control anything, the best thing to do is to control what you do every day. You would most likely do the same tasks every day.

It can ground and give you something to hold onto. You can create at your own pace. You can write every day, every other day, or in other frequencies. You should build your routine around your personality and responsibilities in life. …

My time on social media has increased probably tenfold since I started this newsletter. That is understandable. You need to put yourself out there so more people can find you and your creative work. It became necessary for me to find a way to completely get off social media for a day or two to keep ideas and poetry coming.

Virtual airplane mode

Austin Kleon wrote about airplane mode and how we can be on virtual airplane mode. I went to a park that is facing Victoria Harbour. …

I am very much like my dad. He does not know how to say I love you but takes care of everything at home. A lightbulb that burns itself to death. The kitchen counter or bathtub that shows the age of time. He would bring them back to life with his magic hands.

He would say, “Look! I fixed the lightbulb and cleaned the kitchen counter in the morning,” and look at me, wanting some validation. I would smile at him and say ,“Wow! That is awesome!”

I do not say “I love you” but you will know that I do when I cook a meal or do something for you. I show my dad my love for him when I talk about my day or ask about his day. I would say, “What do you want to have for dinner? …