#201 - Longform diary of 2024
Sharing the results of an ongoing 500-hour experiment
As the year winds down, I’m taking some time to gather my thoughts and plan ahead. This exercise is a little different from previous years because for the first time in more than a decade I’m on my own, again, having quit my corporate career to pursue my diverse interests.
One of the biggest personal projects I started in May this year is an ongoing experiment with longform writing. I want to teach myself to write longform nonfiction that incorporates elements of fiction—structure, pacing, and narrative. I want to write about facts in a way that makes them as compelling, if not more, as fiction. In July, I lent shape to this ambition by launching a second newsletter: Levels of the Game. Here’s what this project has produced so far:
1️⃣Encounters with Unreasonable Hospitality: A profile of a restaurateur who scaled the summit of his profession while remaining true to his (unreasonable) ideas of service. It is based on a memoir of Will Guidara who took Eleven Madison Park to the top of the list of the world’s best restaurants.
2️⃣Finding Sumanth: The profile of a young indie filmmaker as he finds himself and his voice in his work. His debut feature film Mithya has gone on to earn rave reviews at festivals in India and abroad, and is awaiting a theatrical release in the coming year.
3️⃣My Search for Flow: In 2022, I made the cut for a LinkedIn creator program. Within a year of that, my relationship with my craft had changed. I had changed. Here I have examined my experience of writing on social media to consider a broader topic—our search for flow in everyday life. The first of my two personal narratives this year.
4️⃣Where Have the Amateurs Gone?: IRL, success brings with it the fear of failure. Online, we do not even have to wait for patent success to nurture a fear of failing. We begin our journeys on egg shells, faking it in the hope of making it. I would know because not so long ago my tag as an online creator brought with it such encumbrances upon me. This is my story of fighting the urge to become a first-copy replica of others around me whom I envied, and accepting something about myself along the way.
As you take a pause at the close of the year, I invite you to take a look at these pieces of writing. I hope something in them resonates with you. As ever, your thoughts and feedback are welcome.
Wish you a happy new year!🎆
👋Hi! I’m Satyajit and thank you for reading my work. I’m a decision-making trainer and a career coach and I like writing about both of those things as well as dabbling in some creative nonfiction.