Mohammed Rayaan

Journalist. Writer. Newsletter Creator. 28. Chennai & New Delhi. Alum: Young India Fellow at Ashoka University and EJCP Fellow at Craig Newmark J School-City University of New York. Ex-The Hindu BusinessLine, DT Next, NewsToday and Talk Media.

Nov 30, 2025

•

9 min read

How Stranger Things Got Made: Writing is like Pulling Teeth, and that's Normal

The Duffer Brothers' Masterclass reveals the unglamorous truth of crafting a fictional world: discipline creates conditions for creativity.

Nov 22, 2025

•

7 min read

This Movie Made Me Understand How Deepfakes Could Start Nuclear War

Kathryn Bigelow's A House of Dynamite shows what Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War book only described: the suffocating terror of making life-or-death decisions when you can't verify anything. And we're living in that world right now.

Sep 8, 2025

•

5 min read

News Is Dying. Fiction Might Revive It.

Forget dry headlines—what if the news read like your favorite novel? | Readers don’t want another fact dump — they crave stories that move them.

Sep 7, 2025

•

5 min read

Here's How to Win Back Avoidant Readers by Ditching Doomscroll Vibes

Journalism Without the J-Word; The stories people crave aren’t headlines, they’re lifelines

Sep 7, 2025

•

2 min read

Welcome to The Fiction Emailer

Here's how this newsletter can help you