Quick glance:
How I came up with the name — The fiction emailer
Thinkers and publications I find inspiration from
A writing prompt for you to tell me about your work in 100 words.
Can Speculative Fiction & Essays help us make sense of the world
I was an engineer who disliked his college days.
To escape, I read fiction and wrote a lot.
This hobby opened up a world of opportunities including:
Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program led by Jeremy Caplan at Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY (Won $4,000 scholarship to pursue this).
My first fully-funded international trip to Thailand after I wrote to Alan Soon and Rishad Patel, asking if I could join Splice Beta.
Their generosity extended when they sponsored nearly $3,000 on behalf of Splice Media to attend the Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University.
Ashoka University waived rest of YIF fees (almost ₹8 Lacs).
At Ashoka, as a liberal arts student, I was offered a chocolate box, like Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. We were introduced to courses from history, sociology, AI to entrepreneurship: things I never got to experience during my college days. I was learning alongside the brightest minds across India. It gave me a front-seat view of how there is a opportunity to solve problems with different lenses and measure impact.
I then went about starting a non-profit in the memory of my late mother, Fathima Fowzia Foundation. Soon, my North Star was legacy: how should we be remembered after our death? What are the skills that can help us build such a legacy?
This kept me up for nights.
I wondered: Can writing and future-first thinking help build our legacy?
Thus, The Fiction Emailer was born.
It is a newsletter of speculative stories and essays that helps you make sense of the world. Learn here why writing by yourself is how you think deeply, imagine an optimistic future, and decide the legacy you want to leave.
‘Emailer’ was just a recall to my currently paused newsletter The Chennai Emailer
But why call this Fiction?
I grew up reading a lot of fiction.
Later, the world of AI unleashed and it baffled me.
There’s a natural fear among writers that AI will steal our jobs, but I very quickly found how AI writing was just soulless like a zombie.
I got back to reading fiction or long-form journalistic pieces that are so full of life.
So calling it The Fiction Emailer made sense.
Iterations over the past few months
I have been experimenting with different pieces.
I had a hunch I wasn’t doing good enough.
Like a cartographer, I started reading other writers for inspiration.
I came up with a few ideas of my own and merged them with mine.
Henceforth, here is what I am looking to write at The Fiction Emailer
Real fiction stories
I find inspiration in Op-Eds From the Future by The New York Times. Writers wrote pieces about possible future outcomes and how people of that time will react. This was a creative reimagining, but from a journalistic lens.
Real Fiction Stories: I am now looking to explore essays set in a fictional world but grounded in contemporary issues. Here, you will read how today’s questions look from the future, so you can reimagine it through future-first thinking.
The long-term game
I like reading Kevin Kelly ever since he wrote his groundbreaking essay called “1,000 True Fans.” It was a speculative piece, but it was still rooted in reality. He is someone who often thinks on the long term, and he has the knack to analyse culture, tech, work, and progress from a future-first lens.
This is something that I want to imbibe in my own newsletter.
The Long-Term Game: I will deliver curated reads so we learn how accomplished people write and think to build something that outlasts their life.
The Writers’ craft & The World-Builder’s Map
I enjoyed the long-form investigative journalism course taught at the Young India Fellowship. We were mandated to read profiles and pieces published by popular magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atavist or The Caravan.
This made me fall in love with the art of writing.
Another fellow Substacker that I admire is Elle Griffin of The Elysian bridges contemporary facts and merges it alongside the possible future outlook. She even used a newsletter to write her gothic fiction as serialised chapter with other essays.
This gave me the idea to do the following:
The Writer’s Craft: I will interview journalists, online creators and newsletterists and ask tips on how to tell our story.
The World-Builder’s Map: I will analysis creative fiction writing. I look to extract lessons from popular novelists’ storytelling and imagination frameworks.
The Fiction Emailer for you is if...
You believe writing sharpens thinking.
You read fiction and wonder: “What does this mean for the real world?”
You love fiction books, movies, video games.
You often think about leaving a legacy.
If this is all you, you’re home.
Rayaan Writer’s Day 2 Prompt:
You know the drill — Pick up a pen/paper or your laptop and explain in 100 words
What line of work are you in
What is your job
How does your job help people
Remember there is no right or wrong answer.
We just write good horrible first drafts and hit publish!
Ta da! You will be done with your second post!
And that’s all for today!
Reach out to me on LinkedIn to say hi.
You can simply reply to this email or comment below. See you soon! 😊❤️