Welcome to the Fiction Emailer: A newsletter that aims to make sense of our chaotic world through the lens of ‘Speculative Journalism & Fiction’ by rayaan_writer. Visit my website to know more.
The Problem I Kept Noticing
As a journalist, I have had the opportunity to interview people across various walks of life: builders, entrepreneurs, businessmen, tech experts. One thing I have noticed across all of them is how often people struggle to articulate their thoughts and ideas. It is a problem not just for a junior professionals but even for managers leading big teams.
I have seen this play out across the last seven years of my life as a writer. Now AI tools is making people to hack their way into writing generating generic, synthetic notes. This is downgrading the art of learning to write and also the habit of thinking itself.
Thinking is writing. And people are not realising this as often as they should.
When you sit down and leak your thoughts onto a page, you do two things at once. You put a leash on the free-flowing words, ideas that keep simmering in your brain, and you bring order to this chaotic space. You also build muscle: putting thoughts on paper with a pen and a journal has proven benefits.
What Writing Bought Me
I was an engineer who disliked his college days. As an escape, I pivoted into writing and reading, and that one shift opened up a world of opportunities. Here is what writing has led me to so far:
A persuasive scholarship application secured $3,000 from Splice Media for the Young India Fellowship at Ashoka.
A single email pitch to Splice Beta funded a fully paid trip to Thailand.
An application essay won me a $5,000 fellowship at CUNY's Craig Newmark J-School.
A combination of essays and interviews secured an ₹8 lakh scholarship from Ashoka University.
A writing career where I work remotely from the comfort of home.
All of this came through persuasive writing with intent: applying to opportunities, sending cold emails to people whose work I genuinely admired through newsletters, scroll-throughs on LinkedIn, and Instagram.
As a cub reporter in my earlier days, I relied on reading amazing essays and books on how to improve my craft from creators such as Nicolas Cole, Dickie Bush, David Perell, and many others. I kept dumping all of my learning into a Notion document, which is what eventually transformed into The Thinker's Compass.
How the Thinker's Compass Helps You
The Thinker’s Compass is a curated set of essays, videos, and frameworks from the world’s best writers. As you start learning from these curated links, you will walk away with
Where Careers Are Headed and How to Amplify Thinking in the Age of AI,
Why Writing Publicly Matters
How to Use Writing to Propel Your Career
How to Actually Start Writing Without a Portfolio or a Following,
and What a Sustainable Writing Practice Really Looks Like in 2026.
I tested an early version as a small workshop with friends from Ashoka. The response was enough to convince me it was worth making properly.
Enjoy and Happy Learning! 🙂
And that’s all for today!
Did you like reading this edition? Should I do better? Please don’t hesitate to offer me your feedback. I am open to ideas and suggestions.
Feel free to reach me at [email protected] or you can simply reply to this email or comment below. See you soon! 😊❤️
