Respect your essence as it never changes
Children’s clear-cut perspective on things is often surprising.
I always pay close attention to concepts that my seven-year-old daughter unwittingly expresses. Mine, it’s not mere curiosity: I know how much those words say who she is and always will be. I remember very well an emblematic episode from when I was her age, in fact.
Some memories of my childhood are happy; others aren’t. Then there are the special ones. Through the mists of the past, they whisper to me who I am, my intrinsic values, and how I became the man of today, for better or worse.
Your essence…
For those with an average English language
I won’t write about earnings or success. I won’t give you any advice.
Like many, I decided to write here, on Medium, with greater consistency. Dreams of glory? Not really: I like it; it stimulates me and makes me grow as a writer, even in my mother tongue.
The challenge was to find a process not only practical, exploiting the tools at my disposal, but also suitable for my way of being and writing.
I’m Italian, and English is a foreign language for me. …
What remains counts
The best advice is the one that doesn’t pretend to be so.
When it comes to “content writing”, what to write is often the first, big dilemma of those who want to try it. Experts agree on the best method: the persuasive one, or the “problem-solution” articles — not only many Top Writers recommend it, but also universities.
May be, but it seems that forcedly providing solutions is a problem to me: you risk treating the reader as if he were an idiot.
When I face dilemmas, I question what the experts on duty advise on principle. I always give…
Whatever makes you feel miserable is wrong
It’s curious how people think they mustn’t earn alone a life worth living.
Everybody giving the same trite advice: provide a solution. Readers come here to find answers. Publications ask for “actionable advice.” Everybody is in love with the action, while reflection is an outdated practice of the old-fashioned people like I am.
One of marketing’s golden rules says, now I should tell you why I am the right person to advise you on this topic. Third paragraph: why you? All things considered, I can. But sorry, it’ll be the fourth.
I’m a suitable writer to tell you not to…
Embrace the unexpected and prize your talents
Writing is like a mirror: what you see in it depends on how you feel. And how you feel depends on how you treat yourself. The way you treat yourself results from acceptance and consequent freedom, that is, self-respect.
When grappling with literature, you often have no idea how you’ll write the next scene. A novel is a flood of uncertainties. Nonetheless, thanks to experience, some writing’s aspects become an ordinary business because you believe in yourself: you know you’re up to them, for you already did it hundreds of times.
After so many years of writing, more than I’d…
Accept that the destination doesn’t matter
We became the “everything at once” society.
The problem with such a perspective is that no one gets everything right away. We doom ourselves to infinite frustration, reduced to making our souls live full of hardships. The problem is the perspective, of course, but like all perspectives, it can change.
I’ve been writing novels for thirty years. But I never adopted the theory that you have to study the market to know what to write. I don’t experience the “everything at once” because I’m a man of the now old-fashioned customs of “not before you are ready.”
That’s why I…
Parting is painful, but it’s not the end
My marriage is over. I knew that it would happen for a long time and that I would feel disbelief, despite the certainty. I fought in anticipation of resignation.
I didn’t want to. It wasn’t what I dreamed of when we got married in that little church on the Karst. I was so emotional that I cried when I saw her arrive. She cried too — and never stopped pointing out that the responsibility was mine because I started it. She’s right.
It was a heartfelt ceremony, and our friends wept too, but luckily they don’t throw it at me…
If you observe with the right attitude and an open mind, you will see through
A dog taught me the importance of an attentive first look.
Doc wasn’t a dog like others. His way of relating to people was unique, and I never met another dog who behaved like him. Even today, when we first met is an unforgettable memory.
I am shy. By instinct, I look at whoever speaks to me, but if I become aware that I am staring at someone in the eye even for a single moment, I look away. I can’t help it. …
Stop to flounder, only then listen to gurus
Beware of the mind. Guard against the logic and the high-sounding concepts. Be careful with the strategies and all the handwaving on how to be a better person.
They call it self-help, self-improvement, self-development. Everything seems to empower you to improve yourself thanks to a self-(you)-centered philosophy or discipline, but it’s the gurus who tell you what to do. It doesn’t matter that it is you who applies such solutions because they are others’ solutions. You don’t think, just act.
It reminds me of a Queensrÿche song: “Disconnected.”
I have no solutions for you apart from telling you to find…
Any path you choose will do if you believe it
I dreamed I had a choice.
I’m sure it was a dream: I made the right choice.
I’m tired of making mistakes. Although, perhaps, I’ve never been really wrong. I just surrendered too early.
In the dream, I opened a door. The light of a new world illuminated me beyond its threshold. I knew I had chosen well because it was easy to proceed. At every step, I was sure the direction taken was the correct one.
My wonder was as light as the flight of swallows. I felt I was floating on a surface as impalpable as happiness, there…
