The one piece of advice every Indian author or blogger should heed to

Image Credits: www.policymic.com

A casual Google search could give you many results on advice to newbie authors, but nothing beats this.

One mistake every author or blogger makes is he forgets the audience he writes for. Some write for their friends, some write for an organization or group of people while some write for the world. But let me tell you, that if you write for any of the three mentioned above then you will get utterly disappointed. 

Against common convention, writing was never meant for the world or masses, unless of course you're satisfying a dying man's wish or trying to record a message for future generations. The only person you should be writing for is yourself. Period. If you ask me why, here's why. Because writing gives you something that no other thing can. It gives a sense of joy which only you can enjoy, feel and understand. It emancipates your soul like no other. Have you anytime observed children closely? You play some music and they're on their feet moving to the beat. Do they dance for an audience? No. Do they care if there's an audience? No. Then whom do they dance for? Themselves. Why? Because it gives them immense joy.

When you write for yourself, you'll never get disappointed if people don’t read or comment on your work, since you have already got what you wanted. If people do comment or appreciate your work, take it as a bonus but not as the objective. Secondly, when you write for yourself, you are writing for the one single person you know the best - YOU. If you try to write for the world, your target audience is so jumbled up that it's likely to fall more on deaf ears. Simply put, if you try to make love to the world you’ll only get pneumonia.

Another piece of advice one should heed, which is closely related to the first is being true to yourself. Write what pleases you. It’s only when things come directly from the depths of the heart it touches the heart of the reader. Challenge yourself to convey the exact emotions that you want the reader to feel. If need be Google, read, ask people, visit websites like www.dictionary.com or http://www.merriam-webster.com or simply Google any word by prefixing 'define', but make sure you find the right words to describe the precise feeling - nothing more, nothing less. Till then keep hunting. Once it’s out on paper, use your mind. Format it well so the style is gripping and it makes the reader want more. Blatantly review it and get it reviewed for grammar, sentence construction, punctuation, etc. Edit, re-edit, write, rewrite, crop it & polish it. After all it’s only after a shinny stone is polished it’s called a diamond. 

Tip: This is something I have learnt the hard way, which I wish I had learnt from day one. 

One thing that I do is after I have written a piece I take some time off it to concentrate on some other unrelated stuff and come back to it after a couple of hours or days. Normally when we write, we are filled with the emotions of the moment that words just flow from pen to paper. But while we are in that zone, we often miss out on the right words or the grammar. Getting away for some time helps us to reset our brains and see the same write-up from the eyes of a reader. Automatically the errors begin to show. Remember, when you're too close to a project, loopholes become too obvious to miss.

Once you've done this, you have done your best and have been successful. Remember, success is user-defined. If you have done your best you are successful. What happens post your hard work is beyond your control. All the best for writing that bestseller. 

Is there any advice you follow which has helped you? Please mention it in the comments.

Tips and Tricks to browse the net at lightning speed.

Life is truly very unfair. If on one side you have people blessed with things in quantity much more than they deserve on the other side you have people with barely anything. Apart from the basic necessities of life like money, food and housing this holds true even for internet speed. While the people on the fast lane do and indulge in things online with zip-zap-zoom speed, people like us who are stuck on the slow lane cant do anything except for yelling and abusing (something like honking when you're stuck in chock-a-block traffic). So is there something that we can do to increase our net speed and give us some solace in return? We may not be able to reach to the level of the one’s on a high-speed connection but we can definitely better what we have that too without spending a dime.

Below are some tips and tricks to browse the internet faster.

Optimize your computer:

What's the similarity between a Formula 1 car manufacturer and a carpenter (or for that matter any craftsman)? 90% of the time he works on bettering his tools. The race or the work is just a display or exhibition of his creation. If you do not have the best car or the most sharpened tools you are never going to make it. Let me clarify that this doesn't require spending of money. As I said in the beginning everything you read about here is free. There are tools in your computer that actually do wonders not only where net speed is concerned but even where overall performance is concerned. Tools like Disk Check, Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter when used on regular basis can keep your machine primp and promp. For detailed instructions on how to use them, click here.

Use a fast and bare minimal browser:

Once you have worked on the basics of the car, you have to decide on the fuel. This is important as the kind of fuel you use will decide the amount the power you get. A good engine with good fuel is a deadly combination. That’s the reason F1 cars don’t run on ordinary and easily available gasoline. It’s a tightly controlled mixture with specially added additives to derive maximum performance.

Relating this to web browsers, I would say unfortunately, till now, Internet Explorer is like the ordinarily available gasoline. By using it, you will never be able to get ahead. However, if you have no choice and you have to compulsorily settle for it then I would recommend you tweak it a bit. To do so, click here.

If you don’t have to use IE, then please do me and yourself a favour by switching over to some other browser preferably Mozilla Firefox. Apart from it being fast, the beauty lies in it being open source. That means round the clock there are lakhs of people thinking and working on it to make it better, faster and more secure. In addition, you also have thousands of freely available add-on’s that enable to you to do more in less time. For a list of add-on’s that I use, you can click here (this also covers keyboard shortcuts and download manager).

You can also go ahead and customize it with freely available themes to give it the look and feel you desire. If you're still not satisfied with what you have then you can get your hands oily by doing a little bit of tweaking described here.

Make use of tabs, not windows:

Learn to make use of tabs instead of opening every site in a new window. Every latest web browser supports tabs. If you wish to open a page in a new tab then simply right-click on the link and choose “Open in New Tab” from the option list or simply press the scroll-wheel on the link.

Opening pages in new tabs instead of windows not only helps you switch between pages seamlessly but also saves on precious RAM memory that is used by every browser window that is opened. But this doesn’t mean that you open up a million tabs. Keep it down to a maximum of 5 to keep things neat and tidy.

Browse the smart way:

By simply running your car around the track over and over will never get you the podium. You have to be smart enough and sometimes take the shortcut (legally of course). Why waste time following the beaten path. Be different and think differently.

3NLabs.com is such a website that can get things done in a must faster and easier way. It’s basically a visual directory with all links to websites one visits often. That may be websites for email, social networking, downloads, news, matrimonial, money making and more. Also there's no registration required. So next time before you type in the URL of a website you want to go to, think twice. It would be much easier and faster if you just clicked it.

Use a reliable anti-spyware and antivirus.

Having a race-winning car does not end there. You have to from time to time protect it from the bad guys. A slight malfunction or an outage issue can bring down performance drastically. So you have to be on the watch out.

Many viruses and spyware’s on the internet are designed for this very purpose. They pretend at first to be friends. By the time you realize they are your enemies you have been harmed substantially. To avoid this, make use of a good antivirus and anti-spyware. Also make sure that they are always up to date. For a list of good antivirus and anti-spyware visit the downloads section here.

Happy browsing.