Goodbye Write of Passage

The end of an era...

Hey friends,

Greetings from Delhi, India!

My upcoming book - The Light of Wilder Things - has moved into its last phases. I've reached out to several authors who are providing testimonials for the book. This was nerve-racking because the book was actually reaching more eyes, especially people who are experts at what they do. So, to see their kind words pouring in is surreal. I can't share them here, but you'll see them once the book is published in the coming months!

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This week's newsletter is about something else, though. Write of Passage, the online writing community that helped me launch my online journey, will be holding its last cohort ever. It is the end of an era, and this is a pretty bittersweet moment. 

Write of Passage (WOP) is an online, cohort based course, and writing community. It used to run twice a year, where people from across the globe would gather online for a 5-week writing sprint. On a broader level, WOP taught you how to harness the internet to share your work and develop a writing habit to refine your thinking.

During the pandemic, I came across the world of David Perell, the man behind Write of Passage. He championed the idea of starting a blog and writing about your passions online. The premise was that, by sharing your work online, you could connect with like-minded people and get opportunities in those fields. 

Bound at home, I didn't have much to do, so I decided to give this a shot. Being the nerd that I am, I went down a rabbit hole, learning how to design a basic website. Six months later, I went live, writing an article every week.

This blog landed me a full-ride scholarship to WOP a year or so later. I still marvel at how that played out. I, sitting across the world in India (Write of Passage is headquartered in Texas), got a scholarship because of the writing that I had put on the internet. That's saying something. 

Anyhow, WOP connected me to so many writers across the world. It showed me how to pivot my writing to this online newsletter and lean into my photography, art and other things I was working on. In fact, my minor fame on Instagram and my decision to write my book can be traced to the self-confidence I developed through WOP. Recently, I was invited to Mumbai by the US Consulate to discuss ways of catalysing social change around environmental consciousness—an opportunity I got simply because of my work online. 

A screenshot from a WOP session. Many of the people here are readers of this newsletter (and they have newsletters of their own)!

By developing a writing habit through WOP, I also helped clear up my thinking. Writing forces you to slow down your thoughts and type them into something coherent. That's why I'm such a proponent of writing. If you want to see a change in how you think, start writing. 

While it might be ending now, the principles WOP stands for remain. The internet is an excellent place for people who are passionate about something. Share it online, and the world opens up to you. It's how you succeed in this digital age. 

It stings to see WOP ending, but the connections forged there remain. And on some level, that's all that matters. 

To explore this field more, check out David Perell's Blog. It is a treasure trove for the power of writing and sharing your work online. Click here if you want to see more.

Postcard

This year, my university—Ashoka University—published a field guide I made for them. Over the past 3 years I've spent here, I've conducted regular surveys of the wildlife found on campus and in the surrounding agricultural fields. 

All the while, as I developed the reputation for being "that wildlife guy", people began asking me to identify certain birds for them. That made me realise we needed a resource that anyone could use to identify the wildlife they saw. The only problem was that no one had a comprehensive amount of data to create a meaningful field guide. 

Luckily, I had one from my findings, so I created this resource. Later, the university approached me for the data, and a few months later, we launched this free resource. There are physical copies stationed across campus, and there is an online version free for anyone to download. 

The picture captures my pleasant surprise when I spotted a write-up about my guide at Ashoka's SDG festival. 

PS: The university even interviewed me! Click here to check that out.

Favourite Quote

You don’t just write to share what you think. You write to discover what you think - David Perell

Have a creative, wild and inspiring week!

If you’re new, welcome to The Owlet! My name is Ishan Shanavas, and I am an Artist, Photographer, Writer and Student of the Natural World.

Here I talk about my work, along with curating the most interesting ideas on the internet. I confine them to topics like Nature, Culture, Photography, and Art but often fall prey to other genres.

I would greatly appreciate it if you shared my newsletter and work with your friends. It really helps me out :)