As writers, we often come across roadblocks in expressing our thoughts effectively and trying to articulate what is in our minds. At this juncture, The Economic Transcript was very happy to have an interactive session with Mr. Nikhil Kamath. He is a content strategist who helps brands expand their digital presence across platforms and the author of the romance novel “It Was You…Always”. He is also a passionate environmental activist and conducts workshops for students to improve their writing skills.
The session started in a pleasant manner as we built a rapport with Mr. Kamath as we presented our work at TET and what we do. He in turn introduced himself and his work. He told us a funny story of how people began to confuse him online with another, more famous Nikhil Kamath (of Zerodha Broking Limited), and how that inadvertently expanded his online presence and helped him. He later talked about his background and his experience with professional content writing and blogging for more than 11 years. He expanded on a few simple but effective techniques to communicate via blogs.
Showing us a picture of a cloth hanger, he explained the key concepts of the hook, setup, conflict, and resolution. Stressing the importance of a good hook, he reminded us of how that is the key to attracting readers to our content.
“A story without a Tag/Purpose is an anecdote fast forgotten.” To keep a reader interested in your work and reading it until the end, we need to bring out a purpose for our story. Mr. Kamath showed us how important an anecdote is for hooking the reader to the blog. He then told us about the genres of writing he has explored, namely food and travel, romance, and sports and spoke about how important it is to identify our areas of interest and those that we feel we can work on. His food blog “The Salt and Pepper Food Guide” grew out of his own interest in exploring lesser-known food locations, street food, and restaurants.
While writing things that are of our own interest, it is important to observe what kind of writing resonates with the audience and to stay consistent with what you are offering them. Lastly, building a connection with our readers involves building stories around ourselves. Mr. Kamath suggested taking 3 qualities about ourselves and constructing a storyline around it.
His presentation was followed by a Q & A session with our writers and editors. One of our writers asked a pertinent question about overcoming our biases on political and religious issues, to which Mr. Kamath responded by highlighting the importance of thorough research and not intentionally hurting our reader’s sentiments. The common issue of writer’s block and scheduling our work was then brought into discussion. He explained how important it is to sometimes take a day off to refresh ourselves when working with brand strategy and long-term goals.
Lastly, we asked him if he had any advice for the 19- or 20-year-olds of today. Speaking about his own personal experiences, Mr. Kamath told us not to take everything so seriously at such a young age and empathically warned us not to do unpaid internships as they are mostly to exploit the talent of the youth. One should have a sense of value of the work they are putting in and demand an adequate stipend for it. He also talked about volunteer work and the responsibilities that come with it.
Overall, our interaction with Mr. Nikhil Kamath was enriching, informative, and enlightening, providing a lot of us with insight into content creation and building our presence in the ever-changing digital world.
Written by Alan Joseph
Edited by Yashvi Vasani
