Writers Not Writing: How Aleenah Ansari finds the magic in everyday things
A prolific writer who finds joy in film photography and isn't afraid of failure.
You’re reading Soft Hobbies, a weekly newsletter for creatives in all mediums, with a special focus on writers. I’m Auzin, a Seattle-based writer in the fiction, poetry, and tech spheres. Feel free to visit my author website or check out my socials.
Greetings to the 773 softies who subscribe to this newsletter! Thank you for being here.
Welcome to a new series on Soft Hobbies! It’s called Writers Not Writing, where I interview my writer friends and peers about their non-literary hobbies. I believe that doing hobbies outside of reading or writing is healthy, inspiring, and fulfilling for people who write as their main job.
Today’s interview is with my friend Aleenah, who I met on LinkedIn after reading some of her work for Business Insider. I find her career trajectory and dedication to storytelling to be super inspiring — definitely check out her Substack and website.
This interview has an estimated 12-minute reading time, so I’ll let you dive into it! Hope you enjoy our chat.
Soft Hobbies: Aleenah, what are the main aspects of your writing life?
Aleenah A: As a writer, I cover travel in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, entrepreneurship, and representation in media for Business Insider, JoySauce, and The Seattle Times. Oftentimes, these stories focus on the journey and the process rather than the final product. We see people building businesses and writing books, but we don't always know the journey to get there, and usually it's much more varied than you might think. That’s also why I write a lot of Q&As with BIPOC authors and entrepreneurs about their non-linear career journeys or their journeys to get published.
Another aspect of my work is writing interview-based personal essays that focus on answering questions everybody's wondering about, but we might be afraid to ask. This includes topics like: How do you draft a prenup? How do you negotiate your salary? How do you create opportunities by pitching yourself? I'll go out and find BIPOC experts to answer these questions, and then I'll turn some of their key insights and my own personal experience into essays with really clear action items.
I have a tendency to hide behind the stories of other people, so I'm trying to learn how to center my own voice in my writing, and Substack is a great place to do that. Being more vulnerable with my writing has always helped me in the process of writing a book proposal for my future memoir.
I also offer one-on-one coaching to help people nurture their creative voice, build an authentic personal brand, and put their story into the world. If I’m getting the same questions over and over, I’ll host webinars on everything from navigating the job search to building and scaling your business.
Soft Hobbies: Awesome. You do a lot!
Aleenah A: I try! I do!
Soft Hobbies: I would love to know what non-writing hobbies you enjoy.
Aleenah A: I feel like I've monetized most of my hobbies, but I’m trying to do more things for fun just to fill my creative cup. One of my current favorite hobbies is film photography. What I like about it is that you sort of relinquish control in a way. In a world where you can take an infinite number of photos on your phone, film is inherently finite. It’s a good exercise in just taking one photo to capture a moment and walking away. I appreciate that film photography can just exist as-is, and it's purely based on me wanting to capture interesting things.
Soft Hobbies: I love that photography is such a free and open space for you. How do you make time for it? How does it integrate into your day or your week?
Aleenah A: I think my big thing is just always carrying my film camera with me, because I never know when I’m going to see something interesting. When I first started taking film photos, I was really caught up in the cost-per-photo. Film photography can be a bit expensive, usually $20 for a roll of Porta 400 and $20 to develop. That's like $1.11 per photo, and I feel the pressure to justify the cost, which is really hard to quantify.
Now, I try to be more open to taking photos of things that I like simply because I want to capture them. The hardest part for me is resisting the urge to take a film photo and then take a photo on my phone, because then I have the same photo twice. I have to let the process be the process, which is something I'm always learning to embrace. Sometimes, that means that the final photo doesn’t look exactly like what I imagined but when it does, it makes it more special to me.
Soft Hobbies: What do you feel like you've learned from photography that might be applicable to your writing life?
Aleenah A: I started writing because I wanted to capture the magic of everyday things. That’s why I call myself an everyday adventurer—whether I'm at home in Seattle, New York City, or Prague, every day is an opportunity to try something new. It doesn't matter where I am. Similarly, film photography is a great way to embrace the magic of big and small things. It's not just the big moments of life, like when we get married, give a TEDx Talk, or when we summit a mountain.
It’s the moments when we're walking in the park, we're meeting up with our friend after a long time, or trying a new local business. Those are moments that can be celebrated and romanticized, too. A lot of times, the everyday things are actually where I find room to get inspired for the stories I'm writing. If you don't leave room to be inspired by what's around you, it's hard to have the motivation and desire to keep writing.
Soft Hobbies: That's really interesting. I would love to know if you identify as a perfectionist, and how it might impact your creative practice.
Aleenah A: I am not a perfectionist, and I think it's why I get so much done. One of my mantras is “Done is better than perfect.” I think I've never created anything perfect in my life; I think I do the best I can. That’s why I'll pitch stories before I'm fully ready to write it, simply because I see the potential in those ideas. But oftentimes, I'm not writing the story or doing the interviews until it gets picked up, so I have no idea how perfect or interesting or wonderful it will be until an editor responds.
I also try to feel my fear and try things anyway. It’s normal to be afraid when you try new things because pretty much nobody is perfect the first time. My philosophy is that I have to be bad at things before I'm good at them, and I’ll get better at understanding my voice and perspective along the way. That is way more important to me than having something be perfect, because if everyone created perfect things, they would probably all look the same.
Soft Hobbies: Yeah, authenticity over perfection for sure. Do you have any advice for people who do struggle with fear of failure?
Aleenah A: Failure is often considered a bad word, but I try to see every failure as a redirection or a learning opportunity. I don't really feel like I've ever failed at anything in life because I've learned from everything I've gone through.
As a writer who’s always pitching my story ideas, webinars, and projects, failure is pretty familiar to me. I could wake up to three rejections in my inbox a week. Many of the authors I've talked to tell me that they get hundreds of rejections on their book proposal before they find an agent or publisher.
When this happens, it's helpful to understand where that rejection is coming from. Maybe it’s an aspect of your idea that needs to be reworked to reflect the timeliness of the pitch. You may need to work with a coach to keep you accountable, or find a reviewer who knows your genre and can give you honest feedback. If you're able to understand why or where the failure comes from, you can do things differently next time. But if you're “failing,” it probably just means that you're trying.
Soft Hobbies: That makes total sense. I would love to know how you get into creative flow.
Aleenah A: A lot of my practice has evolved into just making time for things. I often use the time commuting on public transit to write in my journal, come up with story pitches, or read a book and take notes on what I love about the writing. And that helps because I'm not forcing myself to produce something for a specific output. It's more to get inspired. I may eventually use what I write an article or a chapter in my book, but I try not to put that pressure on myself. I think it’s kind of radical to say "I'm not doing this to produce something or for an audience. I'm doing it for me because this fulfills me creatively.”
Soft Hobbies: Last question, what's a hobby you would recommend to other writers and artists? Or what's one that you would recommend to everyone?
Aleenah A: Going to spaces in your city that are free, and where you can be surrounded by other artists. This could be at museums, gardens, markets, art walks, or public parks. I recently went on a solo trip to New York City a few weeks ago, and being alone meant that I couldn’t rely on the comfort of just talking to somebody I knew. It pushed me to put myself out there and meet other artists and creatives. I would go to a pop-up, and I would start talking to the person behind me or the person running the event. I’d go to an author panel, and I’d challenge myself to ask a question during the Q&A and introduce myself afterward.
The more you put yourself out there, the more likely you are to get inspired. I invite you to do things alone so you can be more open to meeting other people, embracing opportunities, and seeing things from a new perspective. Carve out space to go to these places by yourself or with others and see what stands out to you.
Here’s a little more about Aleenah:
Aleenah Ansari (she/her) is a Seattle-based queer Pakistani writer and content creator covering travel, holistic wellness, non-linear career paths of entrepreneurs, and representation in media. She believes you can’t be what you can’t see, which is why she highlights the stories of women of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ folks in her writing. Her writing has been featured in Insider, The Seattle Times, Joysauce, and more. She also coaches people on navigating the job search, finding their creative voice outside of their day jobs, and building authentic personal brands. You can usually find her looking for murals, reading a book by a BIPOC author, and planning her next trip to New York. Learn more about her writing, coaching, and what she’s working on through her website, www.aleenahansari.com, and Instagram.
I loved this interview, and thanks so much to Aleenah for her time and her powerful words! I’m excited to continue this series — if you or someone you know is a writer with cool hobbies, please reach out. You can DM me on Substack or reply to this email.
Thank you for reading, and remember to leave a comment if you enjoyed this post :)
Softly yours,
Auzin
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Absolutely love this profile. Aleenah’s work ethic and dedication to her craft has inspired me as a writer. It can be challenging to find time to get into that creative process but she has reminded me how simple it can be to incorporate small moments of creativity and reflection in everyday life to keep momentum alive. Thank you for sharing 🙌🏾
i love aleenah’s perspective in life and how failing at something really only means you’re trying.