You deserve time to write and be creative.

That's what I offer with Write on Track.

I believe that anyone who wants to be a writer should be able to. Poor people. Brown people. Immigrants. Women. Young people. Muslims, and Hindus and Jewish people. All people.

But that’s just not the reality. Unless you were born wealthy (not me) or spent decades building up a nest egg (me), it’s nearly impossible to spend your working day doing creative writing.

I can’t solve that problem for everyone. But what I can do is help would-be writers spend whatever time, energy, and focus they have at the end of their long workday, on writing. That’s what I try to do here at Write on Track.

The way I grew up, I had no role models of people who could support their families through creativity. I’m an immigrant and though my parents love the arts, they discouraged me from pursuing art as a career. It’s just not a practical path for a lot of people.

If you’ve ever lived through financial insecurity, you know that not having enough money to fix your car or replace the water heater is painful. I was determined to not let that happen to me.

So, I picked a career that I knew would give me the stability I craved. I became a lawyer. I thought that being a lawyer could be a way I made a difference in the world, and still be able to pay my bills.

Early on in my legal career I realized I’d made a mistake. I wasn’t “making a difference” by defending large corporations in lawsuits. But I was in six figures of law school debt, and any hopes I had of having a different career (let alone a creative career) was just impossible. I felt trapped.

On my drive to work I’d listen to podcasts like the Unmistakable Creative which featured stories about people who dumped their corporate jobs to pursue wild new occupations like teaching calligraphy. I dreamed of doing what they did, but I was scared of defaulting on my law school loans.

I’d try to do creative things after work. But every time I opened up a blank page I was terrified I’d never write anything worth sharing and so the words would stay trapped inside me.

I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t know people who could help me. I didn’t know how people managed to earn money with art. I felt too defeated to give any creative endeavor a real chance.

Adding insult to injury, I discovered in my first year of law practice that, try as I might, I just could not meet my billable hour requirements. In a 10-hour workday, I couldn’t focus long enough to bill clients for more than maybe four hours of my time. I kept spinning and spiraling until I finally saw a psychologist and learned that I have ADHD. (How I managed to graduate from law school without a diagnosis is a story for another day).

So I toiled on. For years. I graduated from law school in 2016. Now, almost seven years later, I finally got the courage (and the savings) to leave a law career behind and pursue novel-writing full time.

I try not to look back at my life with regret. There’s no perfect “track” to a writing career. I’ve come to believe that wherever I am is the right place to be. I’m right on track.

But I tell myself, in all those seven years, if I’d had the right mentors, resources and a community to support my creative aspirations, I could have been honing my story-telling skills all that time. I could have been writing after work, or on the rare weekend I wasn’t working and had the energy. But I just didn’t know what to do and where to start.

I want Write on Track to be a home for other creative people who love to write but struggle to find time, energy, or inspiration. I want this place to be what I wish I had seven years ago.

Here’s what I offer.  

I will be your gladiator.

Once you know you want to pursue creativity as a career (or hobby) all the online gurus will rush in to try and tell you how to gain huge followings and make a million dollars. Many of them are charlatans who are preying on your dreams to make a quick buck.

In addition to giving you bad advice, they’ll give you watered-down basic advice that you would have found for free had you not fallen into their sales funnel.

When it comes to these folks, I put on my lawyer hat and scrutinize the facts. I suss out the fakers and redirect you to the people who actually provide information-rich, actionable advice. One of my most popular posts ever is one where I freely share the generic Substack growth advice that some people charge for and point to the growth influencers whose advice is worthy of payment.

Substack Growth Advice That Doesn't Suck

Some part of me will always be a lawyer. I went to battle in the courtroom. Now I go to battle for you.

I will guard your time like a dragon hoards its treasure.

I have a toddler and there are limited hours of the day when I get to write. If I didn’t have a child, I’d spend my whole day working.

And that’s not because of toxic hustle culture. It’s because I love writing so much, I want to do it all the time.

I want to maximize time usage as much as possible so that I can write. I want to get all of the life admin garbage that is required of adults done as fast as possible so I can write.

I have extra challenges because of my ADHD. But I am resourceful and motivated, so I have identified tools and strategies that make writing possible. I share them with you.

This free tool will save you from 100 hours of bad movie watching.

I even like to make sure my free time is enjoyable. The above post is about making sure that movies I watch are actually good.

I am honest about my mistakes so you can learn from them.

I struggle with learning the craft of writing, and I share my challenges so you can avoid those traps.

How I Get Myself to Sit Down and Write

I mentioned that for seven years every time I tried to sit down and write, I couldn’t get words on the page. Well, after seven years of experimentation, I finally found some strategies that get the words out. I share them in the above post. Give that a read if you have similar struggles.

I get vulnerable, so you have space to feel seen.

You are not alone. I tell you about my humble immigrant beginnings and my career path so that I can be the example that I wish I’d had seven years ago.

This was the moment I knew I had to quit law to become a novelist

In the above post I write about the questions that helped me understand what I was willing to do so I could have the life I want. If I had known this about myself years ago, I would have had the courage to make some changes in my life earlier on. Even if I couldn’t quit my law job yet, I would have made more time and space for what really fills my cup—writing.

I want you to feel like you have a companion on your creativity journey.

When I write these letters, I write them to myself seven years ago. Letters to my former self. If you identify with her even a little, I invite you to stay here and let me share with you the ideas and stories that I know Noor from seven years ago needed.

Your creativity gladiator/dragon/confidante/Greek-hero-mentor,  

Noor

This is how I image Andy Warhol would paint me