Being a Writer

For me writing well makes me feel good about myself. I really feel the jubilation and rush of adrenaline when I get words flowing like water- in harmony and at regular interval. And this is when you find your actual tone and voice as a writer.

Every writer writes in a certain peculiar style which is different from others like some write in a conversational style while some write in third person and some write in first person where you get the impression that whatever they are writing has indeed happened to them. Well, it is the way of putting your argument strongly so that people can understand what the writer is trying to convey.

I feel the biggest job of a writer is to help portray the environment in the minds of his readers exactly the way he wants it. So that the readers may feel and experience the same joy, despair, gratitude, grief and excitement as the writer goes through or the plot demands.

To let words flowing like a stream, it is necessary for a writer to exercise his writing muscle daily. It’s the same cliché at work- to be perfect at something, you have to put in the hours of practice, simply repeat the process daily without fail. If a writer doesn’t exercise his writing muscle, he will soon lose the touch- that mojo and soon the words will flow like there are stones laid to hinder the natural path of that stream.

This situation is frantically frustrating and it gets even worse because the ideas and the imagination also hinder with the flow of words. Yes, you can only write well when all your senses- the writer’s senses (imagination, creativity, ideas and knowledge) are working at peace and simultaneously. Also, I feel when all these senses work like a perfect symphony then you enter a state or zone where you are most comfortable with words and the end product is simply awesome or good, at least.

For us- The Writers- when we write well we know it from inside and then there are days when it becomes laborious to find your voice and tone. In fact some days you feel, this is not your day or probably something is missing but that happens in every profession and artists like writers, designers and creative thinkers have these days more often than normal mortals so it’s pretty challenging for a writer but it’s very common.

Writing demands solitude especially when a writer is doing creative writing where he is putting his experience, imagination, creativity and ideas into words. In fact any person gets most done in solitude because the disturbing souls are far less and there are more chances that your focus is not interrupted. Therefore you shall often find writers- writing in solitude (on the bank of a river, at one corner of a coffee shop or on terrace) and even they don’t like brief interruption from their family members as well. This is how we writers are.

Writing is a never ending process and you only get better with practice and exposure so read a lot and write a lot is the only mantra to be a successful writer. No shortcut, no course- pure rule.