Notes for the myself

I recently quit my job to embark on an adventure about what it feels to be a writer. It intrigued me, what writers do. How they do it. Is there a way or a process of doing it? If there is one, I would like to know it. If there isn’t, I would like to know that too. The mystery was getting too much for me to handle. So I quit. One day. Early morning as I woke up. I remember I was still rubbing my eyes when I went out of the door for what turned out to be a 2 hour walk in the morning. I left home and then I reached home again.

And now I am confused. How do you do something that you wanted to find out how to do in the first place. There’s no way, so you make a way. You walk aimlessly. Hoping something happens along the way that gives you a clue. You looks for clues essentially, like the clues you got, like the voices you heard in your head when you didn’t know how it feels to be a writer. You trust that voice.

But you know, those voices and those clues, they come and go. Sometimes they are gone for a long time, and you have grave doubts. You have already left your job. Were you duped? Was it a literary cupid that was taking aim?

But then they show up, unannounced. Like an old lover, who went away without bothering to say where or why and who lands up at the doorstep one day just like that, you are relieved and happy at the same time to see them. You welcome it. But then you know that the clues and the voices can’t be trusted so much. So you plan to do something about it.

You log on to the internet.

You find writers giving you fabulously vague answers about writing as a craft. It sounds like good fiction, much like their writing and just as convincing.

Trouble is, they are all contradictory, with all sides making perfect sense. So you log off the internet. Perhaps, the best thing you have done since you decided to write. Stay logged off, at least while you’re writing.

But for the sake of those who might be reading this, and who hear such voices in their heads these are some of the things I read, watched, saw…

1.          Writing is not just inspiration but if your own writing does not inspire you to add, delete, edit etc… if you feel just relief having done it, perhaps you are not a writer

2.      Writing is work… it’s like waking up at a designated time and following a routine. You feel the most energized in the early parts of the day and write stuff that is crackling with wit, sarcasm, energy etc. But a book ideally needs to have low pressure points too, where the reader relaxes while reading. Those may be you can write in the dreary afternoons after you’ve had your long lunch and a short siesta… But mind you, you can never get boring. Of course, find out what works for you.

3.       Writing is an all-consuming process. You inhabit a world that you yourself have created. It’s being objective and subjective at the same time, most of the times, in a way that seems fantastical and believable. So you have to believe your own make-believe. It’s cerebral and you have to feel it at all times. You think of behalf of characters, make them interact, give them voice, make them do stuff, kill them etc… This you gotta gotta love doing. The mere idea of creating fictional characters must enthuse you. Draw on a lot from your real life.

4.       You’ve got to write… I mean you have to write. You want to write something that people would love. You must have a plot that interests you, characters whom you want to explore more, perhaps understand the human motivations for doing whatever you are making them to do. Be kind to them, just as you might be kind to a friend, who under circumstances acts rudely. But then don’t cut them too much slack. YOU HAVE TO PUT WORDS ON PAPER.

5.       Words… You absolutely have to love words. While it’s not true for all writers, personally I love writers more who just love words, using them tenderly and cleverly and affectionately. You have to have a feeling for words, where you know why you’re using one word over the other. How deeply you understand words and how sensitively you use them will create the tone of the story. Words like furtive, stealthily, yearn, glide, grimace, pillage, waltz, ravage, gingerly etc… these words should mean things to you, they should evoke emotion and create scenes for you.

6.      I know writers say this a lot and I don’t know yet how to do it but find your voice. I don’t know how you do that but I guess you find your voice when you are true to yourself and the way to stay true to yourself is to discover what you fear and keep it close. Open up and prepare to embarrass yourself. Be vulnerable. Write for yourself but imagine the reader to be a trusted friend.

Happy writing!