More thoughts on writing

I have been meaning to write something for a while now. Pen down some thoughts for my own clarity.

It has to do with writing. The hardest thing.

In 2015, due to a combination of events and my own foolish enthusiasm, I found myself without a job. So I thought that the time was right to do something I have always dreamed of: write a book.

I had never attempted writing a book before. I did not know, and still do not know how to write one.

Back then, I wanted it to be a work of fiction. There were some characters. Some of them interacted, a story of some sort took shape. I was wild with excitement. I was finally a writer.    

During that period, I wrote religiously every day. I aimed at writing 500-700 words a day. And mostly, I succeeded in achieving that output.

Still, I was doing it all as a lark. It was fun. It was daydreaming done with words.

The book was also an escape for me, from my recurring anxiety of not having a job.

In this post, I want to write about what I have learned from that period of writing, especially with the benefit of hindsight.

Writing a book is hard. At every step there is doubt.

For a beginner who has had no formal training in writing, it can be both blissful and an ordeal.

It would be too grand to call my learning insights, but here they are. I will elaborate on each on them in subsequent posts:

1. Do you start with a story or with characters?

2. Good writing and a love for words are two different things

3. Writing a book and writing a movie/ short story are different things

4. Plot twists are divinely ordained and if the writer is routinely coming up with cracking plot twists, he’s special

5. Writing good dialogue is the true test of the skill and depth of the writer

6. Being physically fit helps the writing as much as reading widely