Sunday, August 17, 2014

MUST WRITE.MUST WRITE.MUST WRITE.

Writing should be a ritual, a famous author says. Otherwise, you can't live to tell finish your tale.
Oh, who am I kidding? No author said that. That's my limiting belief., right there.
My impending, yet delusional belief that I have another fifty years or so, to live. Fifty years is enough to write a write a 300 page novel right?

"I wouldn't be lying if I said I couldn't relate."
Credits to the owner
Meet my worst enemy, he's called Procrastination, and he's also my best friend. Here I am, with a dozen ideas blurring through my head as I take the bus to college, when I'm writing an exam and even when I'm the world's most jobless person.

Yet I don't pick up a sheet of paper and a pen, actually write them down. Here's the conversation that goes on, between me and well, um, me.

"Oh my god, what if he did that, and the story starts with a young girl who sells flowers everyday?Or, ohhhhhh, the story could have a minimalist poster theme! I should start writing it."

THE OTHER ME:

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaahh, the sofa seems pretty comfy right now, and what if , when you get back with the pen and paper, the cushions move ahead? Maybe, you should have a concrete theme before you start writing. Oh, Oh, I have a better one. You should read more before you ACTUALLY start writing."

(But wait, here's the best one)

"The mood doesn't seem right, I think you need to wait for the right setting,so that the story will come to you."

-----------------------------------------End of Conversation----------------------------------------------
So, as you might have guessed, I'm having a small problem. Regardless, I thought I'd move my behind and atleast rant on something than lying on my bed, sulking about how my story hasn't "come" to me yet.

(Sometimes, I want to slap myself, honestly.)

So, I went on the best thing ever invented, and key-ed in my search, and I got this book :The Five-Minute Writer by Margaret Geraghty, and it has successfully helped me write, three days in a row.
The book in itself is conversational and has a lot of quirky exercises which aren't too uptight and clichéd.

For instance, the first exercise asks you to write about a ritual, anything that you follow strictly, in your daily life and the author explains the exercise in less than a hundred words.However, the chapter in itself is around 8 pages long, and oozes just the right amount of inspiration to get those gears going.

Here was my first piece on "Rituals":
The passage to a perfect day
It’s the usual groaning every morning for me, when I feel the harsh streaks of sunlight interrupt the surreal scene where I’m embraced by a handsome man. Perfect timing, right?
Once my faced is laced with the blinding light, it’s bye-bye to bliss. Grudgingly, I wake up to madness, where there is chaos, yelling and cat fights (literally). There’s one solution to this, something that has always been with me, something that I can never get rid of, even if I’m late to college or an appointment by an hour.
Waking up to my earphones and my phone next to me, I wake up deciding what song to listen to. Slipping my earphones in, I continue to do everything else- brushing my teeth, grabbing a cup of coffee, and even during exams, studying comes after music.
I like the escape, the ethereal scenes that run by my eyes, which beautifully accompanies the music that revolves inside me. My day starts with revelations about people, things, concepts and maybe even the world. Music and words are the answer, and this gets me through the day. Every day.

                                                           ------------------------------------


Now, before you walk away,there's reason to this rant. Every time I meet someone who loves to write, something inside me catches flame.It dawns on me that I don't necessarily write all the time. Does that mean I don't truly love to write? That I can't be a good author?

But I love the way words speak when actions can't. It mesmerizes me how in a few hours I can be a protagonist, share their fears and even have the same nightmares they have. It fascinates me how I can be there, and back, and how I complete lose sense and meaning to my life when I close the hard-bound cover.

Words move me,wait. Let me rephrase that- Stories move me and I can't exactly explain how that makes me feel. 
I'll leave with this,though and one inspiring man said this : " If my goal is way up there, and I dance for atleast 10,000 hours, I'll reach the bottom of the mountain."

And this is just the start.


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