I have been going through a lull phase on this blog. I am writing sporadically, queuing up a lot of drafts but hardly publishing any. Am I going through another writer's block? I doubt I am. Instead, I am just being lazy.
I recently heard Javed Akhtar talk about how writer's block forges writers.
There are many people who could be very good writers. But when you start writing, even veterans – I know very big literary writers who have been very close. They write a page and feel, “What is this t...
Interviews with celebrities are fascinating, but not for the questions they are asked about their craft. Even though the answers are insightful, they are too polished most often. They lack crudeness and, hence, authenticity. On the other hand, random, personal questions on likings, habits, and anecdotes catch the celebrities off-guard. It shows on their faces and their responses. I ignore the incidences when it doesn't show.
Every so often, I like to treat myself as a celebrity. As in the inter...
I am leaning towards a theory as I stay away from all the social timelines these days. There are more writers on the web today than there are readers. More words are written and published by diverse voices on the internet than there are people following them. Responding to them.
Writing on the web feels more like shouting into the void. Words tend to get lost.
Why else would I find some gems of the posts every day that are not recommended by anyone? Or on any forum. On social timelines, most p...
I published less number of posts in 2023 (183) than in 2022 (346). Why did I write almost 50% fewer posts?
I gave up on the system that worked for me earlier. I didn’t stick to any for long. I forced myself to write daily. But then I also let myself slack for a day. Before I knew it, I was missing repeatedly. I wrote daily. Then I didn’t for months.
Does it matter that I wrote fewer posts? What if I wrote longer posts? Isn’t more number of words better? Shouldn’t I find out if I did?
It is, a...
I came across this brilliant quote from Leslie Lamport: “If you think without writing, you only think you’re thinking.” It’s simple yet so meaningful.
Writing reinforces my thoughts. It won’t be a stretch to say that I understand my thoughts only through #writing. Distil them. Before that, they are just fuzzy noises in my head.
While in school, my teachers would force me to write down what I learned to help me remember it better. We students were made to write chapters multiple times to learn...
Today, I began reading Writing Is My Drink by Theo Pauline Nestor. I don't remember the last time when a sample of a book attracted me so much that I purchased it right away. I connected deeply with the experience and struggles that Theo was sharing about her writing journey. Or specifically how she found her writing voice. Of course, her struggles were far more severe than mine, given her profession as a storyteller, working for many publications.
This specific passage had me nodding all along...
A few days back, I read one of my posts from 2007, which instilled a sense of nostalgia in me for the simpler times. It also took me down a rabbit hole as I skimmed my archives and wondered how my writing had changed through this period.
I have loved all forms of my writing. I still do. I enjoy microblogging; it gives my unformed thoughts an outlet. Then there was a time I wrote a lot of fiction. As I said during my Micro Camp talk, I have also written my fair share of imperfect, stupid posts....
I no longer am the prolific blogger that I once was. I won’t comment on everything that I read these days. Or post every thought I have.
I read what a few people write and realize maybe I am not as natural a blogger as I thought at one point. Writing doesn’t come naturally to me. Knowing that English isn’t my primary language, I knew what I write in the language won’t sound natural either. In my school, even my English teacher didn’t speak in English. English became my primary communication lan...
Don’t write for others, write for yourself. Most long-time writers give this advice to someone who is just getting started. Actually, screw that. Every person who does any amount (and form) of writing gives this advice to every other person who wishes to do some form of writing.
Easy advice for others, but very difficult to follow oneself. To be frank, what does “not to write for others” even mean? Or write only for yourself?
I write when my mind blanks out. I write when my mind gets crowded....
A common sentiment shared by most bloggers is that blogging is not supposed to be work. It needs to feel natural, flow freely, like a mirror reflection of a writer's mind. It must be a stream, a log of a thousand thoughts published on the web as they arrive. They do not need any adornment, any context. Because this medium is first for self. Write for yourself is the first suggestion every person publishing on the web gets.
I do connect with the sentiment, yet I believe the suggestion doesn't ad...
I have always believed that anyone can write. Life throws at us many opportunities to express ourselves in words — something short or long, in public or in private. It is incumbent on us to grab the chance.
Colin Walker had expressed a similar sentiment while summarising his lessons from his Write365 challenge.
What does matter is that we communicate, that we share, that we express ourselves so that others can understand. What does matter is that we don’t isolate ourselves behind a wall of sil...
Recently I read an article by Nick Bilton that announced, or at least inclined to, the demise of the pen. “Fare Thee Well, My Pen”, the headline read.
It claimed “the pen is murdered by finger”. It claimed today’s technology driven world rarely gives us an opportunity, or rather rarely necessitates us, to use a pen. It claimed we use fingers on touch screens/keyboards, a proven superior alternative by few, to perform most of the jobs.
In the end, it made me wonder if that really is true. Do I...