The Writing Trap

Talking about writers—there is a lot of noise these days in this dual social life that we all live. Amongst us are students but in our insides, we are writers - guarding a role and juggling with a writer inside. There is a lot of noise. The noise is depuration for some, chaotic for others; but everything comes down to what we create and for whom. For us, it comes to the stories we tell and how we celebrate our wins and losses together. We all understand each other here. Our community cares, you care and that is why we bring forward those phrases that swim in your head and put you in doubt or stop you from telling that story. The descriptions are to help you discover; the titles are to make the discovery worth it!

You are your story. When you tell a story about your day, do you portray yourself as a hero? Or are you the victim of circumstances? Or imagine if your life were made into a movie—would it be a comedy or a confession? Storytelling is not about what you wrote, but about how you perceived an event and how you narrate the story. Perception is the key. Your story could detail how you moan and cry about humiliation while another writer may turn it into a funny anecdote. You are your story. It is the person in you who you bring to the surface. There is a lot of positivity in you and it will reflect in your characters and your plot. As Storytellers, our end goal is to be able to create magic. Those endearing moments that many may miss out, You as a storyteller capture them and make them eternal. You bring out your story and your story is the perception you create. 

 The baker's rule. Ask a baker how many go’s it takes him to finally bake perfect croissants or ask a fisherman how difficult it is to catch a bonefish. Or ask a cello player how long it takes to make sense of music in the noise and the rigorous training of a ballerina. Nothing is easy. Nothing should be easy. Writing that story is difficult, you know and we know. To make it yours is more difficult to make it the greatest is even more difficult. But as a writer, your best will take time to build. So whatever you create today should reflect your future coming.

Only you know what you want to express. The art of expression is an integral part of storytelling. An expression is a combination of our inner thoughts and feelings with what we perceive in the outer world and how we put it into words. A funny thing about expression is that you may feel a much-burning desire to express yourself, but a lot of people have quite a bit of trouble writing down what they’re actually feeling. Or in other words, they have difficulty expressing themselves in written format. It is understandable, given that most of our language is action based. It’s interesting how a nod can mean yes, no, not sure, thank you. Whereas a written yes can only mean that you agreed. In the action based language, your reasons come secondary and your actions are primary. Whereas when you are writing you build up to the action of saying yes. So there is always that gap. What becomes very important for you is that, while telling your story your reasons act as the gateway to your expression and then action. You can help your expression technique by working on your—

1. Choice of words

2. Your tone. 

Do what you love and love what you do. The one thing you have judiciously been doing is writing. You’ve emptied your consciousness onto several pages. Now, all you see is a legion of words. You’ve known them all this while, and you’re too invested in them. Do you still want to fear the dreadful question: What if nobody likes what you write?  Do you think it is worth it to hold back your story after all that you have given it?

Become the critic and the reader. Take up the dual role—it’s not a challenge, but a technique to become a better writer. When you become your own critic and reader, you realise that criticism is a (butter) knife to the throat, that dissects your vision and ambition. But we become better only with the help of critics to nudge us back on track. One of the ways is by slipping into the skin of a critic. But fluctuating between the two, the writer and the critic, is not merely a challenge, it is a technique to master. It is a path to writing better.

Sleep and Procrastinate, It will save you. There’s another technique to good writing, and it may be one that we all follow. Sleep and procrastination. Sleep is  “a vice for productivity, it can be a virtue for creativity”. Adam Grant, the author of Originals, talks about his research on procrastination in his TED talk, and briefs on how it makes you think in nonlinear ways and make unexpected leaps. A little delay is great for the burst your elusive creative genius needs.

The core of writing is a clear thought process. Therefore, if you receive a scathing rebuke, it is a reflection of your intentions and thoughts. Make certain that your audience gets it. Be as clear as you can so that you don’t have to double-check your intentions. How you play around with words is your choice, you don’t have to spoon-feed your readers, you can be as ambiguous as you want, but any room for misunderstanding will spoil what you’re aiming for.

This might be exhausting, but there’ll still be some grey areas. After everything's said and done, you can still be in the dark as to how the readers will like your story. There is a way to overcome this last barrier by knowing one thing—yourself.

State an opinion of yourself. Create a theme for your writing, a broad one. Address your flaws and evaluate your talent. The areas you excel at, the areas you don’t, the part you need to understand. You don’t have to maintain just one theme, but an interplay between two or more themes. Then look into your creativity, word choice, grammar, appeal, structure, etc. You have to build an effective plumbing for the water to flow.

Every day is not a happy Sunday. Have you ever wondered how so many of us are writing love stories and yet we all want a part of Romeo and Juliet in our characters? You want their sincerity, their capacity to dissolve the meaning of love within us. And it’s true your inspiration drives you but every story you create is your best foot forward towards your inspiration. You may have written something good but your good will always differentiate itself from your greatest contribution, and that happens over time when you are on your way to creating history. Take today as a path that you are on and your onward journey will help you reach your greatest. Remember that whatever you write is imperfect. And no matter how much energy you expend, or how euphoric you feel, it will remain imperfect. When you have accepted that, the errors, which you wish to delete, will make themselves clear. 

Stop Comparing. Here’s an honest idea everyone shares - stop comparing. Your science fiction novel cannot be equated with one of horror. Your life and experiences can literally not be someone else's, so why compare them? You experienced moments to varying degrees and wrote down what you felt at each moment. It differs with each individual. Stop comparing, it’ll make you insane.

Your only real fortune is when you’ve written down the few paragraphs, each day. That’s your reward and wage. That is your success, and comparison will lead you astray. You need to like your work first and then open it for interpretations. It will help you correct yourself and once you let yourself correct your work as a critic you will be able to find more technicalities to go over. Technicalities like- How about running a simple grammar test? nothing fancy. The image your work produces, it's the first impression (never forget to format). Follow this, If the bracket said (never forget to format) the reader would still have your attention. But the italics may give them various interpretations- a stress of the tone or the reader may just feel that you are wanting to plant an idea. As much as this was your intention it is a distraction for the reader. Because you can't gauge the movement of the thoughts. You can just pass them on. Which you as a critic should be open to correct in your work. Like, replacing the ‘i’ with an ‘I’, taking care of the tenses, keeping it simple yet stylish for your reader.

After all, Everybody is different and so are their interpretations. The moment you write a story and it is open for the readers, step away, read your work in a detached mode. There will be a part of you which will always be attached to a story but make room for suggestions, help, feedback, criticism and applaud. The interpretations are never going to be a 100% accurate, and nor will the criticism be a 100% constructive. Feedback and suggestions are positive and constructive, and when those come your way, they make your story better. Don’t be hassled if your story is not interpreted in a way that you imagined. It’s not on you. 

The fountain pen theory. The fountain pen is the foundation of a good cursive handwriting. The fountain pen theory here is a simple observation—you have to refill the ink to start over or to continue writing. And you need to do the same. Give your ideas and yourself a break whenever possible. Detox your writing. Because here is something we all face—an obsessive critic that dwells inside us. You can be a critic of food, fashion, music, or art. We cosy up to it when we’re in our territory. We become these experts without ever wanting to be one, just out of sheer passion for the subject.

Don’t curb the passion—use it to refuel yourself. When you detox yourself from continuous writing you open yourself to an in the moment observant and sometimes only that ‘pause’ is necessary to refill your ink or mind. Give yourself time. Good ideas need time. This is probably the toughest pill to swallow, but it is most essential. Step away from your writing for a few weeks, or months. In that duration, write something new, or do something new. Travel, paint, cook. Your brain needs to declutter. You’ll conform to a new perspective, one that will help you rank your words and plot. Your life is your research—live it.

You know well where to find your readers. Click on start writing and create some wonders right here on Launchora. There’s a whole community to help you out. The Bar and The Garage are places where you can revive your writing, with the right help from a diverse reading public.

What are you waiting for?