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Writer to Writer

Bharti Athray

The First Steps

One of the easiest things to do is to tell yourself that you want to be a writer and then just keep reading about it. The tough thing is to actually start writing. I have wanted to be a writer ever since I was in school. However, although I have finished school and have been working for over eight years, I still haven’t managed to establish a regular writing habit.

Every once in a while when things aren’t going too well, I sit down and force myself to pull out the old diary, get the pen and start putting words to paper. Unfortunately, as those are the days when all is not right with the world, I find my writing comes out as a stranger’s. I have been using writing for too long as a catharsis. I use it to think, when there are too many bats flying around in my head and I have no clue about how to get them out. That is when I find myself writing, but I am unable to sustain it.

I browse the Net for hours, reading what other aspiring writers are saying, reading what the guys who have "made it big" are saying and I get inspired. I want to write; but I can’t. I can’t make up my mind whether I want to type it into my computer or whether I want to write in my book. Decisions like these get in the way, and before I know it I find myself saying, "Well, it’s okay, I’ll write it down later."

The truth is, though, that later never happens. My poems float away. I never really get down to capturing my characters on paper. I observe life and hope my memory and imagination will store everything for the day I begin my short story but my bright ideas walk out on me when I need them most. It’s terrible to be a writer in the making, to want to write but not to have words.

Yet, at least today, we writers are not alone. We have the Net. We can reach out to each other, read each others' works, comment and share. It is the Net that restored the writer in me today as I sat surfing the Net for writers’ sites. It feels good to know I am not alone, that there are others out there, struggling as I am, learning as I am, to do what we all know in our hearts we are born to do: to write, to give words to thoughts, feelings, experiences that enable us to connect with someone else somewhere.

Maybe this is just one of those rambling articles, one of those feel-good attempts I make when I am trying to get back to writing after almost a month of silence. Still, it feels good just to know that the words are there and I can use them if I want them.

If you have been feeling a little un-writerly lately, don’t worry. These are writers’ growing pains; few of us can wake up every morning and find a fully-formed story to write about. What you can do is read and find some story or a character you want to comment upon. I believe the important thing for us writers is not so much to think about the story or wait for inspiration but to just start writing. Once you start penning down your thoughts, writing your experiences, you are writing. Keep doing this long enough and you will find a story starts to emerge. The rest of it, the serious plotting, the characterisations, will happen over time.

Too many of us read the Handbook for Beginners and never get beyond the synopsis. Never mind the synopsis, that’s for the pros who already know where their story is going. When you feel an urge to create a story that will move someone to tears, laughter or shock, get those ideas out of your head and on the paper! Once you’ve played around with it, then start getting serious; put it into structures and formats. But write, write, write! Don’t worry about what others will say. You have captured a thought, an emotion, an experience that no one else will ever be able replicate because it’s yours. What you have to say is unique. Find your voice and say it. Talk to the reader. That’s what writing is all about.

A further pointer: don’t edit it as soon as you finish. Wait. Move away from it, then come back to it later. See if it still sounds as exciting to you. Then edit out the things that don’t seem right anymore. Keep doing this until you feel good about it. Once this happens, you have taken your first step to becoming a serious writer. That’s what I did and this is my voice! Get into the writing habit, and you will find your voice too!