Random thoughts on writing

April 21st, 2008 | by Vijayaraghav |

 

 

Random thoughts on writing

 

 

After I finished reading the blog of Ink Tank giving valuable tips about better writing, I had an urge to have retrospection.  It is tough to have a realistic view on writing as the paradigms are undergoing a constant change.   

 

Writing is a craft. One has to work as an apprentice first and take pains to metamorphose before becoming a full-fledged writer. 

 

A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination. Don’t think that writing gets easier with experience. The more you know, the harder it is to write. 

 

Robert Frost called his art a lover’s quarrel with the world. Ernest Hemingway said a writer must have the probity of a priest of God. George Orwell believed the writer’s task was to set right the injustices caused by what he called the bloody hand of the empire at work. Shakespeare said that all power lies in the world of dreams. John Milton, in a sonnet written on his blindness, described his sleep as being filled with light, but at dawn he was once again robbed of his sight and woke to darkness.   

 

Whatever I wrote were already written in the unconscious by an unknown force. I believe that whatever creative talent I possess was not earned but was given to me by an unknown power, perhaps for a specific purpose, the one that has little to do with my own life most of the times. According to me the creative process is always a discovery.   

 

As  far  as  my  writing  is  concerned,  first  of  all  I write an outline. By writing an outline  you’re  creating the structure of what you’re going to do. Once  you  really know what you are going to write, you will not find much difficulty and the actual writing will not take that long.

Words are more important and words fascinate me.  Whenever I read great writers, I always notice their selection of words and the arrangement of it in a wonderful way.  It’s a fact that nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence with sparkling words.  Words set things in motion. I’ve seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, and charges.

 

Then comes grammar.  Grammar is to a writer what anatomy is to a sculptor, or the scales to a musician. In Edgar Allan Poe’s words, grammar is the analysis of language.  Language screens reality as a filter.

 Then punctuation.  Punctuation is so vital for a writer.  Pico Iyer says that punctuation marks are the road signs placed along the highways of our communication — to control speeds, provide directions, and prevent head-on collisions. It’s a fact.
 

 

When we think about comma the most important fact is that there are places where it must not be used.  I like to use a few commas as possible so that sentences will go down at one stretch without much hassle.  

 

I am not that particular in putting exclamation points. Exclamation points are the most irritating of all. As Lewis Thomas puts it, it is like being forced to watch someone else’s small child jumping up and down crazily in the center of the living room shouting to attract attention. If a sentence really has something of importance to say, something quite remarkable, it doesn’t need a mark to point it out. In Scott Fitzgerald’s words “Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke”. 

 

Now comes semicolon. Most writers enjoy putting semicolons. A semicolon is a compliment from the writer to the reader and it gives a pleasant little feeling of expectancy. 

 

A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. A sentence is both the opportunity and the limit of thought — what we have to think with, and what we have to think in. 

 The purpose of paragraphing is to give the reader a rest.  Short paragraphs put air around what you write and make it look inviting, whereas one long paragraph can discourage the reader.
 

 

Good writing is essentially rewriting. Some writers actually say they don’t revise, don’t believe in revising. They say their originality suffers. I don’t see that at all. The words that come first are anybody’s; you have to make them your own.  In this context I remember the valuable words of Dipankar Sir. While commenting on one of my blogs he stressed the need for more polishing by saying that “I think you should spend more time polishing your writing. At least, that’s the way I feel one should write. I take a long time to write and then wait before I post. Even after posting, I keep revising almost everyday. As I said, this is an entirely personal viewpoint”  

 

It’s all the more difficult to write a blog every two days with a perfect and polished structure. But it must be our endeavour to polish our writing before we post it. The time constraint stands in front of us as a hindrance most of the times, but we have to overcome that to bring about a quality blog.   

 

When I think about rewriting, I think about Derrida and his deconstruction. Deconstruction was initially formulated to define a strategy for interpretation of writings and art.  Initially I was totally confused about the term deconstruction and looked around for help.  I could grasp some valuable information through the writings of Mark C Taylor, a professor of the humanities at Williams College. The guiding insight of deconstruction is that every structure – be it literary, psychological, social, economic, political or religious – that organizes our experience is constituted and maintained through acts of exclusion. These exclusive structures can become repressive and that repression comes with consequences. Derrida showed how these repressive structures, which grew directly out of the Western intellectual and cultural tradition, threatened to return with devastating consequences.  By struggling to find ways to overcome patterns that exclude the differences that make life worth living, he developed a vision that is consistently ethical.  Derrida also taught us that the alternative blind belief is not simply unbelief but a different kind of belief – one that embraces uncertainty and enables us to respect others whom we do not understand. In a complex world, wisdom does know what we don’t know so that we can keep the future open. 

 

How far I am successful in bringing out clarity about the purpose, which involves writing, is totally depends on your judgment, but I enjoyed the exercise.   

 

I still put my learning mode intact to bring about more clarity and sincerely hope that you all will take some time and indulge in such an exercise to meet the reality.