Thinking About Writing

Thinking about writing is not writing. Planning to write is not writing. Going through your writing is not writing. Editing your writing is not writing. Compiling your writing into a book is not writing. Making notes about writing is not writing. Even making an outline about what to write next is not writing. And reading about writing is surely not writing.

For the past few months, I have been doing all of this, except actually writing. I hope this phase doesn’t continue for a long time, though it has already been a few months. It has been long enough for it to have kind of become a habit. It is not something that I like.

What else does a writer do but to write, every day? Most people have this vague idea that writers write when they get a flash of inspiration or the muse arrives, and lo and behold, then they write, and the rest of the time, they do something else. Well, in reality, that is not how stories or books happen. The only way creation of writing happens is when you sit and write, word by word, paragraph by paragraph, irrespective of inspiration or the muse coming. And if you do that long enough, they usually do come.

For a writer, there is nothing else to do but to sit and write. Well, not really. There is always something else to do. Just that there is nothing else useful to do for a writer other than actual writing.

So in the past few months I have spent doing many such ‘something else’s’ which a lot of people find useful but, for a writer, they are, if not a waste, at the very least a loss of time. I have been doing some projects from my past life of data and consulting. (Thankfully, it still interests me a bit, and there are clients who are still interested!) And I have spent time in reading, quite a lot. And in compiling some of the stories I wrote earlier this year into books. That’s how you saw three books getting released this year, including the latest Bend in the Road. But believe me, most of the writing of these books was done over six months before they were released. And in watching some television serials looking for some characters and for some stories and for some inspiration (none of which I have found yet!). And in travelling which I always enjoy because there is always something to see and do in this big, wide world and it always inspires (This time it was Bhutan!). And in getting interviewed by my alma mater where there was intrigue about a computer engineer alumnus turning writer (which was a pleasant surprise!).

So I did all these things which weren’t uninteresting. Quite interesting they were, honestly. But they were everything except actually writing.

And now after a long time, I have written this small article which is, basically, writing about writing. Which is still not writing, in my view. So I hope I get back to real writing – the stories again. One day at a time. One word at a time. One story at a time. One book at a time.