On Writing.

Time: 9:57 PM

Look, I’ll be honest with you, I am not that great of a writer. In fact, I cringe when reading some of the things that I have written in the past. Not all of it, of course. Some are good, I’ll admit. Boast even. But hey, this is besides the point.

You’ll ask me, hey Pravesh, why so much of introspection today? Anything special? And I’ll answer. Nope. I always introspect. It’s nothing to do with a special day. The sole reason that I began like how I began was to teach you about a single most important thing. How to write.

Yes. Most of you have got a great potential. Much greater than my puny one. But while I boast about five or six articles under my belt (relatively unknown, but published publicly (yes, I mean Medium) nonetheless). What about you though? What do you do with that potential of yours? Barbecue it in winter and gulp it up with the wine of i-am-just-not-good-enough?

Look, writing is a simple thing really. There’s nothing much to it, you just gotta write. Yes! It’s that simple! Why do you think I mentioned the time in the very beginning of this article? It was the exact time when I started writing this and I want you to take my word for it (however flimsy you might consider it) that it was the correct time of my beginning of this writing. You know what I thought when I started writing this? Hey, why don’t I write? And that’s what I’m doing. I’m writing.

Granted that alcohol sometimes makes it easier. It’s truly fascinating that they somehow managed to bottle courage as a liquid. Science, huh? But the greater thing is your willingness. You just have to do it man, really. Vocabulary is also quite important. You gotta think your vocab as your special little pouch where you keep your feelings. After all, writing is about expressing yourself. So the more words that you have, the more you can express succinctly.

It also brings me on to the next topic. Be concise. No one wants to read a wall of text that conveys very little meaning. It’d just be a waste of time. You gotta be engaging. Don’t confuse it with humor though! It’s an entirely different concept. Engaging is like presenting what you want to present in a way that just doesn’t bore your audience. Humor is about making them laugh.

I am a few minutes into writing this blabber and look at how much progress I’ve made! It helps if you have a fast typing speed :D :D (120 wpm, I am shitting you not). You know, I tend to speak faster than most. Those who meet me have a tendency of repeating “I’m sorry, what!” I consciously dial down my speech rate but whenever I get excited, I just end up muttering blabbering this really rapid unintelligible garbage. To all those who have faced that part of me. Sorry guys.

Now to wrap it up. Do you realize what I have done? I have written. And written it really fast. Of course, I’ll end up cringing when I read this later but hey, for now, I wrote something and that is what counts really. I want you to know that if and when you repeat this kind of tomfoolery often, you’ll eventually end up writing some things that will not make you cringe after all. And that, ladies and gentlemen, would be a pleasure to read. Would it not?

Time: 10:10