Why we ought to write..
..and save a generation!
Over a lifetime, we read a lot of books. While not all the books have an impact on our life, they help us in some way or another. Some help to gather knowledge, some improve our vocabulary or understanding of the language, some make us better storytellers and some provide solace. But we hardly ever write to prolong the utility of that benefit. Which kind of explains why many people have great ideas but do not know how to showcase that to the world. In this piece, I will try to articulate the need for writing and the problems plaguing this art.
I believe that written words as a means of communication have got us this far as a species. All the borrowed knowledge from our ancestors would have been lost if everything was passed on orally. Can we imagine how primitive our lives would have been without this knowledge?
All the books and scripts on science, medicine, entertainment, literature and many other fields preserved, assimilated and presented over thousands of years are the pillars of our understanding of this world. These works have taken shape from experiences and inspirations of the respective authors over years of drafting and conceptualising.
The content we read and cherish from our favourite writers today has probably gone through many layers and filters of their sources of inspiration, sources we may have never heard of, but still remain crucial in completion of that work and thereby also in improving the human condition of an entire generation. We all cherish C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy but not many of us have heard of Olaf Stapledon and his work which inspired Lewis to write the trilogy.
So what we write and share — no matter how miniscule or incomprehensive as long as written with intent and conviction — serves as an inspiration in pouring into the cauldron of wisdom and knowledge sprinkled over later generations of humanity over a period of time. Doesn’t that thought make you feel that we owe it to our future generations to pass on that knowledge? That there is this need to write — both as a power as well as a responsibility?
With that thought, I also realised that we as innate writers face some inherent problems which deprive us from writing. Here are a few that I have highlighted with solutions that have worked for me.
Problem of attention
Over the period of a day or a week, we generate a lot of ideas, build viewpoints, create rules and principles for a way of living for ourselves among many other thoughts. And although we rely heavily on our memory to recall them at a later convenient time, we end up misplacing them in our minds because we have rewritten other thoughts over them.
So now, that ONE great idea which had the potential of becoming a brilliant product or a business idea and could have changed your life and/or probably of many others, needs to be revisited from scratch instead of being built upon — or even worse, is lost forever.
This happens all the time to all of us. We live in a highly distracted world (predominantly because of the social media) which is begging for our attention for every living minute of ours. Coping with that attention while focusing on the ideas is ‘strangely’ difficult.
Writing them down, making notes of the problem at hand, creating a framework of tackling the problem with plausible solutions helps to clear your mind and look at the whole situation with a completely different lens!
- Keep a diary and take notes all the time. When you find extra time during the day, add pointers to it. Build on the premise. Keep making changes to it. Over time you have a workable draft. Try this instead of stitching together all the bits and pieces from memory.
Problem of (mis)communication
Great many speakers and writers have time and again expressed that the best possible way at becoming proficient at communication is to write. Why? Because writing (and I mean good writing) brings clarity to conversations. It fosters better collaboration in a social setup and reduces ambiguity. It is probably the best way to express our views. Not always do we find a platform to speak and express our viewpoints on a particular topic. But we always have means available to write and share.
I write because I like words and how they give meaning to what we have to say in a way our primitive means of communication (read hand gestures and cave paintings) could never accomplish. Ever since I could read and write, I was always intrigued by the origin of words, phonetics and the coming together of the linguistic patterns to make sensible prose. I love how abstract ideas can be condensed and laid out onto a piece of paper that would drive my imagination and plant seeds of fascination in my mind to explore that idea even further.
Many of us don’t write because we either think that it’s not good enough to deliver your message or that it’s not going to find acceptance in a larger group. But this is a relatively easier problem to solve.
- Just pick a pen(or a laptop) and start writing.
- Don’t start with setting big expectations. You write for the long haul. You are not going to write a literary masterpiece that would become a bestseller or a research paper that gets you a honorary doctorate in weeks. Start with baby steps. Pick a platform and write everyday.
- Share your work. Be open to criticism and filter out feedback that works for you.
Problem of validation and compensation
On your journey to becoming a good writer, you also realise why you don’t want to write.
I have witnessed so many fellow writers fall prey to social validation. A common metric to gauge our writing effectiveness has been the extent of likes and forwards on the different platforms. And the number motivates or deters a writer to keep going. This should not be the case.
Yes, we want our readers to like our content and share it further so that more people can enjoy. But that alone cannot be the source of our writing. The motivation to write lies within us.
- Write for yourself and nobody else. You build your audience along the way.
- Write because you have conviction in your words.
- Never forget your origin story. Ask yourself — Why did you become a writer in the first place? And keep reinforcing the answer everytime you have a doubt.
And while the feedback we receive should help us pause and introspect, we should certainly never stop based on a few nasty comments.
Another problem is of making money from your writing. I call it a problem because that sometimes serves as a start and end game for many wannabe writers.
Imagine Kurt Vonnegut giving up his writing career to restart his 9–5 job at GE because there were bills to pay. Or Charles Bukowski not continuing to write until his work was first published in his 50s because his words failed to feed him.
It’s probably important to understand that your content goes through many filters of recency, trends, platform biases, topical biases among other barriers. And its a long ended process. You will eventually get there if you write regularly and with greater conviction everyday.
In fact, I would be wary of people throwing money at my work based only on a couple of ‘sensational’ articles I wrote which caught the attention of a lot of people. The sensational work that gets you money and the associated short term gains of fame and stardom take away your freedom to create that kind of work again. Nothing fails like success.
- Stay true to your work and find joy in your writing.
- Do not strive to grow very fast. Enjoy the process of learning.
So go ahead and pen your thoughts and share them with the world. All you need is the right intent, a bit of creativity and whole lot of persistence and you can weave the most beautiful of dreams.
Thanks for reading and see you in the next one!
