Write About What You Know!
As someone who identify as a writer, I don’t write nearly enough as I should; I tried everything, setting deadline for my self, using my social media to trap myself in challenges and giving myself motivational speeches, the thing that pumped the most was the thing that I believe works the most, reading.
The things I read inspire me, but they also trap me; I often end up losing my mind over a poem, an article or a book, sometimes even a simple tweet, and I end up considering them brilliant pieces of literature that I can never match or live up too.
Oh I forgot to mention one small little detail.
I write mostly and specifically for myself, I write things that I enjoy reading, I write about things that I find interesting or maybe I should say I think about writing things that I enjoy reading.
I guess I am a selfish writer!
The other important piece of advice I got was to write about what I know, and as the years passed I began to notice that element in the works of my favorite authors, they always start with one simple idea about a feeling, an idea, or just a random fact that have a personal experience with, and they build on that, the good ones always add a layer of research to it, they list down every shred of information they have on the subject, and then they use this information to reach a conclusion or in some magical pieces they circle back to the place they started in, they use these new found info to see things from new perspective, and just like that you find yourself in front of masterpiece, simple, right?!
I wish it was that simple, all the advises are good until we are faced with another blank page, and you have to dig up new words so you don’t end up using the same expressions over and over again.
Another important part of writing that we don’t talk about enough, language!
What if you have all the ideas, experiences and patience to tell stories, but your language is weak?!
This is especially a sensitive topic for me because out of all the problems one might face, this in particular is nearly impossible to solve, your language is the sum of the things you have heard and read throughout your life, and not all of us had experienced the richness of Altayib Salih environment or have read as many books as tamim al barghouti, and for someone like me, whose both languages I speak feels inadequate to convey the feelings and ideas I want to write about, all I have left is work or stealing someone else’s style and if I wasn’t so bad at the later it would have been my choice!
The thing about working on your language is I haven’t got the hang of it yet, what is actually considered work verses the last minute resorts, I think I am good at last minute resorts, I write in the last minute and I re-read my paragraphs looking for redundant words and meanings and I always have a tab to dig up synonyms and I ask google about everything, was my topic ever explored by another writer, I copy paste paragraphs to make sure that no one drawn the same conclusions before.
And I mostly wonder how people used to do it all before google, how they worked without knowing what surrounds them but then again, maybe it’s a race where you only win when you run blindfolded.
I have no interest in wining, I am too attached to my surroundings to risk closing them off, but I am mostly sick of closing myself off as well, so I shall use this space to share the things I know and see on a daily basis and to learn along the way.
