Words of Wisdom from Author I.M.Soni about writing.
Writing: is it perspiration or inspiration?
Written by Author I M Soni
Many greenhorns nurse the notion that writing springs from fitful spells of divine inspiration. Writing comes from ‘perspiration.’ It is a craft which needs patience, practice and skill.
Good writers aim at readers. They have goals, not vague desires. They do not write to inflate their vanity; they do it to communicate. They write not to impress but to express.
Alastair Fowler aptly says, “Good writers may simply be those who imagine their readers best and keep their readers in mind most continuously. If you have potential readers in your focus, accessibility can’t be in doubt, nor your tone and clarity.”
Readers are intelligent : They are hard to convince, skeptical, and inclined to misread what you write. If you are not up to this, you may have to fall back on E.M. Forster, “No author has any right to whine. He was not obliged to be an author. He invited publicity, and he must take the publicity that comes along.”
Robert Browning sent a poem to a publisher who returned it asking him to explain some lines. The poet replied: when I wrote it God and I knew the meaning. Now, only God does! Obscurity in writing leads to oblivion. A greenhorn is not Robert Browning.
The English language can laugh, sing, ripple and flow. The ultimate reality is mind expressing itself. This is the aim and purpose of all communication. True there is dynamism in words which can be used to polish style. Words are needed to dress up ideas.
Most people think good writing depends on “mood” forgetting that is a tyrant, a good slave, but a bad master.
Some writers wrote outdoors while they walked. Tagore did in early hours in his garden. So did Gibbon. Walking promotes rhythm in composition and flow in recollection. The intellectual effort is most effectively made early in the day. Morning is the best friend of the Muses.
If you are tormenting yourself to express, wait till the flow becomes natural, smooth and spontaneous. It is easy to be difficult but difficult to be easy! What a writer needs most is to write.
Cultivate your own “magic”vocabulary. You may have words you like so much you want to use them at all costs. If so, it’s a good idea to avoid them. Read your copy carefully and mark the most ornamental words. Then delete them!
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