So You Want To Be A Writer

So You Want To Be A Writer (By Charles Bukowski)

If it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
Unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
If you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
If you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
If you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
If you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
If it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
If you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
If you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
If it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

If you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

Don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
The libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
Don't add to that.
Don't do it.
Unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
Unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

When it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

There is no other way.

And there never was.

~ Charles Bukowski

Technology... Gave me a Voice.

So, my blog turns a month old today, and it couldn't have been a more perfect occasion for one of my write-ups to get published. The whole thing being special since this particular article is about everything that this blog personifies: the courage to assert an opinion, an idea. 

I wrote this article for a friend's internship, and it surprisingly turned out a lot better than I expected. 

Thank you Devlina for giving me something to write.

Technology... Gave me a Voice.

“Heema, could you be a little louder,” my friend said, embarrassed, cutting my speech midway. “I’m so sorry, but your voice is just so soft… I can’t hear you!” she said apologetically.

This friend in question was sitting a few centimetres away from me.

I’ll be a lawyer in a few years, I thought. With a voice like that, how am I supposed to scream “I object!”?

Would the opposition hear me? Would the judge hear me?

There are SO MANY things I object to, in life. I object to women being treated like a commodity who belong to some male or the other throughout their life. I object to the fact that they are blamed for every big and little act of violence and injustice done to them. The list goes on.

In our real, non-virtual lives, women may not have a voice. Their views and opinions are suppressed by the gag of patriarchy. But it’s different on the internet. In real life, our voice may or may not be heard; but on the internet, there’s a hope, that someone, somewhere, will.

I like the fact that technology makes me heard. That I don’t have to modulate my voice here and it’d reach my voice across countries, across barriers. Whether it’s when I see my blog receive hits from people across the globe, or when people ‘like’ my views on social networking sites, (the same views which I’d have kept to myself from the fear that they won’t be heard) it instils in me the confidence that it doesn’t matter here whether I’m soft or loud. What matters is that I have an opinion.

Someday, I’ll have the strength, the courage and the confidence to raise my voice. In real. And say that I object, loud enough for the opposition to hear.

Till then, I have the internet.

You can also read the article here: http://www.achievewithdell.in/FullStory/976/0/Heema-Shir../

A Writer's Block... Why do I write?

What's the most difficult thing a writer has to deal with? Starting a book? Maybe. Completing a book? Kind of. Editing it? Not really. No, none of these is a match to that one thing all writers inevitably suffer from at some point of their life. Oh yes, it's that dreaded thing called a writer's block. It's like an unwanted guest. It comes uninvited and you won't know how long it's here to stay. Its more frustrating than a nosy relative, and it's more unfair than having to work on a holiday. Yet, its like the flu. You have to have it at some point in your life.

Oh, the annoyance of having a writer's block! One minute your head is buzzing with ideas... So much that you cannot decide what to take down. Vivid and elaborate thoughts swim tantalizingly on the surface of your head, urging you to attend to them. And then the next moment, *blank* nothing. You don't know what happened. But your head is empty now. Hollow words float aimlessly. Lone thoughts drift across without a direction. But there is no 'Voila'! The Voila that's responsible for binding and merging these thoughts and words into a beautiful piece of writing. Then you have a choice. You either fry your brain till it comes up with some respectable writing; or you just... wait. Wait for the phase to go away.

But what is the compulsion for writers to write? Maybe because it's their bread and butter, or maybe because it's their passion. For some, it maybe the fame and the money, while for others it's about the appreciation.

For me, writing is about inspiration. The greatest appreciation for my writing would be when it inspires others. The greatest reward for it would be when it inspires me. 
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Says Maya Angelou. But you know what's worse? It's when you want to express something, but the right words fail you. Those powerful expressions capable of translating your exact feelings elude you. It's when you are not able to deliver an idea in the right words; and delivering it in any words less than perfect is an insult to the idea.

Yet, the beauty of writing is in what it creates. Sometimes, writing can help you overcome a writer's block, by writing about a writer's block. Or at least, deal with it. And that is just what I did. Writing this post may not have done justice to what I intended. But it made me overcome my unwillingness and reluctance to write while going through a writer's block. And that, is nothing but inspiration to me.

Sometimes, writing cures its own predicaments. 

And this, ladies and gentlemen,
is why I write.

http://www.writerbabu.com/post/4365/a_writer_s_block_why_do_i_write?_/