Artistic Recipe for the Craft of Writing

It was a fantastic end to another simple and usual day of my life. So many like-minded people, abuzz with questions and experiences, different apprehensions and many solutions to approach them. It just made the writer in me feel more beautiful and comfortable by being amongst so many birds of the same feather.

An invite to a workshop for writers at Mocha, an initiative by Grey Oak publications, Urban Shots, Westland Books and Blogadda was one awesome experience.

Always willing to attend such sessions I never happened to make it whenever these events and opportunities occurred. But this time I just got lucky because of my brother who got this invite in his mailbox before I did. And each day I eagerly waited for this event to happen.

The gathering was small and kicked off with the peculiar situation, which writers often face, when we are restless with a pen in hand and a blank paper staring back hard at us. Though the thoughts were boiling and brewing, but they were not yet pouring to fill the empty sheet that lay like a virgin, desperate for a unison. But almost in another 10 minutes we could sense that this aromatic and hot coffee was surely going to turn out to be just fantastic.

The Venue was Mocha, Defence Colony and to guide us were present, Fiction Writer Maryann, Food Blogger Rekha and Social Media Manager Aashish. A blogger, a manager and a fiction writer is all that one could ask for to get the recipe of writing right.

The gathering too was interesting ranging from students who were well read and had drafts of stories written, to professionals from advertising agencies to some avid tweeple, who shared and discussed about the common connect- the art of writing.

Largely it was a good sharing event, which left me inspired enough to leave my thoughts racing.  The outcome of the same was my last post: ‘Hear your calling…’ and an introduction to my new blog address: ‘Mywordworks... an introduction.’

A sparking thought

                      

          Creative spark is an outcome of accidental connection of loose thoughts!!!

Life is good and so are you…

Just when I though I don’t have much in life. I’m not quite blessed and happy, as are other people around me. And while I envied friends and acquaintances of having a real happening life, I found a bright-new streak of jealousy flaming bright. Quickly I nipped it in the bud and stopped myself from getting into the non-reachable shell of inferiority. And pinged a friend. After the usual icebreaking-greetings of hey!, wssup? and howdy?, we actually began to talk from where we left last. The strings of conversations began to play again and we were ourselves. Remembering the good old times (which is human nature to reflect and smile at the past), we had the common grounds to begin talking about life from there on.  

We had our own set of ups and downs, though it looked pleasant from our facebook profiles, but life had played dice with each one of us. And that's how life is. 

I read this quote somewhere recently, which is originally by Jon Acuff,

“Never compare your beginning to somebody else’s middle.”

And it just set the ball rolling for me, straightened my line of thoughts, gave my confidence a new shine and my low-being some light.

We often look at others and envy. We look on the surface and begin to pity our lives. But often we forget to acknowledge the story on the inside, which we would never know. Every thing in life comes for a price. There’s sacrifice for every victory won. And pain bore for every glory. Fight behind every love story. Failure precedes every success. Dark always marks the dawn. And there’s a lot of pull back and warming-up before every launch.

You’ll find the grass on the other side always greener. And when you do so, step on the other side to envy yours own.

Life is good and so are you. Be yourself and live it on your own terms. Stop comparing. Stop judging. Give your ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ some rest. Understand and respect your situation and how you have pulled it through so long. How bright your decisions were in those heated times in your life? There’s no another you. And no better could have managed it through.

Yes, you write your own destiny, but you must also know how to go with the flow. Give your horses some rest. Take it easy and find some time to thank God.

Go for it.

When life gets boring and mundane, surprise yourself.

When you lay dormant in your comfort zone, push yourself to the edge.

When usual gets monotonous, try random things.

When you feel lost, pick up one thing that will bring you back to life and go for it.

A shot, gives you a new aim, so you can focus and for once take a chance of doing something that you haven’t dared till date.

Challenge your limits, face your fears and break your zone of ease and plunge into an undiscovered territory of you.

Don’t let apprehensions make you conscious. Allow no worries to hold you back. Shake off the thoughts and memories that bind you…and go for it.

So, even if you fail tomorrow, you’ll never regret of not trying.

Battle of the Ages!

If you were to take a sneak peek into my state of mind at the moment, you’d find a cocktail of thoughts and emotions. Seems like I am stuck in the legendary battle of the ages, between two sets of generations. One B.M. (before M.E.) and other A.M. (after M.E.); where M.E. is My Era.

Irrespective of which category you fall in, I’m sure you’d be nodding your heads in affirmation. Coz I know almost every individual at some point in time has felt the same.

Yes! This has been the dilemma of one and all generations. More the gap, larger is the difference in value system and beliefs. But amazingly all are right. And as I quote ‘right’, here’s another debatable topic- What’s right? Who defines it? Is there a base to which the comparison can be drawn? And the moment we begin to set base, representatives from all ages would have whole lot of interjections to make. And there will be comments on circumstances, availability of resources, education, mind set, exposure, etc. and each would go on defining: ‘right’.

Nevertheless, the most common and favourite dialogue between the 2-gens remains the same.

B.M. : We had limited or less resources & education but we had strong value systems, quality thoughts, qualitative education with strong basics and immense patience. We respected elders, never raised our voice in front of them. We were hardworking and focused in life.

But the M.E.’s and A.M.’s lack in all of them despite abundance in resources and education. They have no routine, don’t take healthy diet, are always after gadgets and don’t value what we say but are always after friends. We say things out of our experience, but they think we are fools!

A.M. : We have more resources & exposure that’s why we are more technologically sound, broad minded and outgoing. We like taking risks & stretching our limits. We look at other options than just being doctors, engineers, lawyers and professors. And we know, even you wanted to do so but then you did not talk back to your elders, not even to put your point across.

‘Respect’, we give to those only who deserve it, who give us respect too and we do not believe in showing it off.

Routine is boring to us. We do same things at different times and different things, each time, every other day. Hardworking is passé; we work smart. For you G.K. was General Knowledge, but G.K. to us it is Google Knowledge or Greater Kailash market.

Healthy diets: we have more packed products, more junk, adulterated food, busy and fast times. But don’t worry, we are coping up well.

And thanks for your advice, though we appreciate it more when we ask for it, which we seldom do because we listen to friends more.

Everyday you want us home coz its paradise. And if you think of yourselves as fools, we are definitely living is Fool’s Paradise.

M.E. : (Speechless)

(Not because, it is hard for us to take our stand. Not because we relate to some of both sides. But because all are ‘right’ in their perspectives and given circumstances. Agreeing to both the generations at different points, and trying to make our both world’s meet, we fight our own struggle.

The moment we back A.M.’s, we are told that we’d face the same situation some day and then we (M.E.’s) will realize the sentiments of B.M.’s. And just when we support B.M.’s, an anecdote from our lives is tossed towards us by A.M.’s, where we had defied the B.M.’s and they had given into our demands.

And we stand there ‘tongue tied’ between the ‘battle of the ages’.)

We all know that ‘change is constant’, yet we find it hard to acknowledge. With every passing phase in life, our expectations are soaring high. We start looking up at our experiences & achievements, but never forget to look down on that of others.

Why this battle of the ages???

Will it ever end???

Or we all will keep it alive and keep striving???

Guess ‘showdown’ is basic human nature.

They keep contemplating the past and manipulating the future, while the present if they look at is ‘decent’.

Still Waters

Illusions in still waters are striving to flare,

Tied and lonely, they conquer despair,

A hint of a ripple and a stream of hope,

Illuminates the drab and expels loath,

Thoughts ablaze with vision of the day,

Across the stagnant, exclaiming hurray!!!

Congrats! A complete aberration is fertile again. Rejoice!

Wonder if it happens often with writers... that after a point in time, one feels famished on new thoughts, ideas and even words too. You might understand the relevance and intent behind what needs to be expressed and to whom, but as you begin to craft it out on a sheet of paper, words betray you, emotions-escape, the tone is lost and thoughts lay crippled. And you feel no less than a complete aberration!

Soon, to free yourself from this uncanny situation of derailed senses, you try n-number of activities to revive the momentary loss of focus and creativity. And then begins the search for some inspiration, and much like the saying “nothing succeeds like success”; I believe “nothing creates (inspires creativity) like creativity”. But, while you jostle for those satiating pieces of great art, you hop from one writing, to another video, and to the next song, further to a great collection of photography and so on.

Though jumping around with little or no attention to what you are absorbing from each one of them, your impatient-craving for that completeness, makes you a crazy rover. Hovering around in search of an adhesive that will make-whole, your fallen pieces, to complete and make-believe yourself; you begin to scribble yet again and to your amazement you have the problem in front of you, trapped in words and solved, for you blabbed it out, and finally it sits pretty as a blog-post, glaring back at you in awe.

Congrats! Discomfort and disruption has given birth to innovation yet again and made you fertile...Rejoice!

Thoughts in the dark

In numbness of the dark,

a zillion thoughts rev up,

denying to settle, defying all limits.

Untamed and mindless they meander into nullity,

all by themselves,

searching for sanctity.

Naked and true,

they are original and innocent,

oblivious of expectations,

they fear not nothing.

Thoughts that wander,

in the stillness of the night,

structured in words, on paper they alight...

An Introduction to EXPRESSIONS!

How often have you found yourself stuck amidst a situation, where you’ve not been able to put your sensations, sentiments and thoughts into words?

Especially if you are an introvert, an emotional person, a person with a different frequency, thought process, a person who chooses a path un-tread, one who has a different perspective, or to simply say…a person who knows no comparison but just loves being oneself and is in a never ending quest of discovering and evolving.

This blog is an attempt to give words to the real time thoughts and sentiments- experienced and observed.

Un-ignored ME!

Flipping through several pages on web, my focus I feel is a little out of place. After long my mind is set free from work and I’m finding it hard to write for myself.

Weird are these words coming from a person who is a writer by profession but that’s what I believe happens to most of us. A conflict like this is a peculiar scenario, especially for those who have creative instincts, whom I quote as Unstable Creative Elements (UCE).

I often wonder how one can survive with myriad of thoughts jostling in your head. The moment you grab one idea and begin to pull it through, you are beckoned by another in an insidious manner. Trying not to let go off the first one, we stretch to grab an end of the second one too and snap goes the sound in your head… as if a third thought flash-passed through you, giving you a swooning fit. Whew!

Yes, it is true little focus and lots to do. Priority shifts position every second.

These dissipated rays of innovation, hope collate some day, to illumine an unseen path, so I can take a sound walk with my thoughts in peace, listening to them and crafting their untold stories. They have longed my attention and even I’ve waited for them till long… Hope someday I find peace in the lap of nature, brimmed with tranquility, feeling one and complete…all by myself, with an un-ignored ME!