Why do we write? Why do we indulge ourselves to this tedious and painful process of writing?
Most of the writers will argue, "We write because we love it." Really? I had known people who expressed their deepest love for writing and when I encouraged them to write, they dozed off after figuring out the 'Title' of their story. If I reminded them about the story after few months, they showered me with excuses like pigeon shit on a parked car.
I was so freaking busy, I didn't even had time to breathe.
I was out of town man, my laptop broke down and I lost my files.
My wife wanted me to be serious about life and stop wasting time.
The screen started giving me headache.
My Therapist told, writing will escalate my problems.
I was in coma.
And the best excuse "I am stuck, Writer's block."
"But you wrote only two sentences describing the weather."
"I know, right. I will figure it out, actually I am thinking about it 24/7. Even right now."
So presuming that the expression and quantity of love is subjective, we can look for more appropriate questions i.e. How does the love for writing develops? When and how does it start? At what level the love actually becomes a passion?
Trust me, it is not easy to write 120 pages of screenplay, 300 pages of a novel, 24 pages of a sitcom script or even 500 words of a blog post, if you don't love writing and rewriting until you get the final draft. I love writing and that is exactly why I sat down to write this post, right after finishing 8 pages of screenplay. What compels me to do that?
In the olden days, writers were mostly reclusive, silent, pondering, listening, observing, introvert kind of people. Nobody would notice them in a bar unless they were famous, but even then they would pretend to be social, be precise and observant. (The reason why most of the writers used pseudonym, because they wanted to be mysterious, away from the limelight in their own little solitary world)
The only way for them to communicate freely with others were through their literary work. They wrote brilliant articles, short stories, poems, plays, books etc. in order to simply talk to people. To express their inner beliefs, thoughts, opinions, rage, fear, love, sympathy and thousands of other emotions. These were the same people who were ignored in a large gathering when alpha males and females took over the stage. They started using another tool for communication - Writing. First they spoke to themselves, thinking, digging their past experiences, writing relentlessly and once they were done, they started giving out copies to others. People loved it because emotions are universal.
It worked. They were communicating and talking to people about what they believed in and for once people were actually interested and even paying for it. They loved it and it became a passion for them because that was their window to the outside world.
The world became smaller and communication became easy. Everybody have tons of things to say and writing obviously became a business rather than a personal commentary of an isolated kid. It is thought in universities and branded as an art form, but still not a lot of people can write. You still need solitude to love this tool of communication, and more you detach, the more passionate you get about writing.
You might argue that millions of writers emerged in the past decade. There are millions of people publishing books on kindle and amazon, writing blogs and articles, screenplays, sitcoms, plays, short stories etc. Internet had made the world smaller and communication made easy, then why is there a spurt of so many writers.
It's true. The world advanced and the people became lonely. They are more in numbers than ever and they all need to be heard. They are using the writing tool to communicate. They get attention. They love it and then it becomes passion. Ultimately we all need attention and to be heard.
Most of the writers will argue, "We write because we love it." Really? I had known people who expressed their deepest love for writing and when I encouraged them to write, they dozed off after figuring out the 'Title' of their story. If I reminded them about the story after few months, they showered me with excuses like pigeon shit on a parked car.
I was so freaking busy, I didn't even had time to breathe.
I was out of town man, my laptop broke down and I lost my files.
My wife wanted me to be serious about life and stop wasting time.
The screen started giving me headache.
My Therapist told, writing will escalate my problems.
I was in coma.
And the best excuse "I am stuck, Writer's block."
"But you wrote only two sentences describing the weather."
"I know, right. I will figure it out, actually I am thinking about it 24/7. Even right now."
So presuming that the expression and quantity of love is subjective, we can look for more appropriate questions i.e. How does the love for writing develops? When and how does it start? At what level the love actually becomes a passion?
Trust me, it is not easy to write 120 pages of screenplay, 300 pages of a novel, 24 pages of a sitcom script or even 500 words of a blog post, if you don't love writing and rewriting until you get the final draft. I love writing and that is exactly why I sat down to write this post, right after finishing 8 pages of screenplay. What compels me to do that?
In the olden days, writers were mostly reclusive, silent, pondering, listening, observing, introvert kind of people. Nobody would notice them in a bar unless they were famous, but even then they would pretend to be social, be precise and observant. (The reason why most of the writers used pseudonym, because they wanted to be mysterious, away from the limelight in their own little solitary world)
The only way for them to communicate freely with others were through their literary work. They wrote brilliant articles, short stories, poems, plays, books etc. in order to simply talk to people. To express their inner beliefs, thoughts, opinions, rage, fear, love, sympathy and thousands of other emotions. These were the same people who were ignored in a large gathering when alpha males and females took over the stage. They started using another tool for communication - Writing. First they spoke to themselves, thinking, digging their past experiences, writing relentlessly and once they were done, they started giving out copies to others. People loved it because emotions are universal.
It worked. They were communicating and talking to people about what they believed in and for once people were actually interested and even paying for it. They loved it and it became a passion for them because that was their window to the outside world.
The world became smaller and communication became easy. Everybody have tons of things to say and writing obviously became a business rather than a personal commentary of an isolated kid. It is thought in universities and branded as an art form, but still not a lot of people can write. You still need solitude to love this tool of communication, and more you detach, the more passionate you get about writing.
You might argue that millions of writers emerged in the past decade. There are millions of people publishing books on kindle and amazon, writing blogs and articles, screenplays, sitcoms, plays, short stories etc. Internet had made the world smaller and communication made easy, then why is there a spurt of so many writers.
It's true. The world advanced and the people became lonely. They are more in numbers than ever and they all need to be heard. They are using the writing tool to communicate. They get attention. They love it and then it becomes passion. Ultimately we all need attention and to be heard.
