Pain and Pleasure of Writing – Confession of a Writer

Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it's like making love while having a tooth pulled - Dean Koontz

I guess the above mentioned quote said it all in one line. Writing a novel is a journey. It begins from a blank page. It ends with a world and its’ people. But how exactly writers cross the path? How they fill out the blankness with words and create an entire world? How?

Some days back a very witty friend of mine had said – ‘If you have the time to read and think blah, blah, blah, you can write a novel.’ I had curled my fingers and prayed for control. No, I did not have the urge to strike the idiot. I had to fight the bubble of laughter that threatened to emerge out at the comment. Man, I truly do have a talent for finding friends. But they help, you know. They give me ideas for blog posts and they make damn good characters.

Anyways, when the urge to laugh died down, I sat back and pondered what he had said. If you have time to read and think blah, blah, blah…well really? It bothered me to realize that the world view us as a bunch of nobodies with ample of time to read and think blah, blah, blah. Frankly guys writing a novel takes a lot more than reading and thinking blah. Blah, blah. It takes desire and unyielding passion.  

If you are not born with the desire you are not a writer. What do you think? Why a group of people endure rejections, mockeries and harsh criticisms and still continue writing? What makes them cry in seclusion when no one is watching and then wipe the tears to write yet another novel or short story or poem? It is passion. We are fortunate or unfortunate enough to born with it. We cannot give up. We are the prisoners of our own desires. But, the strange fact is we don’t want to be free of the captivity.   

So, what exactly do we do? How we write novels, poems, short stories? I am sure about any of you. I can only say about myself. To me it is like the above mentioned quote, a fusion of pleasure and pain. I begin with utter zeal and dreams of being the next best seller. I dream of attending book signings and getting mobbed by the admirers. With this glow I begin writing. As the process continues and I head towards the middle, slowly and painfully, dreams wane and reality creeps forward. This is the time I walk straight into walls (no I don’t call them blocks). I tear the pages and blow the pieces in the air (yes, I write the first draft with pen and paper). I bare my fangs at about everyone. I transform into a whole new person.

Believe me the picture is not nice enough. Writing takes away a lot of things and demands sacrifices. These we do willingly, if not happily. I have given up watching television. Although I have never been a TV freak, I used to watch an hour of TV everyday. That I have replaced with a session of reading. I avoid attending parties unless I absolutely must. Once a month I do step out in style and attend a get together of some kind. These are not sacrifices, I am investing my time into something that matters to me.

So, you see we are not born with all the time of the world. We make times for what we love. If anything, we are always hard pressed for time. You know why? Because we live double lives. We balance day job and writing everyday and survive to tell the tale. Some tales, we never tell. We never talk about rejections and negative feedbacks. These we deal in isolation.

If you are a writer, you must have heard words that hurt. Take them and move forward and keep writing. Don’t let the world pull you down on your knees and keep you there (yes, I borrowed that from my favorite character Rocky Balboa).

This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until its done. It's that easy, and that hard ― Neil Gaiman