The joy of writing

If you find the following sign on the noticeboard of a school, what will be your feelings?

Important notice

No writing will be done in this school with immediate effect. Any student caught writing anything in books, on the walls or white boards will be punished. All students should learn absolutely without writing!

Principal

There are students who hate writing. For them this will be a piece of good news. For others who cannot spend a day without writing, this is really bad news.

Skimming through the pages of a popular Sunday newspaper I found an amusing advertisement that announced: "Learn English absolutely without writing". In other words, the advertiser has excluded one of the most important skills in language teaching.

Is writing a vice? What will happen to our civilization if we stop writing? Why should we write at all? These questions pop up from time to time. But have we cared to find the answers?

Despite the advice of some wayside pundits, people cannot live without writing. In our private life and business dealings, writing has become an essential element.

Then there are those who will ask you what to write. This is something that you must think over. Do you ever complain, "Nothing ever happens to me?" If so, you are right.

Just think of two other questions that might occur to you.

* Does an experience or an opinion always have to be unusual in order to interest others?

* Do you ever have trouble thinking of a topic to write about?

If you are unable to think of a subject to write about, it is certainly an obstacle to writing. However, it is only a mental obstacle that can be overcome easily.

A good subject for you to write about should be something you are familiar with. Secondly, it must be a subject you are really interested in. Thirdly, you must have some definite opinions about the subject. Otherwise you will be parroting the secondhand views of other writers.

If you narrow down this problem further, ask yourself what is the subject you know most about. This way you can easily write about your thoughts (as I do sometimes in this column), attitudes, interests, and your experiences.

If you are a retired banker, you may have gathered a whole lot of experiences. They can be written down and shared with others. It is the same process with any other professions such as teaching. A teacher gathers a lot of experience as he is compelled to interact with thousands of students.

This does not mean that you should write only about your own experiences. By doing so, you will be limiting your scope of writing. You can make use of many secondhand experiences gained from reading fiction or association with different people. Today you also can gain secondhand experiences by watching television and listening to the radio.

In order to become a good writer, you have to be familiar with many subjects. The more you read, the more you learn. A beginner should make a list of the subjects he is familiar with. Choose one subject at a time and do a little bit of research before you put pen to paper.

People write for various purposes. Some people write to entertain others. Short stories, novels and poetry fall into this category. A small segment of people write to instruct others. They write manuals and other books containing instructions. A third category of writers write to surprise the reader. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie fall into this category. Agatha Christie has written nearly 100 detective novels that became popular. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective stories are being read even today.

Those who want to write should pay attention to the first paragraph. If it is uninteresting, nobody will read the rest of the article. Also, make it a point not to puzzle the reader. This is a major problem with certain writers.

Writing is great fun but it is also painstaking. You cannot send the first draft to an editor or publisher. You have to revise and self-edit what you write before you show it to another for evaluation.

Choose strong verbs when writing. For example, do not say, "She looked at me." Say, "She glared or peered at me". Secondly, be specific when you use nouns. Generalizations are odious. "The road was paved with roses." This is stronger than "The road was paved with flowers."

Meanwhile, go for vivid adjectives and adverbs. Instead of writing, "Her sexy eyes attracted everybody", you can say "Her bedroom eyes attracted everybody". Finally, use words that appeal to the five senses of the reader.

The joy of writing is that the world is waiting to read what you write!