I recently read Shashi Tharoor's “The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone” thanks to my jeeju (read BIL- Brother In Law)…This is definitely not a book review nor am i trying to advocate the book…On the contrary, more than his style of writing and the book itself, I was amazed by the range of articles that someone could write…Yes, its an unusual kind of book which has a collection of columns that he had written on diverse topics based on India. Of-course when you write anything about India it naturally becomes diverse…One of his famous line "anything you can say about India, the opposite is also true"…
Writing books may require talent, loads of research and maybe sometimes wild imagination, and churning out columns may seem a minor or I should say easier cousin in comparison but it is nevertheless a demanding art form. It’s not easy to write in limited words on a subject and yet delight and provoke readers not only with the command over the subject but also with the flair for the lucidity of the language.
So what does it take to be a good writer…You should either have very good imagination (like J.K Rowling and some of the bloggers who write very imaginative and hilarious articles..:)) or you should have done some good amount of traveling, gain experience, and should have done some thorough research to write stuff, and be proud of it too… A combination of both the above characteristics would be deadly..:)
Now I was wondering if I have to write stuff that people would pay for reading than the only way I could achieve it is through travel, travel and more travel, soak in the experience to get enough material and then may be use my literary skills to write stuff that jantha would enjoy reading…:) This given the fact that my imagination is never my strong point…
So the question is firstly, do you wanna be a writer? And secondly, if you wanna write how would you go about achieving it??
Writing books may require talent, loads of research and maybe sometimes wild imagination, and churning out columns may seem a minor or I should say easier cousin in comparison but it is nevertheless a demanding art form. It’s not easy to write in limited words on a subject and yet delight and provoke readers not only with the command over the subject but also with the flair for the lucidity of the language.
So what does it take to be a good writer…You should either have very good imagination (like J.K Rowling and some of the bloggers who write very imaginative and hilarious articles..:)) or you should have done some good amount of traveling, gain experience, and should have done some thorough research to write stuff, and be proud of it too… A combination of both the above characteristics would be deadly..:)
Now I was wondering if I have to write stuff that people would pay for reading than the only way I could achieve it is through travel, travel and more travel, soak in the experience to get enough material and then may be use my literary skills to write stuff that jantha would enjoy reading…:) This given the fact that my imagination is never my strong point…
So the question is firstly, do you wanna be a writer? And secondly, if you wanna write how would you go about achieving it??
2 comments:
Like you have just done, writing this post! :) Actually those of us who want to write need to read a lot and of course travel a lot like u say. And then keep writing a lot :) Keep going!
@pratibha:
Thanks..:) And Of-course!! How could i have missed that? Yes..Reading helps a lot...
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