Yes, an artist lives in all of us. Some artists come out reluctantly while some hide, afraid to face this captious world. Read on about some common mistakes that every newbie writer should avoid.
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Author: Nishant Garg
Everyone wants to write someday, sometime. I won’t be exaggerating if I say there is a writer in all of us. If not a writer, then a singer or a painter or something of that sort. In short an artist.
Yes, an artist, he lives in all of us. Some artists come out reluctantly while some hide in defensively, afraid to face this captious world. Most of these shy artists never actually do anything. They keep on waiting for the right time to begin. They will stall it at every stage of their life; ‘I will do it after I finish studies, after I get a decent job, after I am settled, after I am done with kids, after I get retirement, after I am done with everything, after this life? Fine, maybe next life I will try to start early’. They spend their life making these excuses and cursing their fate. So there goes the story of the artists who thought they were. But the other ones, who actually at some point in their life do break away from the normality of their course, are not much good either. These have invested a lot of their time in studying a particular form of art. One day they get motivated by the feeling, ‘if that’s what they call a masterpiece and that’s what earns them hoards of money and fame, I can do it too’. Such people go home and immediately commence. Most of them never finish. The remaining who are able to, find it very hard to sell. What actually is their mistake?
Let’s consider a typical example in the art of writing. A sixteen year old reads Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and instantly has visions of his own fantasy tales. He wants to grab a pen and just write. Soon all he wants is just to be the ‘world’s richest author’. He wants nothing less. He is already imagining a movie based on his novel being produced even before he has penned down the first page of his so called ‘fantasy tale’. He spends most of the time dreaming and thinking about the end rather than the means. Later, none of his dreams come to life. He hardly gets to complete his book. Even if he does, all he gets back is disparagement on his lack of understanding and knowledge of the craft of writing. At the end, forget about the movie in production, he finds that no one is ready to even publish his book.
What went wrong? Where does the mistake lie? Perhaps we all know. For those who don’t, I will tell. First mistake, whenever that kid wrote he was focusing more on the goal than the path to that goal. The goal was obviously ‘world’s biggest richest author’ and the path? He never thought about it. It was the story itself. Focusing on the path means paying attention only to the book that’s being written, swaying away the after thoughts of success. Our only aim while writing should be to write ‘good’ and that too indisputably. Forget all the praise. We will get it if we deserve.
Second mistake, he forgot to do the homework. Writing is not an easy job; it’s a rich form of art. In fact artists make money easily is a great myth. It requires immense amount of hard work, dedication and determination. The kid had thought, Yeah I can jot down words, the lines I write amuse me, I am a writer. But writing and writing ‘good’ are two very different things. At least for a teenager who has read only thirty novels till date. Ask this to yourself. How do you hope to compete in a world full of professional writers with so meager knowledge? It is nothing but like entering the battle without weapons. At least read a good number of books before you plan to write one yourself. Make yourself aware of the varied forms of writing. Tolkien doesn’t comprise the whole world, there is Ayn Rand too. Go grab something different, read a wide variety first, then pick a particular genre. C’mon, enroll yourself in some creative writing course. It will help.
If you really want to be a writer, make sure you avoid these mistakes. I can only give advice, but to follow it is your own choice. Seriously, it won’t hurt if you do.
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