During the brief course of my 'literary' adventures(or misadventures) aka writing, I have dished out a few short stories (some very banal and some reasonable). At times I have even tried writing critical essays which mostly have gone unnoticed. So even though I might be severely under-qualified, I still think I could pass a comment or two about writing.
Often I get asked where does the 'idea' for a story originate from - is it from life or movies or books or something else. An idea for a story lies all around us - it only needs to be tapped and more importantly noticed. Once the idea is sown in your mind, a logical narrative needs to build it up(sometimes the most difficult thing to do!!). One thing which I have observed over a period of time, is that people always love that 'twist in the tale' - the 'X' factor which keeps them guessing. Well the idea of holding the readers on tenterhooks might be exciting to any writer but the truth is managing to deliver that knockout punch in the end without falling into the pit of illogicality. The thing is sometimes you need to tread the middle path - keep it reasonable (rather believable) but still deliver that twist abeit with lesser impact. I do admit I have a couple of times tried to play to the gallery by forcefully inducing twists even when it was unwarranted. When things are forced, you know it is not going to work.
Ok now where is this discussion heading to? Frankly nowhere..............but somewhere I realise the process of writing should become self reliant i.e. you write because to honestly want to tell a story and not to keep the readers happy or any other reason. When you honestly tell a tale, you don't need to play to the gallery because the process is complete in itself - you don't need the readers to complete the process. The readers are like the last link in the chain - not essentially the propellers of the process. The propeller is the passion and excitement that a new idea can usher in. Afterall the great stories captured on celluloid or in books, were never crafted with pretensions or just for the heck of it - they are what they are because all of them had a genuine story to tell....................
With this I come to the end of this post. I am, keeping the spirit of this post in mind, will sign off with a simple bye and restrain myself from making any sweeping concluding statements. (what the heck again I am playing to the gallery...............)
Often I get asked where does the 'idea' for a story originate from - is it from life or movies or books or something else. An idea for a story lies all around us - it only needs to be tapped and more importantly noticed. Once the idea is sown in your mind, a logical narrative needs to build it up(sometimes the most difficult thing to do!!). One thing which I have observed over a period of time, is that people always love that 'twist in the tale' - the 'X' factor which keeps them guessing. Well the idea of holding the readers on tenterhooks might be exciting to any writer but the truth is managing to deliver that knockout punch in the end without falling into the pit of illogicality. The thing is sometimes you need to tread the middle path - keep it reasonable (rather believable) but still deliver that twist abeit with lesser impact. I do admit I have a couple of times tried to play to the gallery by forcefully inducing twists even when it was unwarranted. When things are forced, you know it is not going to work.
Ok now where is this discussion heading to? Frankly nowhere..............but somewhere I realise the process of writing should become self reliant i.e. you write because to honestly want to tell a story and not to keep the readers happy or any other reason. When you honestly tell a tale, you don't need to play to the gallery because the process is complete in itself - you don't need the readers to complete the process. The readers are like the last link in the chain - not essentially the propellers of the process. The propeller is the passion and excitement that a new idea can usher in. Afterall the great stories captured on celluloid or in books, were never crafted with pretensions or just for the heck of it - they are what they are because all of them had a genuine story to tell....................
With this I come to the end of this post. I am, keeping the spirit of this post in mind, will sign off with a simple bye and restrain myself from making any sweeping concluding statements. (what the heck again I am playing to the gallery...............)
1 comment:
Good post.
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