Waking up to a new dawn

At around four o’clock this morning I got up feeling that I had exhausted all my sleep ; a feeling that has been alien to me for almost four years now. Perhaps it was the major upheavals in my life that kept me from feeling ready to seize the day or perhaps it was just one of the natural ups and downs in ones life where one faces periods of restlessness and periods of peace.Whatever it was, I was happy to have recovered this bio-rhythm which had eluded me for all these days.

Getting up early when the world is awake has distinct advantages, the first among them being that you can sort yourself out and your mind out ,ergo your life out. Needless to say, there will still be hiccups in the day but having set out a broad framework to operate in, things become that much easier to handle (or so I’d like t think!)

The art of writing well

However, while I was out in the balcony sipping my hot cup of coffee and enjoying the warm dampness of the monsoon air kiss my cheek cold, it suddenly struck me that to write well one needs to read well. Reading not only exposes the mind to a wide variety of subjects and topics but also to myriad styles. At school languages were not only taught in terms of grammar and structure but also literary content and these were treasures that opened our minds to the richness of a language and its culture. The writer, in order to be a wordsmith should not only tell a story but paint a picture with his words, bring alive the smells and touch of every emotion and transport the reader to the very situation he is describing making every word palpable with the imagery it evokes.

Content and style

Alas many writers today have lost that art of seducing the reader with a distinct lack of skill in choosing the right word that captures the very nuance of what he is trying to say and the sad truth is that  while very few writers today are gifted with this special talent most of us don’t even try to cultivate it and pass of mere words as “writing”. But apart from the actual content, what engages a reader is the style and that is something that has to be practiced so skillfully and artfully that it seems natural  and uncontrived. Mere content is perfect for a report which has to be unembellished and unbiased but for writing a story or making content more palatable for the layman, it has to appeal to all  senses not merely the intellectual.

Reading is key

So I figured that what really differentiates a good writer from an engaging writer is the style, something that can only be nurtured and encouraged by reading. A good reader will always know what to write about since he has explored so many minds that have explored so many topics of varied interests. Eventually as human beings with limited time and restricted interests, there are only some topics that we tend to focus on  and  a writer specialising on a focussed interest can be engaging if he discovers and plumbs the depths of what has been written about that subject.

Reading deepens your knowledge base, hones your analytical skills and essentially helps you become a better writer.

If you want to become a better writer. Take some time off and read a good book today