Writers and Writings

 

                

Today, in the world of screens, people hardly care about reading, much less, writing. To know the situation of a country, people are less-likely to read a newspaper and more probable to listen the news channel. When a book is published, people may prefer waiting for the movie than to visit the book store.

But can screens be reliable alternatives to the care-fully chosen words of an author?

Can anything in this world reduce the efficacy of writing?

For me, writing is a refuge from the chaos of this world. Nothing is more rewarding than a thought of mine finally attaining enough clarity to be put into words. Words possess meanings deeper than our intellectual faculties can grasp. Despite of, many of them, being synonyms to each other, words still differ in intensity, definition and eloquence. The reason why a synonym never justifies itself as a fulfilling option to substitute the original word. And I could better sum up the rest of this discourse in Sir Salman Asif Siddiqui’s words, who emphasized on his audience, once, to: “know the reality of words”.

Historically, people have modified maps through their writings. Lives have changed. Revolutions have been accomplished. From capitalism to communism and finally making us concede the implications of both, how can we not give writers their due credit. The French history largely accredits the French revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte to the hard work of enlightenment writers. The Pakistanis will be eternally indebted to Allama Iqbal, without whose poetry, Pakistan might never had been envisaged of, let alone winning independence. From scholars of Islam going through all the their blood, sweat and tear to put together work for upcoming generations, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Ansari documenting the complete format of a society based on Quranic foundations, Sir Salman Asif siddiqui granting liberation to Muslims from the siege of false Gods, Ibn Khaldun using it as a tool to create distinctions between the real and forged history, John Taylor gatto debunking the flaws of contemporary education system, and Malik Badri offering freedom to the slaves of Western psychology, writing has always succeeded to establish its mark.

This post is to encourage unmotivated writers to write with the right intentions.

(Please be mindful that this piece of writing, in no sense, encourages people to write immodest and time-wasting discourses; romantic, obscene novels/ West-influenced ideologies/ capitalism/communism/modern feminism/psychologically harmful content/ other non-Islamic content. Please know that all writers owe worthwhile material to their readers in return for their time, and any wrong concept delivered to the audience, in that sense, can make us answerable on the day of judgement)

Write with conviction:

Under-confidence inhibits the learning process as a whole and it is definitely worth noting. Fearing to try hands onto anything leads many to abandon it. Youngsters today tend to underestimate their ability to a greater extent-more than they over-estimate it. While, a range of factors could, and probably do, exist, a major problem is the absence of conviction (due to lack of self-esteem). I believe, this manifests in the form of a constant worry of what might your reader think of you. When the reality of your writing lacks faith, you strive to adjust futile perceptions to produce some meaningful work. Doubt your work and the reader will spot ambiguity. It is highly essential to believe in in every single word you choose. The reason why fancy vocabulary sometimes destroys the core of writing is because the writer does not connect to or believe in the intensity of words, he chose due to their appeal. Imagine Allama Iqbal guiding the ummah with words he recently searched on google! Seems senseless. Writing possesses this innate potential to unravel the writer’s level of conviction. This lack of belief, many a times, prevents us from meeting our best standards.

Praise-junkies and the right reasons to write:

We do not produce the finest piece the very day we sit to write. Progress is gradual. Nature places in us, immense potentials but the amount of time we need for discovery can exceed, beyond estimation. This inability to write very well initially, deprives people of their long-yearned words of praise. Outsourcing the motivation of a task, threatens its consistency. When grades motivate children, the urge to seek knowledge suffers. When praise motivates writers, writing suffers. Even if a person has an amazing grip over words, it is impractical for him to be admired by everyone or every day. That means, external appreciation may be fertile, but the yield produced is of low-quality and transient. Appreciation is an insatiable craving and more you get it, the more you long for it. Therefore, it breeds dependency. If the foundations of human-confidence lay upon external appreciation, it would take absolutely no time to collapse. Remember that a writing done only for praise, likes and comments is disloyalty to the entire institution of writing.

Similarly, a new trend has emerged. People today wish to write so that they can qualify to be an author. Such individuals vocalize their goals as ‘I want to be a published writer’. For a minute, revisit this piece of speech, thoroughly. Is this even a modest thing to have said? One unthoughtful, West-influenced narrative directly negates the importance of every writer who is not published yet. Or in other words: Every writer’s dedication and determination is measured by how soon or how often he is approached by a publisher! Just like degrees fail to define success, labels of ‘the best-selling author’ do not make you a writer. Writing makes you a writer. Running after labels renders fame, but being committed to the purity of your intentions, is solitarily, the road to excellence. I have come across a plenty of people who used to write but then called it off, since they thought it was a long way until they receive the publisher’s call. The publisher’s invitation usually doesn’t knock doors where writers are valued but writing is not. Write so that you can enjoy writing, and not fame. Serious writers are encouraged by the imprescriptible essence of writing. Sugar-coated words of applaud are nothing but a distraction to them. Filter out your intentions prior to planning your discourse.

Do not lose your uniqueness while running after universal standards.

Being fond of writing, my interest has received considerable time from me. I have devoted myself to books on writing and constantly struggled to fix my words into the right sentence construction. No matter how much I developed the skill, satisfaction seemed a distant phenomenon. Until one day, my elder brother unfolded upon me, a thing, I shall never lose. He advised: Do not maintain the style of writing on the cost of its purpose. That was it. He had realized, in the right time, that in the pursuit of perfection, my uniqueness was at stake. Schools have manipulated us into a never-questioning attitude towards the universal standards. In an attempt to get that ‘perfect writing style’, we usually undermine our natural writing style. Copies never play an alternative to original. Writers now easily agree upon sacrificing their originality in chasing the writing style of best-selling authors. It is time we start celebrating differences in writers rather than assessing all of them on the scale of ‘how well you write in comparison to J.K Rowling’. It makes sense that many of us cannot write like J. K Rowling. But believe me when I say: it makes equal sense that J.K Rowling cannot do it like us either. Reality can be fictionalized. But does that make it fiction? One of my favorite writers, Ellen Langer in her book, the power of mindful learning, writes “the rules we are given to practice are based on generally accepted truths about how to perform the task and not on our individual abilities”. There is simply no merit or a universal style, ever made, to judge how well you write.

What should I write? The most haunting question!

A significant issue that all beginner writers face is not having sufficient words. While many would advise you to strengthen your grip over fancy vocabs, I believe the problem is not well-tackled that way. Words come out only when you know you want to use them. Convey what you should and not that will be welcomed. Unfortunately, the skill of writing, from being a worthwhile expenditure of time and an effective medium to convey the right information backed up with right intentions has declined to becoming a trend. A fashion, many wish to follow but are unaware, how. When I initially stepped into this rich world, and even now sometimes, I tried to adjust multiple ideas into one plot, oblivious to the fact that, in many cases, points don’t connect and concepts appear vague. Until practicing over the time clarified that: you should have a very transparent and communicable understanding of what you plan to write on and how to organize it. Once, the ideas are formed clearly, it is highly anticipated that an ideal piece is the result.

For people, who believe they lack words when they sit, they should definitely spare time to read books. Reading guarantees development in writing and readers never fall short of words and ideas. Writing without reading is similar to expecting a car to run without any fuel and I love it how Virginia Woolf puts it: “Read a thousand books so that your words flow like rivers”

Dedicate all your writings to the right cause and keep on assessing yourself if the intention is to please Allah and help his creation or to merely earn the title of a writer!

Write, to express, not to impress!