What I learned from writing daily
Many people don’t write much, or they do when they have to. I was one of them. Being a reader, I, many times, wanted to share what I feel. But I never took a step to start writing. Because no sooner I would start writing, I would want to run away. Now it’s a different case. A year ago, I started writing daily. When I reflect on that time and compare it with now, I found that many things have changed since then. I no longer feel pressurized by holding a pen or typing through the keyboard. My writing, though it is still needed polishing, is getting better with each passing day.
Let’s go straight to what I find changed in me since I started writing.
1. Expressive: Believe me, there was a lot that goes through my mind. But when I came down to write it, always stuck at- what am I going to write? I wanted to write, but I could not express it more clearly. This was what a communication gap. Perhaps it was just me who always have other things to say and express them just the opposite. Feeling a thing, deep in your heart and express it properly are different things. By writing regularly, I lessen this gap.
2. Discipline: I write a thousand word per day for short stories. It is not much, but that’s what I do daily. It is a discipline that made me stick to this habit of writing. Moreover, I made writing my priority. So, I complete it before jumping to other tasks. Initially, when I did not prioritize it, I was failing in it. If you can’t write daily, you will slow down your learning process. Moreover, it will become more fallible if you are doing it at the end of every task. In short, I was not set out to make the writing process disciplined, but it turned that way on its own. In turn, it made my life more organized than ever.
3. Patience: I always did my task in such a hurry as if I ran a marathon. By writing shorties, I had to control my pace to feel what I wanted to convey through my story. It was a challenge at first; because instead of what my character would do now to make the current scene better, I always thought about what he would do next. It slowed down my writing process on the whole. I failed many times by this fast-forwarding of my story that ultimately, I had to slow it down to the label where I could focus on a particular scene. By doing this, I narrowed down my vision around that scene and make it more vivid. This is turn instilled in me patience where I could love to work not only on the broader aspect but also on the subtle details. It is the most precious lesson I learned by writing for over a year.
4. Discard the things: Writing for almost 1 year especially stories, led me to have better and clear ideas. I learned the art of discarding things when I realized not everything I wrote is needed. It was necessary to get around the central idea. But once you get the theme, you can discard other things. Sometimes, that idea itself changed or at least mine changes. So, I learned to through away many ideas to retain the best one for the writing piece.
5. Immediate Action: As it happened, ideas come to you when you are not paying any attention. But whenever they come, you need to write them down. Perhaps, you won’t like it, but it might forever lose if you don’t do it immediately. It was not until I started noting it almost immediately I face the same situation. So, this process of noting the idea almost instantly instils in you to do things promptly. It might take time to get used to it, but when you do, it would make your life better.
Writing gets improve: When I began to write, I looked for things to improve my writing, and for that, I looked at what famous writers has been doing and how they write. This improved the way I express the idea, my English. And the most important thing I learned was how famous writers weave a story, its background, emotion, and characters. Note that, I am still learning, but the important thing is that I am improving.
