By Ahmed Wafi Rashid
Prior to writing this, I spent a lot of time thinking about what to write and looked around for inspiration. I felt my passion for writing begins to fade away and this might have been due to my lack of free time. I began asking a few of my friends for ideas on what I should write about. When you’re not assigned to write about an event, finding the right thing to write about can be a bit of a problem because everything I wanted to write about previously had already been written in the recent past.
It was somewhere in the middle of writing this article I realised that inspiration is very important. Some authors go as far as to isolate themselves from society in order to be alone with their thoughts in the hope that inspiration will hit them like a train. Second to inspiration is motivation or a will, the desire to let people know what’s on your mind and doing so in the form of an essay or article or whatever you call it.
I texted a friend of mine asking him what I should write about and his idea really surprised me. When I asked him what I should write about he simply said,”Why don’t you write about writing?” Genius. Who would have ever thought about that. It was like looking for your spectacles when in fact you were already wearing them. So there it was, I was to write about writing and everything I thought would be worth mentioning about the art of writing and reporting.
To be frank to all my readers, writing in some cases can be a very boring process. By some cases, I refer to reporting. Imagine attending an event you don’t really want to and having to sit there for the better part of two hours or so while listening to people talking about things you don’t know much about. Not the most pleasant scenario, isn’t it?
Some reporters enjoy attending theatres and dramas (such as myself) while others are very fond of attending motivational speeches and the like (unlike myself) and there are those who prefer to write out of their imagination and a lot of those who have a wild imagination choose to make the most of it in the form of a book have been very successful. The most notable example of a fiction writer is J.K Rowling. Unfortunately, not everyone is blessed with her imagination and determination.
Some who are blessed with a colourful imagination may lack the determination while others may lack the imagination. There are also some writers who possess both characteristics but don’t have the b*lls to share their idea for the fear of being called silly. Giving up your dreams because people think you’re silly is what’s silly.
A good number of people enjoy talking and a lot of other people like listening while there are also a lot of people who enjoy both but usually, any individual would prefer one slightly more than the other. For those who like talking, they like talking about the things which is perfectly fine while a small number of people talk just for the sake of talking. They like to hear themselves talk even when there isn’t anything to talk about. Let us not be among those people.
Similar to writing, people enjoy writing about the things that they like and not usually about things other people want them to like but then again if we don’t do it then who will?
I envy those with the will and enthusiasm to write about whatever they’re assigned to. Those who stay motivated and ultimately, those who can balance their different responsibilities. There’s a lot more to writing than just writing. ***