The Power of writing.

Four years back when I decided to take a drop for giving another shot at IIT-JEE exam, there was lot of things which was going through me. The good and bad, it was difficult to take decisions and asses it. That’s where I discovered the art of writing.

Writing to me has been the simplest tool to remove confusions, spending sometime everyday writing down my thoughts, expressing myself and articulating was like seeing your own reflection in pages.

This one simple thing changed my life

If you can’twrite, you’ll be exploitable. Writing clarifies your thinking, allows you to articulate and explain yourself to others, and allows us to work together to build things we could not alone.

The Roadblock

In recent years, I have been advocating to anyone I come across, that they should write. Not only should they write, they should publish their writing online for the purpose of sharing it openly with as many people as possible.

The most typical responses/excuses people give for not doing so:

Nobody would read what I write.

First and foremost, the most important audience you should consider is yourself.

It does not matter if nobody reads your writing. The point of writing is self-expression — gathering an audience should be secondary. You cannot connect to other people without connecting first to yourself.

My Writing is so bad.

Many people are hesitant to write because the moment they start putting pen to paper ( or sitting front of a keyboard in this digital age ), they get brain freeze. Many are reluctant to write because they think their English language skills aren’t good enough. They use the quality of the writing they read in books as their benchmark, and it’s hardly surprising that they fall short !

They are so worried about the grammar and selecting the right word, that they forget that they need to focus on the message — not the packaging !

What you have to share is valuable , and you don’t have to wait till your sentence structure becomes perfect before publishing it. Go ahead and publish — and the more write, the better your writing will become!

Don’t forget that a book has been re-written and edited many times, and there’s no need to try to aim for these standards when you are writing digital content.

I am never inspired to write.

It is a common fallacy that we have to wait for inspiration before we start writing:

That is still missing the point, writing should not be an act of inspiration, but again, an act of self-expression. Wanting to write when you are inspired is almost equivalent to stating that you will only speak when you are inspired.

I have no time to write.

I think most of us have trouble prioritizing time. Often we do not understand that in life we need to be able to carefully weigh tradeoffs. If writing enables us to be more conscious, thoughtful and creative, why are we not deliberately making time to write? Why is it not a priority?

Making time to write is making time to connect with yourself. With the exception of meditation, try thinking of a better way to connect to yourself. Writing in itself is a form of meditation. You start putting some thoughts out there and you become acutely aware of who you really are and what you really think.

There is a certain mysterious quality of writing that encourages your authentic self to show up.

I don’t have any ideas

Are you breathing?

Good, you’ll never run out of ideas. As long as you’re writing for the art of it, and aren’t just blogging to make money (near impossible in your first year), life will never stop inspiring you to write new stories.

Many times my articles are born from what I’m going through at that moment in time. Ideas are gifted to me from blog posts, books, when I walk around, and even when I’m at work.

Stop worrying whether you’ll ever run out of ideas. You won’t.

You may write about the same things sometimes and re-package previous talking points, but you’ll find you’re not just re-hashing stuff — you’re actually adding another dimension to previous topics that you never thought of before.

Keep writing and you’ll see what I mean.

WHY WRITE ?

If you have made so far till here and are willing to put aside all those excuses and reasons, you would ask, why should I write for anyone else beyond me ?

When you write and share your writing, you are putting a piece of yourself out there; it is an opportunity for an asynchronous connection between you and a virtual stranger. When you write about your fears, you are letting someone know that they are not alone facing those fears. When you write about overcoming difficult obstacles, you are giving some hope to someone out there that it is possible to do the same for themselves. When you write about your victories, you are making an example out of yourself — hey let’s aim for the stars, they are possible to reach sometimes.

1. Writing gives clarity to thoughts which often confuse and cloud our thinking

2. Writing also helps us connect to our own self, something which we dont do often, this is where self discovery begins

3. Writing is a creation, we learn to create something out of nothing, it is the beginning of entrepreurship

4. Writing is an expression, which helps us connect to others. Writing connects our hearts to our minds.

5. Last but not the least the pen is mightier than the sword, writing can bring about change in society, it can join hearts and minds together

Writing illustration made on Canva.

Give it a shot!

Try taking the first step, it is always the hardest to start. Try writing words that will turn into sentences forming paragraphs, which will become the very basis of a story which you may not even know exist within yourself.

Let yourself write horribly, just get that first draft out.

Remind urself the REASON why you are writing.

You read. You write. You edit and you refine, and then you can keep on writing.

Everyone has a story to tell, everyone is a writer. Some are written in the books and some are confined to hearts.

Writing makes me feel free. It is my expression of joy and that of pain. It is my means to make people feel happy, or moved, or inspired.

What is it for you?

#60DaysOfWritingChallenge is an initiative to share the experiences and lessons I have learned over the period of year.

You can follow the series on Medium, Instagram, or Facebook.

#60DaysWritingChallenge Poster made on Canva.

iHHey there, this is Rinkesh. If we’re meeting for the first time, I say Hi to you.If you found this helpful, consider sharing it with a friend living across the ideological divide and 👏 are always, appreciable.

Thanks for reading…