Why write?

I have been writing since I was in early school. I thought of poems in a spur and sometimes wrote them down. I don’t think there was any poetic genius there, but the random words were much encouraged by dear family to whose amusement I would often recite them. I did that for a while, but then stopped probably when I grew up enough to realise that that wasn’t really poetry after all. After that I mostly stuck to prose – stories, articles, book reviews, editorials - apart from a bout of poetry in my mother tongue that struck in high school. But I have always been an impatient writer. I am in a hurry to put my thoughts down and find repeated readings of the same few hundred words drab and painful. I’ve never given much thought to either my own writings or writing in general. However, much focus on writing over the last one year, here at A and during the last two months over the consulting intern has made me ponder over how I write and now over why I must write. As painful as WAC was, I am now convinced it had some merit and I’ve decided I must write more often – and hopefully this blog will be more prolific – and this post is dedicated to why I think we must write.

Forces you to think deeper – Thoughts often sound better in one’s own head. Putting them down in a sentence somehow forces us to see the gaps that exist and think further to refine those thoughts. Writing our thoughts down, and reading them is subjecting them to our own scrutiny if not anybody else’s.

Lends structure – I am going to be chastised for consulting jargon here, but as much as the word is probably overused ‘synthesis’ is important. It’s important and useful to be able to crystallise what one wants to say in a few crisp sentences, in a manner that makes it easier for the audience to digest what one is saying. Writing forces us to structure our thoughts, put them into buckets and consequently makes them easier to read and comprehend for others.

Understand and accept – One reason to write is to communicate, and the previous point about being more structured helps one do that more effectively. But one needn’t always write to communicate. Sometimes we write just to express what’s going on in our minds. It can even clear the tangle of thoughts that has conjured in our minds and help us make sense. People often write down the pros and cons while making a tough choice. Writing lends clarity and helps one better understand and accept ones owns thoughts. 

These are some of the reasons why I think one must write -not just literary geniuses, and these may not be reasons that inspire literary geniuses -  but each one of us.