Shajil Kumar
Phew! the blank sheet (of paper, or MS Word file) in front of me looks quite intimidating. The business of writing - whether a blog post, an article or even a personal letter, is indeed agonizing. I guess it is the same for all and sundry - including some well-known writers.
While using pen and paper it means the rough draft ends up as quite an inky scrawl with 'strike offs' and rewrites. Many a precious paper ends up in the waste bin and adds to the misery of an already dwindling tree cover.
In a way we should be (grudgingly) thanking the current smartphone-i-Pad generation for totally giving up on letter writing. Their fathers and grandfathers had consumed copious amounts of paper in the form of inland letters and envelopes - even their telegrams looked quite lengthy compared with present day smiley-loaded SMSes.
Coming back to writing, the use of computers may make one feel less guilty about the environment - provided one is willing to overlook the power consumed and the burgeoning e-wastes. Though the MS Word draft may look less messy than paper, the story is still the same. Of all the keys used while writing on computer, I guess 'backspace' is probably the most frequently used one followed by 'delete'.
The markings on the above two keys are more likely to fade off much faster than others due to frequent use. Almost every sentence seems too dumb and needs to be erased fully or partially.
Another issue is that after two or three paras one seems to run out of steam. Words just fail to come and often one wonders whether the pursuit is worth it. At this juncture it is very tempting to either quit or procrastinate. It calls for dogged pursuit to continue.
It becomes all the more difficult if you steer clear of quoting famous writers. Quotes often act as a convenient peg to hang one's ideas. Or if you chose to write on something that is not a burning topic of TV talk shows or coffee table discussions.
If after keying (or penning) down something one revisits it after few days and feels "hey not bad, did I write this?", then I feel it was worth the effort.
Phew! the blank sheet (of paper, or MS Word file) in front of me looks quite intimidating. The business of writing - whether a blog post, an article or even a personal letter, is indeed agonizing. I guess it is the same for all and sundry - including some well-known writers.
While using pen and paper it means the rough draft ends up as quite an inky scrawl with 'strike offs' and rewrites. Many a precious paper ends up in the waste bin and adds to the misery of an already dwindling tree cover.
In a way we should be (grudgingly) thanking the current smartphone-i-Pad generation for totally giving up on letter writing. Their fathers and grandfathers had consumed copious amounts of paper in the form of inland letters and envelopes - even their telegrams looked quite lengthy compared with present day smiley-loaded SMSes.
Coming back to writing, the use of computers may make one feel less guilty about the environment - provided one is willing to overlook the power consumed and the burgeoning e-wastes. Though the MS Word draft may look less messy than paper, the story is still the same. Of all the keys used while writing on computer, I guess 'backspace' is probably the most frequently used one followed by 'delete'.
The markings on the above two keys are more likely to fade off much faster than others due to frequent use. Almost every sentence seems too dumb and needs to be erased fully or partially.
Another issue is that after two or three paras one seems to run out of steam. Words just fail to come and often one wonders whether the pursuit is worth it. At this juncture it is very tempting to either quit or procrastinate. It calls for dogged pursuit to continue.
It becomes all the more difficult if you steer clear of quoting famous writers. Quotes often act as a convenient peg to hang one's ideas. Or if you chose to write on something that is not a burning topic of TV talk shows or coffee table discussions.
If after keying (or penning) down something one revisits it after few days and feels "hey not bad, did I write this?", then I feel it was worth the effort.
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