Jargogled Impressions.

Every attempt is a query into the physics behind the goal. Attempts by themselves accomplish nothing. But if followed through, they can be powerful enough to be able to assert an identity. A million words (#AMW) isn’t exactly a walk in the park. And getting past the post isn’t going to necessarily make a writer credible. But it’s an attempt nevertheless. And a worthy one at that.

The die is cast here. There is nothing to go back to other than this idea itself. That practice and a deliberate attempt to improve is what makes us, well, growth oriented. If it’s all about the mindset, creating a structure around building that mindset may be a worthy goal. And therein lies the motivation behind this attempt.

Where should motivation come from? Often, the drivers are illusory, We mistake charm for the drivers, and end up being a prisoner to this ideal of oneself that we are not familiar with. Motivation comes from a distinct need to understand yourself. It’s this attempt to make sense of this world that way you see it. Achievements, fame, money, recognition are but mere symptoms of this. They do not motivate us to make an attempt, to make a dent. They are but short-term booster doses instead of the long-term vitamins that we need to survive.

Why do we often confuse one for the other? Is it because we leave our original chain of thought so far behind that we render ourselves incapable of understanding our desire to know? To endeavor to know isn’t restricted to this life alone though. Some make it their goal to try and understand what comes after. But they really want to know this world here by knowing what’s on the other side. It maybe their guiding belief that the other side is this simpler, gentler version of this half. Who knows?

What is this chaos inside our heads that we continue to hide? Where do they come from and why are we constantly running away from them? Heeding to this chaos is scary, lest they engulf us in their suffocating embrace. Neglecting them is dangerous for they can be quite pesky.

Chaos and writing an interminably linked. As a solitary act, writing invites you to invoke the chaos that the neurons in your brain fire at you. Being serious about writing involves descending into that chaos and fighting with those monsters while trying to understand them. It ain’t nothing but an ordeal. Not surprising how them poets end up messed up in the heads when they descend down and condense their visions into those wild assemblage of words and of imagery.

What is it about writing that makes me cherish it? I think its the effect of sweeping through the clutter of my mind and turning them into partially understandable words that makes me want to look at it as a task that I can and would love to do. The words are, in the end, words after all. They hold no meaning in the world itself other than what the reader brings to the table with his/her own sensibilities and history. But something about being able to provide this medium, through the wholly ingenious human invention of words, that makes me look forward to spending my time putting these textual imagery down.

And you can make me talk about writing anytime. Anything that you love talking about, at the drop of a hat, is useful fodder for you to consider being serious about. If it is something you have an opinion about, it isn’t all that common. And having an opinion and being willing to articulate it is a useful pass time for the world weary soul. Especially one who is cognizant of the mundane nature of our existence and feels it in his vein many a times.

Having opinions is different from being able to describe it to someone else. How much of an effort you want to put to craft your sentences in the right way depends on what kind of writing you want to do. If you are interested in communicating your thoughts and ideas alone, in the barest and the most simple way, all you need is those ideas. All you need to do then is to spend time on crafting those ideas to the fullest detail and then stating them in as minimally complex sentences as possible. If, on the other hand, its the idea of writing and being able to condense your thoughts and your emotions into meaningful, meme-worthy, and quotable sentences is your goal, then you spend as much time on thinking through your ideas as you do editing and crafting those wily sentences that invoke drama, suspense, passion, emotion, anger, anxiety, etc. in your readers. The former opens the mind and potentially offers a new way to look at the world without necessarily invoking the senses of your body. The latter is aimed at making you aware of your own presence, and of your own thoughts, and of your own sense of being.

Which way you want to go depends a lot on what your writing goals are and how you want to perceive this world of yours. Macro versus micro, social versus personal. society versus the individual. There are multiple dichotomies that define what you hope to gain from this act of baring your soul out into the world. How comfortable you are, in both your personal and professional realm will define which way you go.

When you are just starting though, you need not necessarily restrict yourself to one or the other. Play it out and iterate on either of them. In many cases, after you have reached a comfortable level of writing prowess, you may end up having to play dual hats as well. In the end, regardless of whether its the ideas or the feeling that you want to convey, the medium of writing demands that you be understood. And being understood by others demand adjustments to your style and consideration towards your reader.