Creative Writing

“I dare to say all that I dare to do.”                                           - Michele de Montaigne

What does it mean to write? Why do people who write consider it as their passion? Why writing has to be good and creative? Well I didn’t know it either.

Let me share my experience on this very topic ‘Writing’. Writing, to me was nothing less than a boring and indeed a time consuming activity, I never had the slightest interest in doing so or appreciating people who did though. That was the reason; I never developed any habit of reading books, not even news papers.

Even so, I enjoyed attending English lectures because I was very much fond of listening to stories and songs. I preferred listening to stories then actually going through it myself, which I believed to be as just a waste and the very fact could be that I always liked taking short cuts.

Whenever I was assigned the task of writing essays or stories, I would always nag my dad to do that for me. I never wanted things to get any harder or difficult, probably because I was too sluggish to do that. I could never convince my dad on having my work done. He never believed in spoon feeding, perhaps because he’d had a difficult life and that he wanted me to realize that easy short cuts will do no good.  “Write it for yourself and I’ll do the corrections”, he would always say. I suffered a lot not being able to write a single sentence, had no one to help, which made me look pathetic.

But today, when I look into it, I think whatever my dad did was right. When I reflect back, I realize I was so wrong and am thankful to him for being too harsh then.

Ask for yourself, what does it mean to write? Does jotting down every little thing you feel and experience writing? Well if it’s so, I write! Today, I’m not that old lethargic person I used to be, I don’t nag my dad anymore and I don’t complain over having to write long essays and stories. In fact I have started to love it, the feeling and the contentment that I get is beyond what words can express.

The urge to write more is now rooted deep within me and every single moment I get to spare; I jot down few of the things that I feel can form wonderful stories to tell, some of which can be seen in the Writers Association of Bhutan, an association where all energetic and dynamic Bhutanese writers contribute their ideas and writings

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I wonder whether it was a mere coincidence or my luck that, fortunately I’ve been selected to attend a workshop, what is called “The intensive creative writing workshop”. It was a workshop about how to go about with creative writing and provided us with some guidelines on it. Creative writing is a broader term which includes writing of stories, fiction and non-fiction, poems and songs.

The workshop has helped us develop a better insight towards observing and looking at things in writer’s point of view. It made us realize that stories come from our everyday lives and that there is nothing to think so hard. Keep writing, never stop and after you are done, read it loud. You’ll notice that you have in fact come up with something good, something you have never expected of and this is indeed the charm of writing with a free mind. This is creative writing!

The important points covered during the seminar about how to come up with a good piece of writing are,

• Active listening
• Free writing
• Keeping the channel open
• Sensory details
• Focused view (One inch window)

All these points are essential in creative writing and can guide us towards improving our writing skills, provided we keep the flow and practice. This workshop has in fact helped me overcome my shyness and face the challenges that come our way. On the spot writing of stories, poems with sensory details, visualizing the images and understanding the writer’s point of view had been the best part. I’ve never imagined that given a situation, I can in fact write something so confidently. It has indeed been an awesome experience for me and for the entire team attending this very workshop.

After this, I can confidently say that I can become a good writer and bear in mind everything that has been taught, the exercises that we carried out and the lessons that we learned. I am thus proud to have been a part of such an event and proud that I am moving ahead, and putting efforts in coming up with more interesting write ups.