Writing is easy. Trust me, it’s just words; the putting down and stringing together of words. That’s easy. What’s hard; even harder than writing, is reading.
It is obvious that a good writer must also be a good reader. The reason for this is simple. There are secrets to good writing, discovered and implemented by great men before us, and even among us, that by reading — and only by reading — we can discover for ourselves. Or as T.S Eliot puts it in The Four Quartets:
And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom….
What then is this great not-so-secret secret that EVERY writer must learn? Not to mince words — pun intended — it is none other than The secrets of Words and Meanings.
Writing is easy, because It is easy to call the words. Reading is harder, because it is harder to call the meaning!
The meaning, not the name I call.
wrote Milton in Paradise Lost. What then is this meaning that John Milton wanted to call so much? Or better still, for a more complete education, what is calling the meaning?
It appears almost magical sometimes when one thinks about it. These are just words; words on paper, mere symbols, and yet when used appropriately, they’re capable of transporting us to places, and making us feel things so germane and profound and real that they make us question reality itself — or reinforce our faith in it, depending on what it is the author has set out to do. But regardless of genre or style, method or means, this is the cardinal function of a writer that never changes — to feel! and make others feel.
To succeed in this, is to call the meaning. To bridge the gap, so to speak, between the symbol and what is symbolized.
Every one feels pain. The feeling of pain is universal, but nobody actually feels another’s pain. We try to remember one time or another we have felt something similar and then extemporize. That is all.
A writer must make her reader feel her character’s neuralgia, and all she has to work with is that word, that symbol, n and e and u and r and a and l and g and i and a strung together.
For a reader it’s even more difficult! The writer tries, of course, and finds other ways to convey this neuralgia, this pain. Other ways apart from this single word, perhaps the veins rising in the temple, the discomfort she feels, her heads ringing her eyes closed, her clutching to a piece of something etc. But all these too, sadly, are still words, just words.
The writer has tried her best with the equipment she has — words. The hard part, then, the calling the meaning, now, ultimately, falls on the reader.
For some people reading is easy. I know people who read about five novels a day. I always imagine my agent reads no less than this. But for a writer, reading is harder, because reading, for a writer, is in two folds — reading others, and reading yourself.
The former, like I mentioned, is a must. There are gains, infinite gains, to be made from this. But, sadly, there are dangers too.
Allow me to quote further the latter part of Eliot’s verse which I quoted earlier:
And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope [to] emulate –
Why, one wonders, does T.S Eliot think one cannot hope to emulate these men; these men who have made these great discoveries?
One cannot hope to ’emulate’ these writers, because even though they have discovered valuable things, and are more than willing to teach them, at the end of the day every writer is unique, and has her own special distinct unique voice and style. Reading for a writer is hard, because it is a temptation.
So even though this write-up is an advice permit this to be the first — and perhaps the only — advice I’ll give: Do not fall to this temptation of imitation. You might be influenced, but never imitate.
The other kind of reading for a writer is reading yourself. I’ve never been very good at reading my own work. I read a lot of great authors, and even some difficult ones I read easily. I’ve read James Joyce’s Ulysses twice. But to read anything I write, that is almost akin to torture for me.
But for a writer to be worth anything, you must write, and read what you write, and revise, and go through that process about a million times.
Most great writers, in fact, aren’t even great writers but great re-writers. In the quest for perfection it is possible for a writer to get frustrated with what he/she has written, which is why ‘space’ matters so much to a writer. Apart from the space in which to set a work, and the space in which to write it, the next most important thing is space away from the work itself. This has always been very helpful for me.
Also it is always advisable to seek other people’s opinions, like-minded people, online groups and workshops. The importance of fresh eyes and fresh perspectives can never be overstated. Plus you get more readers, and know if indeed the meaning has been called.
Thanks for taking the time to read this one. I really hope this helps somebody.
