I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Writing is to me like living in a new world which is similar but at the same time different from the one where I actually live. I always find a world in my mind, people talking and living in my head and pouring their emotions and experience as they do in real.

I like the life of a writer who lives like any other human and live with all kind of noises, smoke and combustion that comes from the regular struggle of life. He has to struggle with a range of emotions and possibilities and expectations in living with their dreams.

Life is never easy but documenting it in words has a pleasure of its own kind. Life is always throwing challenge and accepting this the way it comes is never as easy as it sounds. It definitely comes after a long learning mostly from the bad experience.

Writers have a sense of letting themselves in the shoes of other human and get into their heart and exercise their imagination to build a new world in their mind and then with words describe everything so naturally that their world created on the paper could easily be seen in the mind of their readers.

Writers are the persons who flow with the emotions and at the same time exercise their intelligence, intellect, imagination, folklores, scientific theories, historical evidences and people faiths and many such things which help develop their stories that transform a simple life’ story into a readable experience.

This world is full of violence, greed, lust, hunger, poverty, power, possession, exploitation and many more things that are around us, creating stories and shaping our life which often seems as if working on the mercy of our faith on God. God who has done nothing to anyone accept giving them faith to rebuild themselves against all odds. But unfortunately this world is divided in His name only. It is the writer who tries to see the world as one classroom and then learn to write his mind.

Writing helps to look into every slice of life, big as well as small, that create unique voice to the story and the best part is that they are interconnected as one leads to another range of incidences. These wonderful incidences bundle up with exciting adventures in life and generate a reader’s adventures that become a piece of their long reckoning memories.

Writing is nothing but the detailing of human capacity to love, forbearance, endeavour and the winning against the odds. We know that there is light after each tunnel but nobody knows how long this tunnel could be.

In the dark hours of life when you are so alone that only your words run in the mind and mind has no rest and no clear idea seems as the best one that can lead you out of this dark tunnel then anger, frustration and depression are very natural in life even at that piece of time when your writing help you and make your creativity sharpen and tunnel shorten.

At that time your writing is an escape that helps you meet with your imaginary friend and places but writing often unnerves your bygone past and sometimes it starts to bleed with your writing. Your writing operates your wounds and sooner than expected it heals your heart.

Steven king rightly said regarding writing: “A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.”

I always wanted to be a writer as everyone wants to be some or another thing in life. I find I have no means to be what I want to be. I want to write in English which is a second language for me. That means I have to work very hard to be at home in this language.

I read that writers are well travelled, highly educated, gained fast experience of life and mostly belongs to the rich background. Well, I have none of these elements.

One day while toying with my idea I suddenly feel that long traveling and a degree from big university doesn’t guarantee or give certificate for writing. It definitely helps but imagination is something that can bring a writer to unknown world as J.K Rowling did with her Harry Potter.

There are many students passing the best colleges every year but how many like to be a writer? To be a writer one must have passion, promise to be the one at all cost.

I found it very encouraging but encouragement was not the only thing I was looking for. I needed to ask myself, “Do I call my experiences as experiences fair enough to work on them?” I really felt clueless.

I found a small list of writers whom I liked and I had read. To increase the list, I would have to read and experiment with all types of writers. I wondered how they conceived their characters and made them alive through their words. Were they coming from imagination or experience?

I find a great limitation in expression. As one sentence can be expressed in many different ways which I may not have read in my grammar books. How can I decide that the one I have selected is the best one?

I must read a lot. Reading a novel 200 – 500 pages long is not an easy thing. I need time to read slowly to really catch everything from soup to nuts.

When I was a student, I had my course books, friends, games and many such small things to take care of and after study I have a job where I have to be all the time careful, watch out for back stabbers and irrespective of my job duties. So how to find time to read?

Reading a lot of novels always seems out of question. But without reading the books it is very difficult to know how writers are writing and what interest me.

I really needed to focus only on some selected good classical writers from England, France, USA, and India.  Indeed I need to read some difficult writers too and some fast selling writers too. I ought to read some books on craft and on skills of writing novel too.

Well, I concluded soon that all this would take me long enough to suck and swallow the entire life.

I felt frustrating. I felt that half of the life is spoiled by correcting grammar and having the right sense of language and other half is spoiled by reading.

I found no place to draw the line thus far and no further. I read what was available to me. I believe the Spanish Proverb- “Those who want to sing always find a song.”

I read books and in the mean while I worked at several places just to support my living and support my dream. I spent a lot of money to buy books and I was burning midnight oil to read them.

I continued to dream and in the mean while I noticed that half of my hair left my head and the rest turned white. I didn’t secure any high position in the company and my experiences were mostly filled with dissatisfaction, frustration, depression, sleepless night and friendless life.

Probably it was the best time to start my novel and I started …

It often happens to me that my mind is full and I am mentally busy. I feel that I am like a honey bee and I am ready to sit anywhere very quietly and see where my ideas want me to go. I am not sure how one idea gets connected with others and take my mind to ponder and I feel my creative impulse is ready to work

Actually this world is big playground for my mind. Somewhere there I get an impulse from any image over which my imagination works. Arranging one image to another, imagination over imagination, I start to work. I always consider that there is a relation between image and imagination. Imagination gives wings to image and in a solitary silence conceive a new world which I pen down.

In other words, realities of others and experiences of mine inspire me to write. Writing sometimes seems like bleeding, as if I am wounded and my blood is sweeping from my heart and I am writing in a flow. It is really painful process to find the words that can carry the weight of your pain and let you feel unloaded. Words mean medicine. Words mean healing and transforming the pain into a magic.

I really fail to keep the sense since when I have been writing and suddenly I feel to leave my sitting place in want of some fresh air as if after too much bleeding my body is missing lifesaving air.

Walking alone in this world, I beg to ask myself: Am I really walking with my head on my shoulders? Sometimes I think: No, I am only walking with my imagination. My body is moving and mind continues to think on and on subjects which were bleeding me, which took away all the necessary oxygen of my life. This walking may not have refreshed me but allows me to write further.

Again I am back on my seat to write some more and more and sometimes I write the whole day and lose my sleep. The next day I feel like a ghost. A demon is really punishing me – neither killing me nor leaving me.

I think this is what happens with every writer and each writer finds himself or herself being a ghost and waiting to be normal again and then get busy in just typing fast all those fast running thoughts.

A writer has so much to write from the unknown sources. He is always busy, something is connecting him towards an unknown world. Where he has to write genuine dialogue as naturally as if two persons talk. He has to describe a place one has probably never visited or seen before.

A writer is living and dying with his own characters. In his mind nothing really looks normal. In fact, he needs nothing to be normal. His eyes are watching and fingers are typing and only a self-created world is exiting between those two.

Living a life of an artist is not simple. Life is demanding rest, peace, fun, adventure, enjoyment, family and friends. To neglect them all one has to be spell bound in the world of his own created characters. Of course this doesn’t guarantee any appreciation, let alone money and respect.

Time is running, body is demanding urgent attention and eyes are still busy in seeing those unknown characters that are living deep down in the soul.

Every one of us is a dreamer, a future planner, a gossiper, a story-teller, and a writer, because human are born and grown in such an environment where story is hanging in thin air but the only difference that split us into two groups is that some bear the pain of writing what one has conceived and some just keep it in their mind and never write, but they can be a good thinker or reader.

Writing is not as easy as it sounds while reading about it. After all it is the sum of total effort and imagination of a writer so it sounds simple but the process of chiseling and developing a matter into a story is always difficult and heart rendering. It is always a pain. It always requires a racy imagination constantly working on a matter and gradually it develops into a story. This constant working requires a system, a methodical brain apart from your passion, devotion. It requires daily practice, patience and time to sit long hours for research and analyzing things.

Writing is an art and a science as well. It needs classroom study and certain ways to learn things to get the desired result. And like all arts it also takes time to grow and develop. Observing things in, within and around really helps you to understand and that feeds your imagination and concurrently reading habits of other writers help in owning this skill better. In fact writing is just half done in absence of reading well. Both are needed to maintain a balance.

A new writer often thinks that he has a story in mind and he can go on writing in a way he likes but once your character gets its shape or form then it becomes a person and gets its free will and then lives within the page on its own way then it can go out of your hand and out of control of your imagination. Your character then needs time, understanding and keen observation of his or her psychology and behavior. Only then you find that you can do him justice. So it is always better to keep on reading and strengthen your mind with good reservoir of imagination and beautiful tinge of language. It is important to read and re-read and read versatile to sharpen your taste buds of writing and love for better world which is made up only through your words. Always remember reading is the best tool that helps your writing the most.

Writing is a gradual process and finding a unique style of writing and narration is something that every writer must adapt. Actually it is the mark of his or her identity. No matter if the name of your favorite writer is written on the cover page of the book or not but a reader can identify the writer from uniqueness of his writing style. Each writer has their own ways of writing and developing your own ways and style is always a challenge but your writing style is nothing but an amalgamation of the stuff which you have read or you have been reading for long. Indeed your personal experience and observation matters a great deal but in owing your unique style your reading habit plays a vital role.

It is always beneficial to start after reading some good writers and experience the gamut of your personal life then start writing your stuff. It will help you and help your imagination.

There is always a difference between a great and a good writer. Better read both and adapt the qualities that you find the best for you. List of great writers are endless. If you can’t wait to read all or most of them, then better read as much as you can. And of course pay attention to creative writing courses and books which can help you in understanding the format and right technics for your writing.

Writing is a habit, a discipline where you are wording your imaginative world on paper or your digital device. Once you have written all then it is very important to re-read, proof read and edit if required. After doing all this your manuscript is ready. It is good if you find someone who is ready to read or keep it closed for some time then re-read it and soon you will find your mistakes, weakness and then you need to make changes.

It is always good to get help from professional like proof reader and editor who can do justice to your hard labor then finally your book comes into picture.