Building a Writing Practice: The Backstory

This year I wrote a book. What’s amazing is that the book is for writers and about building your writing skills and it got written in the midst of a writing drought of sorts.

I had planned to write every day this year for A2Z. Of course, life happened and though I had planned a bit and had outlines and rough drafts of a few posts, that was not enough. It wasn’t just a not-enough-time kind of thing. It was a sense of dread and even a deadening with the second wave of Covid wreaking havoc across India.

I knew of people who suffered through illness or death of their loved ones. It felt a travesty of sorts, writing about books, celebrating stories when there was so much that had to be righted in the world.

But art has a way to redeem and to heal. In difficult times, we turn to art and creative activities because it’s an outlet of our emotions. It’s subtle, can be interpreted in any way your mental state allows you to and through the power of strong imagery or association you can find healing.

I needed to get back to writing, not just talk of other books but my own beliefs. I needed the discipline and the guidance to keep writing, improve in little ways without feeling stressed or pushed to perform spectacularly. I needed to write, progress even if in little bits and have the satisfaction that I was working on my craft. I needed to go full steam when I felt better emotionally.

So I wrote the book I needed to read. I collated writing exercises that I have used and that I liked. I put them together, in no particular order. I explained them briefly and mentioned how they help.

But I was reticent still. I didn’t want to read long drawn passages so I wrote with directness and brevity, trusting that my readers, if there were any, would want the same. Lastly, I put the emotional connect that I had with the exercises, through quotes of eminent writers, people with great wisdom who knew what they were saying.

I published this short book as an e-book to reach the reader who has the time to spend on digital platforms but is still too weary or unable to pick a physical book.

It’s available for free download in Blogchatter library. There are a number of other books there, in many genres so maybe you would like to explore a bit and find a few good reads.

This post is part of Blogchatter Half Marathon.

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