Thursday, January 05, 2006

Inspired Writing

I met a well-known Kannada writer and my burning desire to write good short stories got provoked to a great extent. But taming my mediocre brain to give complete entertaining stuff is a little difficult.

When the writer told me that she got the whole story in her mind with no effort on her part to think, including the character names, I was just amazed. Thought that this is a gifted talent and cannot be developed with our will and wish alone.

Still, I could to be content with my conclusion and tried writing short stories. I almost wrote two complete ones and realized they were not satisfactory.

She irritatedly complained about growing copycats in writers' world and blamed those who do inspired writing. While talking about inspired writing, I felt that there is a subtle difference between copying someone else's work and inspired by some theme and developing it in a different dimension to give a new stuff in entirety. While i did not brave to discuss my views with her, I am pouring it in the medium where I have all my liberty.

Whatever I write is inspired. Inspired by my own funny reactions to some situations and inspired by others behavior. Originality can be retained in how well the spark is developed and how interestingly it is put forth.

If our day-to-day happenings can inspire us, there is nothing wrong if we get inspired by someone's writing or a particular scene narrated in a long novel. Already I have noticed that there is a connection between our reading habits and writing skills. As we read books, the grip on our language becomes stronger.

Given a deep thought, i can conclude that one is not technically and morally wrong in doing it. Because, how many writers can claim that they generate the story in their mind? Most often, people think of their own, having a predetermined plot in their mind. It is really rare to find someone who generates story just as one prepares laddu in kitchen.

As long as the inspiration is not wide enough to completely encroach others idea, an author has the right to get inspired by someone else's work also.