(Thought - Random)
Sometimes I ask myself: why ever do I write? Do I for the
pleasure of my pen gliding through my paper or for the musical cadence
from my computer keyboard? Is it because I want to tell a story or is it
because there is a story to tell? ..... because I want to remember...
or rather because I'd want to forget? I don't know. No, I'm not sure -
that's what it is. But perhaps I could venture to describe the feeling
writing gives me as a beatific or even seraphic rapture. Almost
unexplainable for me and kind of beyond my senses.
But whatever it is that I write about, most often than not, depends
on the time of day that I do. People, of course, variegate on a number
of aspects and the best moment for writing doesn't escape the
list. Some, for instance, write best at dawn - 2 o'clock in the
morning or about 4.... a couple more of minutes before that magical
sunrise. Some go for the dead of night, starting, say, between the
witching hours of 11 and 1. Some sit down for it at about 4 in the
afternoon and go on while the sun sets and on to the night. Still,
others go for that tight span of time before going to a specific
commitment like work, a speaking engagement, an interview. I've also
heard of some being able to write only within the embrace of darkness;
some only when close to the sound of running water; and some when music,
soft or deafening, is available in the background. Idiosyncratic? I'd
say, yes! Everybody knows about Edgar Allan Poe as being able to write
only when dead drunk!
So when might be the
best time for writing? Well, if I were to talk about myself, I'd
confess that I do all the above one time or another; that is, except
being dead drunk ... although I have in mind to try that some time. I
know of some writers who put themselves on a rigid schedule - something
like choosing a particular time of day and sticking to it on a
regularity, whether or not they are productive. I mean, they just have
to write something like a page or two, or write a specific number of
lines - whether or not they like what they have written at all. But it
turns out that after some time, great poetry, or great fiction is
generated out of such scribbling, if it may be called such.
Now I'm not sure if I could do that. For me, there are random times as
when I sit down in a coffee shop to enjoy how my coffee satiates both
my taste and smell pleasures - and I decide then and there to jot down
exactly what feeds my senses that very moment. I'd see the color of
the grass and the skies from out of the window...notice the people as
they go in and out, listen inadvertently to greetings, discussions,
arguments. And these are a handful... enough to make my pen work a
while. Other times, I sit down at my cellphone's call and as a text
message flashes before my eyes, my mind travels past the shadow of the
friend who just texted me to remembrances of thoughts, activities, and
feelings he has shared with me -and I have a handful.... enough to make
my pen work a while. What I am saying is that random times can open up
my eyes to a waterfall of ideas available right on my hands and at my
disposal.
Of course, the flash of inspiration is
one that comes at most unguarded moments - inspiration that I must
catch and write about immediately lest I lose it. These are the times
when I have the nicest, most appropriate words to work with come
effortlessly and most languidly, Unfortunately, these magic moments
come only when they decide to and not when I'd want them to. Which makes
it just one more of the good times for writing. In other words, if you
ask me - there would be not just one best time for writing because for
me, there are a whole lot of these good times. Definitely, the 'best
time' would be any of those times when my heart and my mind are at their
complementing best... very much like I would look into the yin and yang
of tai-chi.
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