Why Not Write?

 

Kayaknya nggak ada deh orang yg terlahir bisa menulis, tapi semua akhirnya bisa nulis. Kalau bisa nulis, kenapa nggak ‘NULIS’ ?

— JerryTrisya (@jerrytrisya) June 16, 2014

 I don’t think people were born with the ability to write but everyone ends up being able to write. If you can, why not ‘write’?

That’s the closest I could translate the question a good friend of mine asked above.

For the longest time I was one of the many people whose friends encouraged to write but didn’t. Note that I typed many people there. I was and am flattered by the encouragement but at the same time, I am aware that there are many of us and that I was and still am not that good a writer. But we’ll get into that later.

_______

To answer Jerry‘s question, I cast my mind back to the various replies and comments made by kindred souls I know, those who love writing but have not done it yet.

The first that come to mind is Time. So many would-be writers I know say they don’t have the time to sit down and write.

The second is Ideas. The fight and search for that one great idea are real, my friend. 90% of would-be writers I know say their latest idea is still not good enough.

The third is Mood. So many would-be writers I know feel the need to be in a certain frame of mind to be able to produce the masterpiece they envision in their heads.

Writing by Oliver Hammond | Creative Commons License BY NC SA 2.0

For the longest time I too subscribed to these barriers in writing, on different degrees. I never really felt Time was a factor; I wrote pretty consistently even when I was still teaching full time and doing private tutoring at the same time.

When I started doing freelance copy writing, the Mood factor went out of the window. Editor X wanted 2000 words tomorrow, editor X got what she wanted.

Some might want to argue that writing fiction is different and to this I’d say, Maybe to you. I make it work. 2000 word of fictional work is my daily average these days; work that I can and do sell.

My biggest barrier was Ideas. I used to think of myself as a writer without a story. That went out of the window, too, six months ago.

What happened?

No big secret. Nothing people will go ooh or aah about.

I started writing.

With goals. Measurable ones.

With standards. Clear ones.

And once I did, I find my voice, I find ideas, floods of them. And I am now clamoring for time to put everything down on paper. (Or on screen, rather.)

And I understand perfectly when, in answer to why he is not writing a prequel or sequels to certain popular titles, Stephen King says, “There are so many other stories to tell.”

Am I producing literary masterpieces? Not by a long shot. But I am finally fine with it. Because I am producing decent, if imperfect, work that still adheres to standards I impose, which I continually revise.

Because I am going to get there. With every short story that I finish, I am pushing myself closer to the future writer that I can be, one who can produce something to write home about. I am paying my dues while continuing to hone my skills and learn the craft.

Ira Glass on Creative Work

It is simple really, but for some reason it escapes many people: You can’t write until you actually sit down and write.

Shadowfeet – Brooke Fraser

HOME MADE INSTANT PANCAKE MIX | Recipes | Nigella Lawson

HOME MADE INSTANT PANCAKE MIX | Recipes | Nigella Lawson.

Can be done in batches. I love you, Nigella!

Old Faces in a Big City

Running around town again after being a hermit for about 2 years got me to run into old faces, big as this city is.

It has confirmed what I’ve known for some time that I am not the sociable kind but alas, being a teacher, you’re not really allowed to be unsociable. The only good thing about all this is the fact that the students I had are great people, with whom random encounters mostly turn pleasant.

This particular one I met today got on the bus a stop after mine. She’s a floor supervisor for the cosmetic department; I am ashamed to say I could not remember her name. I remember her though, the way she was in class, how she performed. She informed me (now that she was stationed at mall X instead of the old Y) she was currently working under Mr M, who had been a student too; dominant, energetic, a complete type A. I asked her, just to kind of confirm, and got a kick out of her asserting that M was still the way he had been.

She confided in me how these youngsters she supervised today “…are nothing like they used to be.” It reads like a cliche but I felt for her, more because I know she was not exactly the stern kind. I could see her old charges at Y being the obedient type they were because “…this is how things are run here.” That she couldn’t assert herself in this new environment at X worried her and I wish I could do something about that.

I asked who was in charge of HR at X and rolled my eyes when she told me. The worst HR manager I had ever encountered, and that’s saying something as this was not a small company, at all. Sexist, inconsistent, the do as I say not as I do type of manager. I cackled to myself later though, when I realized that while other supervisors we talked about had mostly been promoted due to expansion, this POS was still a mere HR manager at a branch.

She got off with a request that I drop by at the store and I told her she should really teach me how to put on some make up already!

It’s funny. I always used to think I wouldn’t want to work with people and I’m still not completely convinced I should. And yet, I can’t imagine not teaching, not having these people with whom to interact, to challenge — and when they are no longer students — to catch up, to randomly meet. I love listening to details of their lives they are willing to share, these resilient people who don’t realize how hard they work.

A Case of You – Aaron Tveit

My family has no history of alcohol abuse but this resonates with me. I can’t say I understand alcoholism but I understand addiction and this is one reality.

Having the Devil’s Luck: The Story of a Fan

I was sleeping off lost hours over a deadline and woke up a bit disoriented when a mention on Twitter caught my eye.

It was Sley, a very good friend of mine I met online years ago. It was a slightly panicky tweet too (very uncharacteristic of her) that I tweeted back asking what was up.

She told me that a good friend of hers had an extra ticket to go and see Cyril Takayama, my favorite magician of all time, here in Jakarta.

+++

I was not as excited as I should be, as I thought there were probably hundreds of other people clamoring over that friend of Sley’s, wanting the same ticket. Also I was rather dried up, seeing as clients who should have transferred payments had yet to do so. Nevertheless, I told Sley I would contact her friend Dee, and check thing out.

As it turned out Dee was very accommodating and while talking to her, I checked my account to see the fund had been transferred. I hadn’t run out on the Devil’s luck yet!

After we agreed to meet on the D day and everything, Dee confided in me that Sley had terrorized convinced her to give me the ticket because I was such a huge, huge fan of Cyril’s. (I was, but let’s not go into that.) Once more, the Devil takes care of his own.

+++

What I thought would be a meet and greet turned out to be a gala dinner in honor of a TV launch. Cyril was to perform there, as the event was the work of the organization that parents AXN, the TV station producing his shows.

It also turned out that there was no meet and greet but the PR woman from AXN worked her own magic (she got into a kind of argument with Cyril’s handler, I believe) and got Cyril out to meet Dee and me.

Cyril was as charming and nice as he appeared on stage and TV. I don’t know if it was because I had overheard his handler or not but I did think he looked tired. (Also it was already 11 pm, mind.) But you couldn’t really tell — which was why I thought it was nice of him to come out and meet us, not to mention very professional.

+++

The realization that there was never a meet and greet to begin with (and that we were actually stealing his time) rendered me a lot less chatty than I normally would be — and we ended up taking quick pictures before Dee and I presented him with the gift we bought earlier.

One of the items was an XL T shirt which turned out to be too big and Cyril later tweeted us saying he made a cushion cover out of it!

 

I can’t really verbalize the gratitude I felt toward Sley, Dee and the lady from AXN because finally, this happened! It’s been three years in the making but what’s three years, really.