Writing is difficult

I always wanted to be a writer inspite of my very limited talent with words and letters, grammar and vocabulary , English and Hindi. For years till class X , understanding these limitations very well I had decided Journalism would be my chosen option of earning a livelihood. It’s a fact well understood by writer that writing is the least artistic of all arts . Journalism is the least artistic of all written arts .No wonder the Jobs available would be more. Hence for a man of recognised limited talent it was the most viable of all available options. Viable and available are so rhyming, especially in life.

Well long long years after the limited dream of being a Journalist died a quite death, without any deserving burial ceremony, I had decided to write at least a few articles every week in the least Journalistic medium of all available-viable medium .I decided to use this blogging account of mine that Google throws at us free. Of course Google never gives anything free but then I don’t mind it here and I am strongly avoiding the temptation of getting into this fact.

I decided that I would blog and after a while after some months I would proudly call myself a Blogger.  A less talented journalist. An even less talented artist. But a writer none the less. A writer of extreme insignificance but a writer for sure. Now many people write wonderful emails all day. No less in creativity and imagination than any accomplished fiction writer. But that doesn’t make them writers .A writer is one who earns a little or great living or a little or great hunger by virtue of his writing .Emails writing professionals in spite of all their creativity do not earn a living through writing mails. Some professionals may still differ on that definition .But here I must say that if some of us are earning a living by virtue of writing fancy emails then there is no reason why we should not consider them as artists .

To make sure there is an element of seriousness in all this -2nd innings of mine at a writing dream -I decided to add a financial element to my Blog. I used all kinds of advertisement. I still use a few. A newspaper or a magazine is not worth its salt if there are no advertisements. A Blog is no better without it. A not for Profit writing is not serious unless you are doing it for donations. It’s another matter that most writers never make a serious profit from writing and I am firm supporter of the idea that serious artists including writers should die of either Drug Abuse , Alcoholism or atleast Hunger just like a famous Rockstar or our authors of Hindi textbook stories. But never the less its quite offensive of writers to pretend that there is no financial element to writing . It devalues their effort. It’s a serious question mark to the professionalism of the writer. A budding writer should always avoid the temptation of writing for free. A serious artist should always charge a fee.

 Having made all necessary preparations for my new found pursuit I decided to take a dive with the intention to write atleast twice weekly and had decided to write daily after sometime. When things weren’t moving well I asked the help of a dear friend to just keep the Blog going .He gave up as easily as he took it up. Now with a few months passing by it has become writing twice monthly. I have already lost the guts to justify myself as a serious Blogger to myself, let alone the ever so distant dream of being an unread useless "Writer”. But all said and done I have understood one thing that gives me some hope and solace - WRITING IS DIFFICULT.