You fail only if you stop writing

I waited for it. I waited for 25 years of my life to get inspired. I waited almost half of my life waiting for the right moment to come so that I could get inspired and write my story. Trust me it was the biggest mistake of my life.

If I had the courage to start early, I would have penned down oceans of emotions and fields full of characters and moments. But, here I am still struggling to find my feet in the competitive world of writing.

So, my advice to anyone who wants to write is — don’t wait for the inspiration to come; it won’t come ever.

Inspiration comes to those who work for it

When I started my career as a writer, the first excuse my brain came up with for procrastinating at work was, “You’re not inspired Arjun. You must not write now. It won’t be as good as you write when you are inspired to write.” And, the fool that I was!

Don’t wait for the inspiration to come; it won’t come ever.

I wasted a huge amount of my precious time waiting for the right moment to come. This was when I realized that our brain is a mine of laziness. If we will not force it to think, it will become stale. That’s exactly what it wants — so that it does not have to work hard.

The more you write, the more you get inspired

My simplest mantra to everyone who wants to write — write as much as you can every day. Don’t wait for the right words to come to you; they won’t. Pour your heart out on the sheet of paper and you will automatically start to find the hidden meaning in each sentence you write. At the end of it all you will have the collection of pearls that you can tie on a string and create a necklace of stories. Who knows — those stories might inspire generations to come?

You fail only when you stop writing

In case you are afraid of failures, and you think that getting your write up rejected will make you a failure, then remember

YOU FAIL WHEN YOU STOP WRITING!

Writing is something that’s not good, bad or ugly. It is a painting of the voice which not everyone will be able to recognize. But remember, sooner or later you will have the right lyrics and the right tune to orchestrate the symphony with your words that will spell bins the readers.

But, only if you write with all your heart!

The desire to write grows with writing

To sum it up, all I’d like to say is that writing is a desire. It is an urge which rises with every word you spill on the paper. It is an urge which is beyond the usual urge of pheromones. For a true writer, words work as an aphrodisiac that arouses him to engage in the most romantic courtship ever. The courtship between his thoughts, his heart and the words that flow from his pen!

If you want to write, just write. Don’t think of the worldly things. The fear of rejection, the appreciation of acceptance and all the other things that are acting as a distraction — get rid of them.

And, just write!

Originally published at The Ascent.