because I have to write it… – answering “why” of storytelling
As a creative person, your mind is always receptive. It’s always looking out for inspiration. Sometimes, fellow creators inspire you, or sometimes a particular event triggers a chain reaction in your brain. But every story you tell, has that one seed from where it all began to take shape. Yesterday, 4th of March 2022 was one such inspirational day for me. Season 6 of BlogchatterWritFest hosted its session 1 where I listened to three amazing authors whom I admire. Meghana Pant, Kanchana Banerjee and Kiran Manral were fantastic as always. Even though I have only read Eye on You by Kanchana Banerjee till now, I have been following all of them on social media, tracking their books, etc.
Story will choose its own place on the shelf; you just write it.
There are many points which were discussed during this session. However, the most important thing which resonates with me is the authenticity of the story which you want to tell to the world. I cannot agree more that the story you are writing has to be the one which you want to tell and not the one which the world wants to read or listen to. Trends and best seller genres should not guide the story you write. Recently I tried to take a dive in some storytelling. And it became a wonderful experience when I let the story tell itself through me instead of me dictating the story.
We often hear this thought about poetry. It’s believed that good poetry manifests itself making poets a mere channel of narration. But the story isn’t any different either. Story chooses its own genre. If we sit to write with predetermined notions, the piece resulting after this will look patchy and pretentious instead of being a literature.
Don’t rush to quit
I also like the advice which they gave unanimously about taking writing as a full-time profession. One should not rush to quit the job in hand with a dream to become an author. Even in Marathi literature, all the stalwarts were doing something or the other to earn their living and writing on the side. Most of them were working as faculty at various colleges, some worked for films, etc. Incidentally, on the same day, I listened to one podcast where Dhaval Dange, author of Gandhar, and two other novels, mentioned the same point. Dhaval himself works professionally in the IT industry. And has published three books till now. So, just tell your story, don’t rush to quit what’s in your hand and work well for you!
This was a very inspiring session personally for me and I am looking forward to upcoming sessions of BlogchatterWritFest. This post is written as part of BlogchatterWritFest.
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