What Goes In vs What Comes Out

An obsession of the modern world is the demand for proof. This has a great upside, that it lessens the possibility of plagiarism. Believe me, there are people who would steal your work and pass it on as their own without batting an eyelash (It has happened to me more than once). I can never understand their reasoning for this, but to provide references and the stringent copyright law has brought us a more protected arena to stamp our mark safe from thieves.

The downside of this is that many publishers, especially the online newspapers and magazines seem to prefer referenced work. Even for SEO content writing, providing links and references is a plus. I know of a few young budding writers who have succumbed to just Googling others’ work, and putting together essays as if they would for a university assignment. Granted, they are very good at it.

Yet, when privileged enough to read their ‘private’ writings, I can’t help but feel that the world is missing on their soul. The articles are becoming of the same format everywhere and apart from a successful few who dare to just write what their heart desires, the rest writes mostly to fit in the guidelines of this modern trend. What a waste of time and talent.

There are genius writers out there who can analyse and write spontaneously and the result is well-written and of impact. At times though, research is vital. As the process of telling something is the process of learning. A writer soon learns that almost always more is learned than can be put out in one piece of work.

So the research becomes a hoarding, another voracious aspect of a writer’s life. Collecting and hoarding knowledge not just to satisfy a magazine’s submission guidelines, but the research in itself becomes a limb of writing…and one thing leads to another. The writer becomes the Jack of many trades and Master of none.

To me, that is when a new thing can be created. A synergy of knowings, mixed with the writer’s intuitive creative force. That is when magic happens.

Intuitive work alone is genius, yet, most of us mortals needs the process of learning to research effectively, and having the greed to keep learning and hoarding knowledge in order to create charmed and captivating pieces. So read, read and read more. Take notes and search more. Do this for you, for no other reason than to satiate your own curiosity. Put more in your understanding than is required by any piece you are working on.

And let time bring you that enchanted cradle of having everything fit together on the white paper.