A Writer's Self Discipline
Human life is a complex affair, and a lot of things in this life would like to go their way as they please. Discipline is the act and attitude of bringing such things into proper control.
No meaningful activity, howsoever humble, can be done without some form or other of discipline. Go to the humble cobbler sitting on the wayside and look at his lowly craft. Look at the man who designs the mind boggling supercomputer. One thing both of them have in common is discipline. Since writing is not a random activity of pen on paper, it requires considerable discipline in many areas of life. If you want to be a successful writer, you should be wiling to discipline your whole life. WHERE THERE IS NO DISCIPLINE, THERE IS NO FRUITFUL WRITING.
In this lesson I would like to discuss the following subjects:
1--Discipline in Personal Life.
2--Discipline in Public Life.
3--Taking time to develop a rapport with your readers.
Discipline In Personal Life: Every writer should discipline his time, hobbies, reading and writing, his mouth, and his desire for social pleasures.
TIME: anyone who has indulged in any kind of hobby knows that time often eludes them when they need it most. At the same time they wonder about others who seem to accomplish ten times as much. The difference is not in time available, but in their time management skills.
Everyone has got only the same 24 hours at his disposal per day. The achievers, however, have learnt to plan how they spend it. If you are ever going to find sufficient time to pursue the hobby of writing, you will have to learn the same tricks.
Plenty of books on time management are available in the market, and I advise you to acquire one or more of them for your own benefit. Meanwhile, here are some tips for the beginner in time management.
Discover the TIME WASTERS in your life. This might include TV, excessive indulgence with newspapers, gossip, political discussions, or just idling in or out of bed. Chop away mercilessly these time wasters from your life. The second thing to do is to discover UNUSED BLOCKS of time. These are usually five to fifteen minutes blocks that you have when you wait at the bus stand, the railway station, or when you are involved in a similar activity where the time that you must spend in waiting is not in your control. Keep some interesting books, a diary, and a pen or two with you and use these as soon as these time blocks become available.
Also, assign a definite time every day for writing, even if it is only a 30-minute period. Guard it zealously, and do nothing except writing during this period. This will not only teach you discipline, but will also use the force of habit to unleash your creativity with words.
HOBBIES: it is good to have one or more hobbies, but see to it -- if at all possible -- that your hobbies reinforce your call for writing. What is the use of a hobby if it is a serious drain on your time and money, hindering your call to write.
For example, as a hobby you might pick up cartooning. It is not as difficult as you might believe. There are plenty of courses around. While these courses will never make you a political cartoonist, they will surely train you enough to draw you own illustrations to accompany your writings. This can greatly enhance the acceptance of your writings. Editors are always interested in illustrations, but most are usually unable to spend the extra money needed to get the illustration drawn by an artist.
There are many other hobbies that can enhance your commitment to write, instead of draining you out of it.
READING AND WRITING: almost every writer knows that he must read and write a lot, and therefore you might wonder why I have included it here. There is a definite reason. Even though almost every writer gives himself to read and writer, only few of them show the discipline that is needed to impart excellence to their writings. Most of them restrict themselves to read what they like, and do only the minimum amount of writing. Every person reads publications that arrest his mind and attention, but a writer should discipline himself to read more than that. Many time this will mean reading things that are boring, tough, or even offensive, but he must discipline himself to read these things irrespective of these obstacles. If he is a factual writer, he must keep in touch with the latest in his field. If he is a creative writer, he must know what is going on in that field.
Some writers do show an interest in wide reading, but they complain about a lack of time. Such people should learn to reorganize their time-table so that reading gets priority. Also, they should cultivate the self discipline of reading whenever they get even a five-minute block of time free.
Speed-reading is another discipline that can aid reading. It has been found that most people can read faster that what they usually do. Further, many people read all kind of material with one and the same speed, which is terribly wasteful. They should learn to read trivial materials faster to save time for the better ones. Also, they should learn to skim through books and periodicals so that time is not wasted on something that is worthless. Even when reading serious publications, they ought to improve their speed.
Plenty of books on speed-reading are available. You should buy one of them and practice from a while. The net result can be dramatic -- you might be able to read twice the amount of what you used to read so far, even though the time available remains the same.
Not only should you discipline yourself to read, but you should also discipline yourself for writing. This, you might say, is not necessary to emphasize, because every writer knows that he has to write. True, every writer knows that he has to write, but only few of them have developed the self discipline necessary to write the way they out to be doing it.
THE MOUTH: every writer should learn to control his mouth effectively. You should be a person given to a lot of listening, seeing and reading, but to only limited speaking. A person's maturity can often be gauged by the way he speaks.
Further, even though people enjoy the company of a conversationalist or a talkative person, most people do not admire such persons. There is a vast difference between liking you and admiring you. A commitment to chatter can make persons interesting, but not admired. Babbling continually can seriously devaluate you in front of others. What is worse, lack of such control affect the writings very seriously -- they can become verbose and shallow.
DESIRE FOR SOCIAL PLEASURE: man is a social being. He loves the company of others, and that is the reason why everyone indulges in social pleasures. These include sports and games, meeting others, and other outdoor activities. While these are not bad in themselves, a writer should learn to keep under control his desire for social pleasures.
Social pleasure is definitely exciting, but at what cost ? Most of the time it only drains away your money and energy without giving you anything meaningful in return. If you are addicted to these, consider whether all the outing to parties, festivals, and similar programmes are necessary !
A certain amount of social involvement might be necessary for some people, but people certainly indulge in much more than what is necessary. You should therefore learn to control yourself so that time is freed for more important activities like reading and writing.
If you have planned your recreation carefully with your family, then you already have sufficient recreation and relaxation already. Why waste time that is no longer necessary.
REVISION: most people want their writings published as soon as the first draft is ready. This is where discipline has to exercised. No writing is complete without thorough revision and rewriting, even if it comes from the pen of the most experienced writer.
Writing is not only a science, but also an art. Since the written material is a work of art, the first draft will NEVER be perfect. You must spend time to read and edit it. The above statement might look very na‹ve, but a lot of writers confess during personal interviews that rereading their works for the sake of correction is very difficult and even boring for them. It is here that each one of us should learn to control the natural tendency to avoid work and send for publication whatever is available.
Barring exceptions, every writer should revise his first draft thoroughly, and even this revised draft should be given a final polishing after a few days gap. If that looks too difficult for your you are free to choose the path of comfort, but do not expect much reception for your writings. Nor should you ever dream of becoming widely published and successful writer. What is worse, by the time you are convinced of the necessity to revise your writings, you will already have moulded yourself into further laziness by years of neglect.
All revision is painful, and you should not yearn to become a writer if you are afraid of pain. NO PAIN NO GAIN !!
SACRIFICE: writing is a noble call, and it requires certain sacrifices from its practitioners. You will have to learn to sacrifice everything that interferes with your commitment -- even if it deprives you of certain pleasures.
One can respond to this noble call only if one is willing to make a commitment. A commitment to mould your life, thoughts, and time so that they fit well with your call. As a Christian writer you should be willing to sacrifice the yearning for name, fame, and wealth. These are not wrong in themselves, nor should you shun them, but they should not be your goal. Accept them only if they come as the product of your commitment.
You might have to sacrifice your desire for pleasure, TV, clothing, and even things of comfort. You might even have to make financial sacrifices to buy tools like dictionaries, handbooks, and other material. This is all part of the commitment, and the more you are involved with your call the more you might be called to sacrifice.
Discipline In Public Life: Every person has a public life, specially when he meets others in parties, social and cultural functions, or occasion that brings him in the company of people. A few fortunate writers might even be able to meet their readers in specially convened meetings, symposia, or celebrations. A few writes might even find themselves invited for receiving special honour in public. The writer must exhibit a special sense of discipline at all such occasions.
While in a crowd like this, you might be identified as a special person because of your unusual achievements. Others might even give you special honour. The human ego has the tendency to be puffed up on such occasions. However, do not give the control over to your ego. Discipline yourself in such a way that you do not show off either in your conversation or while lecturing to people in a social event. Even if you are called to the stage to say a few words, just say a FEW words and restrain your ego from playing the boss.
It should be added, at the same time, that the ego manifests not only through one's speeches, but also through the writings. Therefore you should carefully screen all your writings to eliminate whatever your ego has placed there. It is here that the helpful criticism of interested family members helps.
CONTROL THE MOUTH: it is possible for a person to talk too much in public, even if he is not showing off. This is bad for a writer. Bad because of the cheap image that you create and also because of the things which you miss hearing because of your uncontrolled mouth.
It is better to be wrongfully accused for silence than getting rightfully accused for uncontrolled speaking. People will complain about both silence as well as chattering, but the former is to be preferred over the latter. Further, every writer should remember the saying that IT IS BETTER TO REMAIN SILENT AND LET PEOPLE THINK THAT YOU ARE A FOOL RATHER THAN OPENING YOUR MOUTH TO CONFIRM IT.
LISTEN A LOT: every writer should keep his ears open to listen to people. You must listen to their conversations carefully, not for the purpose of snooping, but to get a better feel for their problems, pains, handicaps, aspirations, and even to discover hidden talents.
A good reservoir should not only give out liberally but should also receive sufficient input. Your ears are an important source of information input, and therefore you should always keep them open to listen to people.
It is not easy to listen to boring people, and you should definitely know how to escape this kind of a trap, but an occasional session with even this kind of a person might be useful. For example, if you are a story-writer interested in portraying a talkative person, or a person who dominates all conversation, talking (listening !) to and observing such a person can make the description in your story more authentic.
It is not possible to create real-life characters in your writings without spending time to observe how people behave and talk in real life. Therefore you should always give time to listen to people.
Further, if you are ever going to write for a special segment of the population, say the children, then you will never be able to write with insight, or authentically, if you do not spend considerable time in listening to them.
IGNORE OTHERS: as soon as you discipline yourself to use your time, you will discover a terrible social disturbance. Suppose you carry some books, a diary, and a pen or two in your handbag. Finally, a day comes when you have to wait for someone at the railway station. On reaching there you discover that because of a snag the train will be 30 minutes late. You pull out the book to read. Within a few minutes of reading, an interesting thought strikes, you and you pull out the diary to note it down, only to find that the man sitting next to you is trying to read every alphabet that you write.
It can be terribly annoying when people try to peep into your notebook, or even into the book that you are reading. It is quite embarrassing when someone interferes so rudely into one's personal affairs. Most sensitive people respond by closing down the notebook and waiting for a more opportune moment. But this is only foolishness.
A busy crowd is the best place to loose one's ideas. Therefore, by the time the train arrives you will have lost the unusual thought or phrase or insight that came to your mind. Thus it is a choice between loosing something valuable and tolerating a few moments of intrusion. You will always find people taking unnecessary interest in your affairs while you interview someone in public, try to concentrate upon an important book, or when you try to write down something. Discipline yourself to ignore them. Your commitment to writing is more important than a few minutes of discomfort.
Taking Time To Develop A Rapport With Your Readers: I have said this before, and I would like to remind you again, that some sort or other of interaction with your readers is essential if you want to become a successful writer.
A vacuum cannot sustain your writing. But if you close your mind to the external world, you are forcing nothingness to produce something meaningful. This is one reason why many writers have no topics to write upon. The situation could just be the opposite if they took care to allow information to flow into their minds. They would eventually reach a state where they are unable to write everything that they want to write.
Three important sources of information are reading, listening, and interaction with your readers. While reading and listening make your writings authentic, interaction with your readers makes them timely, lively and personal. No one can communicate at a personal level without knowing the persons first.
All writers should address some need in the society. You need to take time to interact with the society so that you might discover the needs. This much has been said several times in this course. I would like to add that once you start addressing their needs and problems, you should take time to listen to them -- to make sure that you are doing it right.
I have already told you the methods for obtaining feedback. You must regularly read the Letters to the Editor column of the publications for which you write. You should seek the comments, counsel, and guidelines of the editors who select your articles. You should try to listen to those who subscribe to the publication in which you publish. If at all possible, you should involve your family in reading and commenting upon your writings. All of this put together will give rise to a two-way relationship, a rapport between you and the reader.
Also, if your readers ever write to you, you should be prompt in giving them a very courteous reply.
If you do not develop this kind of a relationship, you will most probably address your articles with a tone of "Whomsoever interested". Articles written in this mood do not bring favourable response either from the editors or from the readers. Write for a specific group. This is possible only if you are willing to take time to develop a rapport with your target audience.
Original article contributed by Dr. Johnson C. Philip. Revised by:
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