Writing about how to write effectively is nothing new, but to find the skill of good writing is perhaps a rarity. To achieve this, you need to write – not just write but also write well. Writing skills are an asset but what’s remarkable is how wholly different it is to be able to write and to write skillfully. The idea being, creativity is a force which is not domineering in many, but can be made so only with some self-enforcement.
So, what exactly makes writing, creative? Imagination, obviously!
But everyone imagines – what’s new?
The ‘newness’ stands on one’s ability to write it down in a way that they immediately make sense with their readers. You can only be a good creative writer if you either write something undeniably relevant or something so irrefutable that readers do not mind believing what you want them to. Who doesn’t agree with Twinkle Khanna’s hard-hitting but valid feminist quips reflecting on recent events? Or, who minds immersing themselves in J.K. Rowling’s dreamy world of witchcraft and wizardry?
The list of award-winning writers has no end, but their significant achievement is that they have opened up another magical world for us readers to know and feel. And the magic they created with their words made their fantasy not just their’s but everybody’s!
It is the insight and vision that makes every writer unique. The perspectives and actions of the characters they create carve out multiple versions of the same story without any of them being wrong. Playing with the correct words can eventually make a terrorist a messiah; and a freedom fighter a national mutineer. Why do you think Jaswant Singh’s book, “Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence” was banned in India soon after its release? Why do you consider Shakuni as the sole villain in Mahabharata when all he did was instigate Duryodhana, and not consider that Draupadi had loose morals for sleeping with five husbands?
A clever and creative wordplay can change worlds. Going by the conventions makes narration a monotonous job. To gain acceptance and readership, you need to make valid points and play with multiple prospects at the same time. Every writer’s style is unique, and that is what makes space for them in a rather practical literary world. Who would have thought that Mahabharata, even after a thousand years, would evoke numerous versions from different voices? “A Palace of Illusions” by Chitra Divakaruni is one of the most-read retellings, from Draupadi’s point of view and is also a brilliant piece of creative work.
During a press-conference, William Faulkner once confessed – “At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that—that the young man or the young woman must possess or teach himself, train himself, in infinite patience, which is to—to try and to try and to try until it comes right.”
Wise are his words and immortal is his creativity. Being creative is not something one can induce themselves into, but it comes inadvertently. To be the “Reader’s Writer”, one must be creative but also logical. Mediocre literature isn’t promoted any longer even if they are somehow published. Unless readers don’t affiliate with what you want to create, it becomes pointless. Though it doesn’t invalidate your creativity of course (everyone is unique), but what is the point of the uniqueness if it cannot be inferential, right? Think.