A small village in Maharashtra revived its traditional waterway. The increase in water brought about food produce in the otherwise barren village. The villagers could keep themselves nourished. The next year the produce increased and the villagers bartered produce among themselves. The third year they took it to the market outside their villagers. – This was the imagery that came to me when I read Tomichan’s prompt. I write one book, Tomichan writes one book, Arvind Passey writes one book, Dr.Rekha Rani writes another, we read it, the next year we exchange these books, the third year we export it. But if everyone has a book then where will the new book go?
Are there more writers than readers today? Before we look into that what make us write? Why do we write at all…?
I do agree it is a great way to prevent being spanked by Mary Kutty, it becomes a document that at a later stage can help us validate something…if I were to flow systematically then the primary reason for writing anything is to communicate with others to stimulate interest or action from the reader. To document experiences and learn from them.
The key question would be writing… do we write for ourselves or for others.
Writing for ourselves is simple, it helps us to think, learn and understand and store for future reference. It may or may not be shared with others. writing for others is definitely writing for others, it could be assessments, for sharing your ideas, with the new age digital marketing guru’s saying publishing a book is a way to establish credentials, publishing a book more than writing a book has become the focus. If I were to list why people write a book then it would probably be:
- For fame
- To establish tangible credibility of knowledge in a subject.
- To tell a story.
With self publishing and publishing with Amazon anyone can become a published author. The shift has gone from a good story and good writing craft to saleability. More about it on post on a previous indispire muse handed by Dr.Rekha Rani.
A good writer needs to be a voracious reader too. A why else would we read explore that in post on Arvind Passey’s muse eight reasons to read and choice to be educated.
But looking at the kind of books that come to be reviewed these days… it is like Mary Angelou says there is a song inside that wants to be heard. Each one of us wants to be heard. The noise outside is so much that voices are drowning. So many words get lost, they leave the mouth and lose their courage sense of direction and wander aimlessly until they get swept away like dead leaves. If ever you are alone when it is raining and listen you can hear the chorus of the lost words. shy people carried their words in their pockets, but people considered as loudmouths, also carried these words with them since people who are used being overheard by everyone are often at a loss for how to make themselves heard by someone.
When people talk…most people never listen. There are people out there who need an empathetic ear; all they need is to talk it out. To find that listening ear that comes from an understanding heart. When shared shame seem to loose the power t survive.
As I can see readers make writers and writers make readers. Somewhere out there is someone who needs that story that is being written. Someone who will grow up with a different landscape, without that story the person will be a different person and who with that story may have hope or wisdom or kindness or comfort.
Cantadora - The keeper of stories. 
Reading and writing feed on each other. But nowadays is there a tendency to write without reading? Some blogs and books made me ask that question.
I get it, which is why I mentioned of late people write because they want to be heard.