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Engaging with an idea requires enormous amount of involvement. This involvement may arise due to some attraction towards the incentives coming along with probing or seeking the answer from that area of study. As happens in romance, we forget everything else around us except the admiration, appreciation and adoration of each and every element of personality, virtue or natural scene in front of us. It seems to be compulsory prerequisite for any author that he/she embeds their heart and mind in certain kind of environment where romance with the idea is possible and enjoyable.
Michelangelo said, “Excellence is infinite patience.” To survive this type of infinite perseverance, one needs a consistent channel of calm, introspective, ambience where we can strive for achieving the life-sphere suitable for reaching pace to translate our thoughts in words. Any peculiar habit of authors which gives this freedom to schedule their working style in such a way that it is helpful in complementing and rewarding this lonely quest of engaging with the ideas is then adored endlessly. I do not wish to prejudice this conversation with examples but readers are aware about famous examples about tea, coffee, whisky, wine, walking, seashore, hills, any particular table, window and likewise without emphasizing on any kind of order.
Is addiction a fair word to use in this respect? Or it is just metaphor for author`s engaged frame of mind which restlessly seeks to wear the appearance of helpless addicted, obsessed person in search of solace through which they discover the true self. This discovery often leads to the point where original thinking meets the sincere expression, precise observation meets the analytical explanation and elegant treatment meets confident voice in terms of literary craft being developed.
Our chief concern is why these types of addictions are always being perceived as indispensable even though they are not and secondly how we can avoid relying on this probably dangerous dependence on external motivations for being lost in the writing exercise. I say this reliance in addiction is always sensed from the point of view of being indispensable because it gives feel and an opportunity to a thinking person for carving out a shortest path towards creativity. By being driven away in the environment where person who is writing does not compromise his/her solitude except for rare privilege given to the habits which help them developing a seed of an idea whose time has come. Solitude, not only in terms of loneliness but also in terms of resonating with the deepest and highest demands of involving in the never ending round the clock interaction with the wheels of contemplative whirlpool. This whirlpool then compels us to express in the different form or genre like poems, articles, essays, stories, novels and likewise.
Do we care about process of writing or we are only concerned about the end effect in the form of quality product? Appealing or convincing writing can be very argumentative, stylistic and sagacious. There are great deal of painful efforts involved in attaining the mind which respects decency towards ethics of representing the controversial, complex and immensely crucial questions in front of us in a manner enabling comprehension based on reasoned imagination and lively rationale. It may be pursuit of core scientific research or plot scripting of any novel or scene in drama or film. If we know how, in which condition with sudden serendipity or cumulative affirmation about any wild guess, we invent a new framework of perspectives helping us to understand nuances of our potential; then we can really seriously guide our writing initiatives. So, knowing those moments where slightest hint given by the accidental realization about the radically novel concepts which are still rooted in classic old times helps us to focus on drastically different imagination still able to connect to the contemporary commonality between us.
I do not think these types or any types of addictions supposedly helping any adventure or passion of a bibliophile are some types of comfort zones. On the contrary these are conflict zones of mind where limitations of our logical/illogical extreme form of thinking are challenged, recognized and get destroyed over a period of time to usher into new form of logical/illogical extremes. At the same time when someone is deeply intertwined with the natural beauty or entangled with material cravings of food, drink or likewise; those moments lead to create ambience necessary to nurture our mind. Then we are not trapped in contradictory frames of comfort and uncomfortable zones but we slowly learn to live in the reflecting universe where both these different perspectives actually emerge as alternative complement to each other. So, this feeling of stress while limitations being challenged actually demands some kinds of opposite compensatory force in the form of reviving, updating and recreating the intuition along with regeneration of other mental and physical energies which are very much necessary for continuing the work we are doing.
Authorship may revolve around authority and expertise. But writing can explore different colors in life, revelation of which may not be possible without the culture of thinking catalyst. These catalysts are spread everywhere in our unusual behavior, abnormal habits, flexible schedule, indefinite discipline, infinite capacity to experiment and diversify our working style, audacious way of maintaining uniformity in the direction of efforts necessary for germination of ideas dormant since long time. This unevenness, asymmetry and genuine alternative perspective emerging from our defiance, dissent and questioning attitude towards belief about “why some can write better and why some cannot” will strengthen our morale to have solid first step towards writing and publishing. This will certainly give fillip to very peculiar way of habits converging with kind of initiatives, risks and journeys we usher in.
There should not be any excuse for arbitrary embrace to the easily available leisure of addictions by believing that it will award us secrets of multi-dimensional professional ability.
This potential coming due to certain beliefs, ideologies and outlook towards everyday happenings and history enhances our capacity to judge the valuable issues of sustenance- social and global connections reflecting on the vexing problems of current, future time. So this addiction may not gift us any kind of substitute for motivation to work around, develop and master a idea on the table. But the essential meaning of addiction which compels us to develop sense of belonging, a sense of “I cannot live without you…”, will certainly enhance the prospects of mingling and culturing the companionship with pen and paper.
Addiction gives us a feeling of some kind of shameless-mad commitment to that area of enquiry or virtue we wish to cherish through accomplishment of relaxed moments in which we pursue our passion towards writing. Once we realize massive amounts of returns it is awarding then it is the matter of few days or so, we will surrender ourselves to that form of persistent, never ending love affair with desirable and healthy forms of addiction.
No addiction is advisable for any kind of voyage of literature. But if you have one, then go for creative and constructive marriage of that with the blossoming world of letters. In this wordy world we can derive courage out of this process to leave behind those addictions and emerge as a happy merchant who compensates loss due to any grave grief by very little investment of few passionate moments in the form of romance with ideas, books and treasure of writing.
Thus any kind of side effects coming from exiting extraordinary reliance over these addictions are much more worthy of neglecting because they will be flyovers or express bypass routes to reach the mood of sensitivity the horizons which are necessary to sustain the momentum of cascading continuum of thinking and writing. Best wishes to all of you for that.
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