A few days ago, I was talking to a friend about writing a detective story. The discussion led to a very disturbing line. He said that to write a suspense thriller one has to write backwards,i.e., one writes the twist and then works back in order to make things fall in place. There was even a hint of glory in his voice when he said that any piece of writing is like a puzzle,like you write different portions and fit the blocks to get the whole body. Now the thing is, I have till date liked most of what he has written. But this statement of his shouts out loud that writing is a craft. Two nights ago, I resumed writing my detective story and I found myself constantly perturbed. I somehow couldn't accept the fact that writing is viewed from this point of view. Probably there are successful writers who would back his claim but for me it is not just a constant irritation but also a deep point for introspection.
Writing is art. There is a sharp distinction between art and craft. For craft you need talent. If you have talent, if you have skills, you can hone them and be better at what you do. An artist on the other hand is 'gifted'. He/she will always have something extra. Both art and craft produce creations, of course. But on a sufficiently long time scale, art presents with much more superior results than craft. Some things make you clap, others make you speechless. An artist has to have craft, he/she has to work on his talent and sharpen the outcome.
From a writer's point of view, I must say that I find poetry no different from prose. Personally, I like writing poems more than long articles. Poetry is fun. You can do everything being a poet. Yes, you can even put a twist in the tail. But that twist just flows with the rest of the poem. I cannot imagine myself writing various stanzas separately and putting them together at the end. A river flows from mountain to sea.Period.
Why should articles/ short stories/ novels follow any other route?
I can easily put a disclaimer here saying that I'm not an artist. But in this blog, I write to myself and hence, I don't lie. Yes, I have had plots in mind, I have had certain ideas those I wanted to talk about. But I have followed the chronological sequence of my words. Something in me tells that I'm not a craftsman. Am I an artist? At times, I am.
In my head, here is a sketch of an Artist.
Writing is art. There is a sharp distinction between art and craft. For craft you need talent. If you have talent, if you have skills, you can hone them and be better at what you do. An artist on the other hand is 'gifted'. He/she will always have something extra. Both art and craft produce creations, of course. But on a sufficiently long time scale, art presents with much more superior results than craft. Some things make you clap, others make you speechless. An artist has to have craft, he/she has to work on his talent and sharpen the outcome.
From a writer's point of view, I must say that I find poetry no different from prose. Personally, I like writing poems more than long articles. Poetry is fun. You can do everything being a poet. Yes, you can even put a twist in the tail. But that twist just flows with the rest of the poem. I cannot imagine myself writing various stanzas separately and putting them together at the end. A river flows from mountain to sea.Period.
Why should articles/ short stories/ novels follow any other route?
I can easily put a disclaimer here saying that I'm not an artist. But in this blog, I write to myself and hence, I don't lie. Yes, I have had plots in mind, I have had certain ideas those I wanted to talk about. But I have followed the chronological sequence of my words. Something in me tells that I'm not a craftsman. Am I an artist? At times, I am.
In my head, here is a sketch of an Artist.
