The ideal word(s)

Dear M,

Some time ago, some of us - who had been writing for a while as well as who wanted to enter the world of writing - gathered to attend a workshop. There was a lot of interesting discussions on different topics. More importantly, we came to know the strengths and weaknesses of our own writing as well as those of others. It was a good learning. I wonder how many of them still keep writing. I remember a few of those determined faces, but I have my doubts about some others who might have stopped writing two days after the workshop.

Anyway, there was a question raised by one of the attendees. She said that while she was writing in a flow, sometimes she would get stuck because she could not find the ideal word and then the flow would be lost because she would keep returning to that one word. We asked her if the thesaurus did not help. It was indeed difficult to get back on track once the flow was lost. We also suggested to her to write the closest word and continue writing, but to come back later and modify the word. She said it didn't work; she could not continue until the right word was found. And by that time, the thoughts that were running on would have gone ahead beyond her view.

I haven't faced a similar situation, but I do know the suffocation when the right word is at the tip of your fingers but it refuses to come out. Sometimes I too spend time trying to coax it out, sometimes look for it in thesaurus, and sometimes I leave a hyphen where the right word is to be inserted, so that I can return later and spend time on it.

Yesterday I was working on a particularly difficult section of my story. I had to convey it in a way that did not sound like preaching to the reader, and yet, it was a piece of philosophy, though not unknown to the reader. I had been thinking of nothing else for the past couple of days. In my sleep, I would be framing sentences. Those sentences never came out right. But I kept writing whatever came to my mind, even though the words were far from ideal. They did sound like preaching, they did sound condescending, they did sound wrong. But I wrote any way. The same thing in many different ways. Once those thoughts were out there, it was easier to find out what was making them sound artificial. It was easier to smoothen them out and soften them a little and compact them a bit. The final result is not perfect, yet, but I know I will get there.

It is important to write it down, whichever way it comes out, so that it can be polished or edited or rewritten later. If we keep turning it in our mind, it may not come out properly, and the result would be that we get stuck and would lose the thread of writing.

Love.

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The Magic of the Vocabulary

Dear M,

Vocabulary is quite something. One feels wonderful when the right words appear. And at that moment, you know it is worth all the effort you have put in, knowingly or unknowingly, to learn new words. All that learn-by-rote exercises you must have done and can barely remember, all those books you were forced to read for your exams, all those books you devoured out of love for reading, all of them coming together in culmination at your fingertips at the right moment, and the ecstasy you experience when you write/type the right word - that's the magic of the Vocabulary.

Love.

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Writing in the Mother tongue

Dear M,

Why is everyone reluctant to write in the mother tongue? Well - not everyone, many people do write spectacular pieces in their language. But there are some, torn between English and the mother tongue, (wasting time) wondering which one to choose. The regional language has a limited audience, I was told. Probably true to some extent. In this age of publicising books through the Internet, a global language might be a better choice.

But again, aren't we looking at the wrong thing here? I tell this person to stop thinking about the audience. What do you like to write in, which language are you confident in? Specifically, when you think about writing, or when you scribble unconsciously in your notebook, how do the words come out?

Because if you think in English and try to translate to the mother tongue, it could come out wrong. If you think in the mother tongue and try to translate to English, it could come out wrong. A lot of things depend on how it emerges at the first attempt - though we can edit and polish it, if the first output is robust enough, it is easier to work on, later.

Some people are proficient in both (or many) languages. They have the luxury of choosing the language they want to write in. All of us may not be manufactured so.

I don't know. For some, the best thoughts are presented well in the mother tongue, that's what I think. And I also don't agree with a person choosing English just for the audience, because if the writing isn't good, there will be no audience.

Love.

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Perambulating and Ruminating and Perusing

Dear M,

One of the remarks that most Indian writers receive when they display their work to others (especially to readers better-versed with the language) is about our choice of vocabulary.

I have received that comment, and I have seen someone else being given similar feedback.

It has something to do with our learning of the foreign language, and our 'perusal' of it. Apparently we use elaborate words where simple, straightforward verbs would suffice; and we are too ordinary where flowery stuff could be afforded. It is not easy to cross that hurdle, without knowing exactly what they are talking about. For instance, I know writers who are fond of words like ruminating and flabbergasted.

Surely you have heard of this Dr Johnson statement: "While I was perambulating in the nocturnal hours of the previous day through the combined latitudes and longitudes, I spied a rustic, whom I interrogated and with the rotary motion of the cudgel in my hand, I made his perpendicularity into horizontality."

It is important to know when to make a statement like that, and when to say that in the simplest terms.

Love.

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Vocabulary plays hide and seek

Dear M,

When my first set of stories were made available for my friends and relatives to read, I (as can be expected) awaited their feedback eagerly. I expected a great many kinds of comments but the one I expected least was, in the words of a friend who lovingly called me up and praised my writing, "You write in such simple language, I loved it. It was so effortless to read and easy to connect with. You do not use too many unnecessarily long words."

Don't tell anyone, but I had thought my writing would be termed intelligent and somehow sophisticated and absolutely undecipherable. Scratch that. I did not think of its sophistication at all. I did not think about simplicity when I wrote. I just wrote the way I knew how to write. But when I heard those comments, I felt very sad. What! My writing is simple enough that anyone would understand? How ridiculous, how disappointing! How utterly terrible that my stories did not contain un-bite-able words that would send people scampering to the dictionary every two minutes! How unimaginable that people would not learn a few kilos of new words from my book.

A long time had to pass before I figured out that there was more to the comment than what I decoded from it. A long time had to pass before I could be proud of the fact that my writing was simple. A long time had to pass before I could understand that even in the simplest writing, profound thoughts can reside, and that when someone terms your writing simple, it is actually a compliment.

Simple does not always mean that you have an underdeveloped vocabulary. Some books take an effort to read because of the vocabulary it is packed with. At places it looks as though the author wanted the thesaurus to be emptied into his book.

Vocabulary development is not about coming up with the most sophisticated-looking word you can find. It is about finding the right word for the situation. Once I wanted to write about a needle hitting a person and breaking his skin and entering his blood stream. I wrote it like that, until my editor gently corrected it to 'pierced'. Whoa, I thought, that is precisely the word I had wanted. If I go over this letter once again, I am sure I would find better words for 'find' or 'simple' or 'think about'. I use these too much. Perhaps a side-effect of not having English as mother tongue.

That's the thing with vocabulary. You know many of these words, but when we require them, they hide from view like children, hoping they would be discovered and used. But we, like bored adults, we stop looking and use the ones that we have at hand. Our writing shines in a duller light, whereas it could be brightened up with the right choice of words. Not an entire thesaurus, but a few of the appropriate, apt words poured in the right measure.

Vocabulary can be built and enhanced by reading, but to bring the evasive words to mind at the right time? It requires writing and writing and writing.

Love.

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Reading is everything

Dear M,

I came across an interview when I was scouting the Internet for a publisher. You know I have those spells of snooping around for good, small publishers who might be just the ones for good, small me? So there was this publisher's website and an interview with their new (and perhaps only) author. I would not comment more on the premise, but I was surprised to read the author confessing proudly that she/he started reading books (fiction) only after her/his first book was published.

I don't have anything against the author, because as a new kid on the block, I had made one loud blunder too. (Which I prefer to forget and never mention in this life again.) But this author writing a book without having read anything in life? If she/he is not a genius, then the book is a full-fledged disaster.

Reading is everything. I have nothing more to add to this, the sentence says it all.

I have an author friend whom I respect a great deal. His grasp of current affairs and his general knowledge are impeccable. He has a job that takes him places, and he must have such an ocean of stories and experiences to share. He reads all kinds of books, whenever he gets time. His stories are promising, and as far as the synopses go, they have huge potential. I only see two major problems in his writing: the first is his utter disregard for grammar, the second is his hyper obsession with vocabulary.

Perhaps the two issues are connected: it could be because of his obsession for new words that he did not pay much attention to polishing his grammar. Or he must have worked too hard on his vocabulary to cover his grammatical incompetence. Either way, He ruminated, she rued, etc. stand out from his text as though they were planted there to scare the crows.

In his defence, English is not his first language, possibly not even his second or third. In this country where we are lashed with all kinds of languages from all sides every day, English is only used when the rest of them don't work - at least in his line of duty and in the place where he lives. What he has achieved is tremendous when we consider these facts.

What I am trying to say is (I can see you are confused), there should be a balance between the grammar and the vocabulary. If the grammar is faultless, the vocabulary, however ordinary or outstanding it is, may not look odd (or it may). But if the grammar fails and the vocabulary is extraordinary, the outcome will be a failure.

How in the world can we expect our structure to stand on its own and with a perfect blend of grammar and vocabulary, if we do not have any experience reading books? How in the world do we expect to build our knowledge and have the words at our finger tips without reading daily? How in the world do we expect to be able to use the vast capabilities of the language if it is not cemented to perfection by reading?

Look at this author friend of mine - no one else reads as much as he does, no one else has the determination that he has, no one works as hard as he does, yet he cannot get it right. How bigger a calamity it will be, if the reading itself is absent?

Love.

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