201 - Being forced to write

I watch a television series called Californication. For those of you who don't already know what it's about, the episodes revolve around the personal and professional troubles of a published author. In the show's pilot, the writer is being pressured by his agent to get his next piece of work ready for publishing soon, but the writer finds himself struggling to write a new book. So he makes an attempt. Anything he can put on a piece of paper, he writes it down. Then he throws it away because the idea sucks. He tries again, and then dumps it in the trash once more. He has no choice but to push himself, and trying to push your way through writer's block is what really grinds my gears today.

Writing, whether it be a book, an essay, a blog, a newspaper article, or even a text message, requires many different things - it starts with having an initial idea, and then having the vast pool of words from which you can select the ones that perfectly convey that thought. It needs a quick mind, prolific with ideas, to help you develop your craft, and an easily accessible, diverse group of trustworthy people you can rely on, to give you reliable feedback in case it's needed. Then, a critical eye is good to have after you've finished, to help you go through your work objectively and edit. Maybe this paragraph needs an image to go with it. Maybe I should use the rule of three. Perhaps these words should be italicized, this word should be boldfaced, and this sentence should end with a question mark to make it self-referentially humorous?

All in all, writing sure as Hell takes a lot of hard work. Especially if you want to write humorously, with distinctive flair and unique style, without making any mistakes in spelling, punctuating or grammaticizing. All of this hard work also needs time, time that could've been spent on homework, school work, office work, house work, working out, going out, catching up with an old friend, seeing a movie with the family, learning a new recipe, checking out a new restaurant, or going grocery-shopping at the supermarket. 

Writing takes a lot more than just creative power. It requires inner and superficial knowledge, some honesty, plus experience, experience from which you can draw if you are aiming to write from the heart. Writing also requires a certain level of strategy and socio-cultural awareness, to entertain, captivate and attract readers, and also to avoid angering and/or insulting them too. It requires pride and belief in what you're writing, you need to be courageous and unafraid of being openly or discreetly condemned. It's a demanding hobby/profession.

But at its roots, it is about creative power. Some people can just do it at any point of any day. Some people cannot. Most people.

I am still in school, and I am very familiar with the feeling of having to write about a certain topic before a certain date. Police officers don't know how to bulk up their reports. Businesspeople are finding themselves with blank Powerpoint presentations. Chefs can't put their finger on the perfect ingredient. Teachers regurgitate the same student evaluation thirty times. And bloggers don't know what to say.

Yet it's required of all of us to pull something out of our ass at some point. I have this to talk about now, but what am I going to do next time? Just pass on writing for a few more days?

Tell me, do you hate it too?

92 - Being uninspired

Oh, I lack ideas today. It was the Chinese New Year yesterday, my non-Chinese friends, and our whole family got together to eat traditional Chinese food for lunch, play mahjong in the afternoon and have a big meal for dinner. Right now, I could talk about a huge multitude of things, but I'm just not feeling too strongly about any of them. I thought of some ideas, but I knew I couldn't carry them out to make a substantial post.

Yesterday, I wore a pink shirt, and my family made a few comments about it, like pink is a girl color not to be worn by guys. I could talk about that but I don't feel like it.

I could talk about how my mother ate the last piece of food at lunch without politely asking if anyone would like to have/share it. But then again, I have already written about gluttony before.

I was also just about to write about how I won money from playing mahjong, but did not receive any because my family forgot. But hey, it's the Chinese New Year, it's inappropriate for me to demand for money or complain that I didn't get any for my mahjong skills...

Then there's dinner, at which everybody was all loud and chatty, when all I was was hungry, and all I wanted to do was eat. I had to listen to their talking, answer their questions, take care of my younger cousins all night, argh. In fact, my three-year-old cousin wet my bed for the very first time last night. I didn't get as angry as I thought I might, and so I don't want to write about that either. During dinner, my family were only eating merrily, and after dinner, my cousin was only three years old, young and incapable of controlling his pee.

So I guess today, I hate how I am uninspired. Writer's block, they call it, but I don't like that phrase either. I wish I could expand on any of those aforesaid things, but they don't seem right. I'm not annoyed today, which is a good thing, but I am annoyed at myself today.

I have some friends who never seem to be inspired for anything to do with school. They search in their textbooks, they ask more insightful friends for ideas for their essays, and their work reflects how uncreative and lacking of ideas they are. That annoys me.

I also don't like how some people are not inspired enough to travel elsewhere, or to learn new things, to learn about other people, to learn of other cultures, to understand what is not understandable to them right now. The world is much bigger, inspiration allows you to dream, to want to do things you wouldn't normally do. Why some people never feel inspired to do something saddens and irritates me.