Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Writing is a hard job and a long journey

Writing is a hard job and a long journey
Writing is a hard job and a long journey. The whole world is at writer's finger tips not at his feet. Writer's profession is the most difficult one in the world and his voyage is the most solitary. Writer's life is then called a Sadhana or Tapas of a Yogi.
If the writer wishes to be a winner at the end of writing life the writer is to be truly and deeply convinced of writing vocation, is to have enduring courage and commitment to the call lest writer falls on the way and perish. Who endures and suffers wins the race.
We have in modern time an excellent model in J.K.Rowling. She felt her calling in life was to write for the children. Who would write novels for children? Who would publish? Who would read? Such questions never bothered her. She wrote and wrote continuously, convincingly and courageously.
Think of those 12 publishers who rejected the original submissions from J K Rowling! Did she throw up her hands in horror and despair, did she burn her manuscripts, and did she decide she was a failure?
Not at all. She sent out more submissions and was accepted. The Bloomsbury editor, Barry Cunningham once advised Ms. Rowling to get a day job, since she had little chance of making money in children's books.
Look where her solitary journey has taken her from the late 90s when she was a divorced single mother, sitting on a delayed train scribbling notes for a story to pass the time, to the present day.
She seems to be the first modern writer to earn more than $1billion from her writing.
The final book in her series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released on 21 July 2007 and broke its predecessor's record as the fastest-selling book of all time, selling 11 million copies in the first day of release in the United Kingdom and United States.
The series, totaling 4,195 pages, has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages. We read that the latest Harry Potter film had grossed over $500 million in its first 10 days.
Rowling had the conviction of her vocation in her life and had the courage and commitment to reach the finale of her call. Her steps were then clearly meticulous.
Let us listen to her words. "It took me a long, hard five years to complete The Philosopher’s Stone. The reason so much time slipped by was because, from that very first idea, I envisaged a series of seven books - each one charting a year of Harry's life whilst he is a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And I wanted to fully sketch the plots of all the stories and get the essential characteristics of my principal characters before I actually started writing the books in detail."
When once asked about the number of times she drafts and rewrites, Rowling said, "Loads and loads and loads. The worst ever was 13 different versions of one chapter (Chapter 9 in The Goblet of Fire). I hated that chapter so much; at one point, I thought of missing it out altogether and just putting in a page saying `Chapter 9 was too difficult' and going straight to Chapter 10."
We are not concerned about Rowling's financial success that is a consequence and corollary to her creative writing spirit but about her religious dedication to her call for writing books for children. She worked hard and journeyed alone. She achieved success in her vocation
Her story is not unique. One day any one reader of Katha Kshetre shall become another J.K.Rowling, a winner in achievement. George Orwell wrote, “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness."
The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. - Mary Heaton Vorse - Editorial of current issue

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