The Ultimate tool of Every Writer
By: Sheetal Yadav
Tags: Imagination, Writer, Writer Tools, Writers On Writing, Skills

We can say,” we all have a writer in us”. Because to become a writer it is not necessary to be someone with a Ph.D. in literature or someone who has read hundreds of books or probably has taken a course on how to write. Most of us have just developed some basic skills which we use and practice a lot. No one can deny the fact that writing an essay, forming sentences, or simply writing a note to ourselves is taught to us at elementary school. Almost all of us use the same in our everyday life.

What makes a writer so different is their observation of the environment and their imagination power. Both go hand in hand. We can always get better at English but these two skills take years to develop.

Let me give you an example, suppose you and your friend who is a writer go for a walk every morning at the park, now what you will see or observe in your surrounding is fresh air, people walking/running, trees and sound of birds. Your friend who is a writer will look at people, observe them, and will form characters of his upcoming story in his head, he will look at the park and probably will create a scene of his story. He will always have a small notebook in which he will scribble whatever comes to his mind no matter what he is doing or where he is. This is why you will never find a writer multitasking and this is the ultimate tool that every existing or would-be professional writer requires and uses.

When you observe things closely you know that everything has its backstory, its own characteristic, and its own essence. Every man or woman in this world possesses different characteristics from each other, we react differently in different situations.

For a writer, if he masters the skill of close observation and imagination, he is golden. Now all he needs is to link everything which also takes practice.

Look at the ancient texts, at that time there were no cameras to take pictures no recorders to have any recordings of the words said. The whole world relied on those manuscripts written by people at the time and we all imagined and created the characters accordingly in our heads. Those writers only had observation and their imagination as their tools to write.

Anyone can practice these and become a great writer and these tools are absolutely free.

Now, how do we work upon these skills? As we all know these simple skills take time to develop and master.

When we were in elementary school we were taught to imagine right from The Thirsty Crow story to how our heart looks when it pumps blood to our arteries just by showing some sketches. It was all “easy peasy lemon squeezy” till that time for us because we had years of practice. But when we step out of elementary school, we were introduced to the internet, which has almost answer to every question and even sometimes questions for every answer. Which ultimately wouldn’t require us to think or imagine or even look closely at something. It’s like the boy who was champion of basketball at school would still require practice to even score a goal after years of disengagement.

So how do we do it? We would be required to meditate and start focusing on our surrounding. Often we become unaware of what is going on around us because we are indulged at the screen of our phones. We would be required to stop multitasking to increase focus ultimately which gives our brain room to think and observe and create images and stories. Once we start observing the surrounding closely we notice everyone has their own version and perspectives. The sun could be seen rising at one place and could be setting on the other side. All we need to do is observe, think and imagine.

Something which looks so complex might be so easy and simple that it might only take some small steps of effort.