On writing

Since last couple of years, writing has fascinated me. I became interested in writing as I started spending more time reading books. I have read more books in last couple of years than I have read in my entire life. Good books make you think, question, and become more self-aware.

Stephen King, an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction and fantasy once said

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write. Simple as that.

I think writing is the natural side effect of reading.

One fear that most novice writers like me have is what value our writing can add if all has been written in much better way by other people. The best answer to this question is the following quote by great French writer André Gide

Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, it must be said again.

The other answer could be you can always put yourself in your writing. When you put your experience and lessons then you make content reachable to a new audience.

Good writing is a difficult skill to master. I plan to spend more time learning the art of writing so that one day I can become a good writer. Writing plays an important role in all aspects of life — be it professional or personal. These days when I meet young software professionals I ask them to consider writing seriously. A software professional with good writing skill is a real asset for any team.

In this post, I list down reasons why writing is important part of my life.

Writing improves my observation skills

Writing improves my observation skills. Since I started taking writing seriously, I started looking at life more closely. I now believe there are stories all around us we just have to open our mind to them.

Writing helps me slow down pace of the life

Because you want to write, you start experiencing stuff deeply. It gives you an excuse to do different things, go to places around the world, and just remain in the moment. Writing makes you look deeper into yourself. It makes you hear yourself. Writing make you more patient because writing is never done once. Good writing is always rewriting.

We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect — Anaïs Nin

Writing helps me understand a topic better

Writing helps me understand a topic better. When I write about a topic I explain what I understand. This helps me connect with the subject better and help teach others. Writing is the toughest and most disciplined work you’ll ever do. It helps develop critical thinking.

Writing gives you a medium to explain your thoughts.

I write to discover what I know — Flannery O’Connor

Writing helps me give back to the society

Writing makes me feel good that I am giving something back to the community. It feels great when you unintentionally end up helping people with your writing. Many times I have received emails from people thanking me for my articles or tutorials. One of the guys once wrote to me

Since I met you I have learnt a lot of Java and I’m very proud of it. Now I’m doing a personal blog to teach my friends and teammates basic things about Java and the Java world.

Photo by Art Lasovsky on Unsplash