Tag Archives: On Writing

Poetry is the immortalisation of feelings

I express my deepest, most intense feelings through my poetry. More than me writing poems, they get written. What’s more, once feelings are expressed in poems, they are there forever. Since they have been written down, they transcend time.We read so many poems that were written centuries ago by poets who are long dead. Yet, the feelings expressed in those poems are alive. For instance, even today, when I read “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth, I get transported into a different …

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“The Zahir” is about soul searching

A couple of days ago, I picked up this book, for no rhyme or reason, and then finished reading it over the next 48 hours. No matter how absurd it seems, time and again I have discovered that books end up being read only when the time is right. Although I had a copy for more than a year or so, I kept putting off reading The Zahir by Paulo Coelho because I had heard mixed reactions to it. Some …

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Writer’s block

Words are absent Doubts are present Ideas disappear Thoughts interfere Pages remain blank Feelings play a prank Mind is confused Actions are refused Soul’s lost its voice Left with no choice Life seems locked I’m positively blocked! ~© Manoj Khatri~

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Remain inconspicuous

A writer’s job is to communicate. No matter how impressive your sentence construction, how technically correct the grammar or how powerful the vocabulary, so long as the idea remains ambiguous to the reader, the writer has failed. Too many writers forget this basic statute of writing: that idea alone is the hero of a written draft. If the presence of the author is felt while reading, the reader tends to get distracted and loses focus. The author should be inconspicuous. …

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Writing tips from Scott “Dilbert” Adams

Scott Adams’s is one blog I love reading. One reason for that is his style of writing. He writes to communicate. His words are delivered straight to the part of brain that can process humour…I call them “funny corners”. In his latest post, he shares some writing tips…every single tip is simple, yet powerful. If you wish to improve your writing, follow them.

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Divine Frenzy

Divine Frenzy. I love the expression. It’s what my friend and colleague says is at the core of my poetry. I believe him. I think nothing else explains the flow of verses out of me. It would be correct to say that I don’t write my poems, they are written. A few times, a poem has flowed out of me when I am half asleep, the urge to express being so strong that I couldn’t resist. Apparently, it was Plato …

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Exclamation Mark

The Exclamation Mark! Comes up these days at the slightest provocation… as if our life is full of surprises and shockers. As an editor, I find many drafts that are full of exclamations. What surprises me though is how such drafts find their way in well-known publications — unedited. Every editor worth is salt ought to know that exclamations are to be used sparingly. Take for instance, Bombay Times [BT], the metro supplement of The Times of India Mumbai. In …

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The Joy of Poetic Expression

I am writing a “prose” post after a gap of 20 days (barring a brief announcement I made). During this period, I wrote 6 poems though. And to think of, my first, very first, poem flowed out of me only a few weeks ago — 03 March 2007, to be precise. I think I am writing more poetry these days because I find it more creatively satisfying than prose. That‘s because, although all writing is an expression of thoughts and …

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And the plot thickens…

In one of his discourses, Osho narrates a beautiful anecdote. It goes something like this: someone asked Maharishi Raman, “If God is benevolent, just, loving and all-powerful, then why is there so much pain and misery everywhere in the world? Why doesn’t God stop bad people from committing crimes? Why doesn’t he protect good people from misfortune and evil?” Raman had a short and sweet answer: “To thicken the plot.” When I think about it, I find it funny but …

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Bloggers are time travellers

Writing is the fourth dimension, I reckon. Isn’t it fascinating that every thought I transform into written text can travel in time and space to reach out to hundreds and thousands of readers across hundreds and thousands of miles? And it is so with every bit of writing—prose or poetry. What we write today can be read just a few moments later or days, months, even years later. Sometimes I begin to write something and leave it half way. Then, …

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