Procrastination- enemy of a writer
To all those, who are ardent believers of one night stands with the books before exams..... do you know u guyz are lucky??
I joined a course which has no exams!! HURREY!!!! isn't that a dream of every student? But I realized its not a dream.. it started being a bad dream in the beginning, but now its close to a nightmare. Going through the path of engineering, I have been an obedient student, by clearing all my exams with one day batting... This helped me complete my MBA too.. (both with distinction). At this point, I wanted to study more.... but I thought I was growing old and wanted to join a course which had no exams.... I wanted to study to gain knowledge... not a degree..(Really??). This led me to choosing philosophy. It sounded interesting for the reason that I could speak something, no one else understood.(Isn't that a criteria for being recognized as an intellectual?? ;) ) This course had another perk of having no exams!! This was my dream come true, and I jumped at the idea. Getting admitted and joining the course followed thereby. The twist in the story began when i realized that we were supposed to submit one assignment per week, throughout the course and an end of course dissertation for every subject. Initially I dint care much about it because i thought it was ok to write four assignments per week and four dissertations at the end of semester than going through exams. It all started well. First week was the honeymoon period. I wrote all that I could write. Second week showed me how writers are very hard working people and my respect towards them raised up like mercury in the thermometer. Third week was a disaster. I literally had a writer's block. At this point, i realized that I should distribute my writing throughout the week, than trying to write everything at once. Every week after that, I took an oath to start writing at least two assignments in the week and two in the weekends. All these weeks i didn't have anything less than four assignments pending by sunday night 9 pm.(Some of them i dint yet know the topic to be written about)
My usual one day batting worked for reading, but when it came to writing, it got exponentially difficult with every minute nearing deadline. Writing needs enormous efforts, added with continuous inflow of coffee into your gut.With every passing minute, your craving for junk food+coffee+ frustration increases manifolds. My week papers are generally 750-1000 words. It comes to anywhere between 3500-4000 words per week. For somebody who looks at it from outside, it dosen't look like a big deal. But for the writer, it feels like almost having 4000 deliveries. The pain of conceiving each word can be felt and understood only by a fellow writer.
Coming back to procrastination. It is a two sided knife. One, you cant start writing until the moment of "Start it NOW else u are doomed" comes. Once started at the last minute,it ends up being lousy work. At some point, it gets difficult to read your own paper.(I pity the faculty, who read and give feedback)Other being the effort and pain it takes when you begin the work at the dead end. It feels like the effort required in the last minute is gigantically more than what you feel under normal circumstances. At this point, anything in this world seems more important than opening your writing pad. At times, even washing dishes (with maid coming next day to do that.... not at all absolutely necessary for survival) seems more important and interesting than writing. Calling my previous house neighbor to talk about power cuts tops the list.
There are two things i wanted to convey to this world before this week ends.
1. Dont get misled by courses which dont have exams
2. Dont take up anything that involves writing (in the last minute).
PS: Its 11:30 pm (sunday) and I found writing a blog more important than writing my four pending papers.
To all those, who are ardent believers of one night stands with the books before exams..... do you know u guyz are lucky??
I joined a course which has no exams!! HURREY!!!! isn't that a dream of every student? But I realized its not a dream.. it started being a bad dream in the beginning, but now its close to a nightmare. Going through the path of engineering, I have been an obedient student, by clearing all my exams with one day batting... This helped me complete my MBA too.. (both with distinction). At this point, I wanted to study more.... but I thought I was growing old and wanted to join a course which had no exams.... I wanted to study to gain knowledge... not a degree..(Really??). This led me to choosing philosophy. It sounded interesting for the reason that I could speak something, no one else understood.(Isn't that a criteria for being recognized as an intellectual?? ;) ) This course had another perk of having no exams!! This was my dream come true, and I jumped at the idea. Getting admitted and joining the course followed thereby. The twist in the story began when i realized that we were supposed to submit one assignment per week, throughout the course and an end of course dissertation for every subject. Initially I dint care much about it because i thought it was ok to write four assignments per week and four dissertations at the end of semester than going through exams. It all started well. First week was the honeymoon period. I wrote all that I could write. Second week showed me how writers are very hard working people and my respect towards them raised up like mercury in the thermometer. Third week was a disaster. I literally had a writer's block. At this point, i realized that I should distribute my writing throughout the week, than trying to write everything at once. Every week after that, I took an oath to start writing at least two assignments in the week and two in the weekends. All these weeks i didn't have anything less than four assignments pending by sunday night 9 pm.(Some of them i dint yet know the topic to be written about)
My usual one day batting worked for reading, but when it came to writing, it got exponentially difficult with every minute nearing deadline. Writing needs enormous efforts, added with continuous inflow of coffee into your gut.With every passing minute, your craving for junk food+coffee+ frustration increases manifolds. My week papers are generally 750-1000 words. It comes to anywhere between 3500-4000 words per week. For somebody who looks at it from outside, it dosen't look like a big deal. But for the writer, it feels like almost having 4000 deliveries. The pain of conceiving each word can be felt and understood only by a fellow writer.
Coming back to procrastination. It is a two sided knife. One, you cant start writing until the moment of "Start it NOW else u are doomed" comes. Once started at the last minute,it ends up being lousy work. At some point, it gets difficult to read your own paper.(I pity the faculty, who read and give feedback)Other being the effort and pain it takes when you begin the work at the dead end. It feels like the effort required in the last minute is gigantically more than what you feel under normal circumstances. At this point, anything in this world seems more important than opening your writing pad. At times, even washing dishes (with maid coming next day to do that.... not at all absolutely necessary for survival) seems more important and interesting than writing. Calling my previous house neighbor to talk about power cuts tops the list.
There are two things i wanted to convey to this world before this week ends.
1. Dont get misled by courses which dont have exams
2. Dont take up anything that involves writing (in the last minute).
PS: Its 11:30 pm (sunday) and I found writing a blog more important than writing my four pending papers.
