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So what’s the most powerful weapon to write?

It takes more than just interest to write, more so when it's the entire book.
It takes more than just interest to write, more so when it’s the entire book.

I’ve been in the business of content publishing since 2006. That’s a whole decade in just one genre of business. Unlike an artist, a singer or an actor, being in the business of writing can be dull. But to many these days, they say “content is king” and if so, I should be the emperor of my decade old kingdom, right?

Being in the business of writing has its perks and pressures. When you stumble upon a beautiful poetry or article written in the most vivid manner, you could almost dance above the clouds and see the rain turning purple to green to blue to shocking pink. But when you’re confronted with a concoction of bad text strung together, you begin to wonder; either you’re not good enough to judge or the author is just totally not in the league. In such circumstances and despite the seasons under your belt, you would second guess yourself.

In this one beautifully eventful decade, from scratching the keyboards to pounding them to breaking the springs underneath the keys, I’ve done it all. It’s so audible when I type and God-fearingly loud that I’ve been asked if I was going to murder the keyboard.

There were also times when I worked with some of the most brilliant wordsmiths. Some I was privileged to engage as my panel of trusted writers, others, well there could only be “a few others” because I’m old-fashioned. I still like working with people “permanently” – it speaks of loyalty, integrity and builds the equity of trust and familiarity.

I work this way because I believe to build a great something – a house, a book, a microwave, a train – you need people you can work with and in whom you can rely upon because a word published is a word in public – you had better not spell full as fool lest you’re fooled over by all those fools. And so, whether it was for business, for leisure, for a school project, a thesis, a presentation or simply just a blog or social feed, meticulous should we be ensuring they’re all accurate to its pure purpose.

But still, after dabbling in the industry for the better part of the last decade, what have I truly been able to deduce in this field of work? What truly maketh the best of authors, writers, copywriters, content writers, editors, sub-editors and editors of the lot? And seriously, what sets a piece of marvelous genius from just another excellent work?

Facts and sentiments gathered from those I’ve worked with, observed, nurtured, led and some who’ve in turn inspired me with their magnifique growth and eloquence, I’ve come to conclude that when you write, when you pen, when you put together materials into explanation and inspiration, it would be more than just the prowess of your vocabulary or the number of languages you spoke. Neither is it the experience you’ve had although this could be one essential ammunition to contribute to that ambition.

To me personally and I reckon most would concur, the single greatest weapon you can and shall never do without to write is to dispense upon the honesty and sincerity that comes right from your very heart.

It is your heart that beats the rhythm into your words and it is your heart that separates what a man writes from the scribbles of a boy.

I’ve watched and I’ve learnt, in more ways and circumstances than you can imagined – those who write from their hearts are no different from the passionate Italian sopranos and tenors on stage. They weave words with emotions even when it is a subject of commerce. They make numbers do the somersaults and they frame depths into the right perspectives. They chart a room into a dungeon and they switch off the lights even when it is broad day light. They can even turn water to wine; almost like Jesus some 2,000 years ago.

To say that writers possess a mind of an ardent artist is somewhat an unfair comparison. For one, she or he has no stage, it’s only the papers and ink or now the keys and screens. But to say that he or she has far less audience compared to our acting pals, it too would be falsely inaccurate. Perhaps the best way to describe the two or even three or four is this way – if they sung and belted and felt from the bottom and crevices of their hearts, and in so doing they moved the coordinates and shape of your emotions even by just half a degree, they would have been on equal footing, stage or paper. Home run!

Bias maybe but a performance is best not felt when performed without heart. Similarly, to have written with nothing to evoke memories and resemblance, that is only a piece of deadwood in the world of literacy.

For what is a pen without a story and what is a story without emotions. If emotions can occur without heart, at lost we shall be as text remains as alphabets, numbers…they stop dancing, they stop singing, they stop acting.

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