Skip to main content

Writing personally versus professionally

Most writers write for professional reasons, but then there are an overwhelming lot of people who dabble in writing due to personal reasons. Writing for them is a catharsis, a purging of pain from the soul, a detoxification of the spirit.

There are times when a professional writer may be forced by a crisis of the soul or of physical circumstances to resort to writing as personal catharsis. The results are sometimes masterpieces of creative art or incoherent rantings.  I suppose the quality of the cathartic product depends on the quality of the writer!

Sometimes when I am tempted to rant, I give in to it. I then preserve what I write. It is interesting to read them after much time has passed. Some seem hilarious after a time, other puerile, and some still move me to tears, even after years have passed.

It is the last which have the potential to inspire  for some true writing.

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.