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Do you #write Inwards or Outwards? #amwriting

By 24/03/2015March 5th, 2016Uncategorized

The last month or so, I’ve been trying to juggle life-stuff and writing, and blogging has slipped through the cracks.

Though I’ve technically surfaced from my self-imposed hibernation, the writer in me has gone into a cave again: all I want to do with the limited time I have on my hands these days is to write, edit, fix stories.

It is a peculiar thing, writing a story– it is being someone else, getting into their skins, thinking their thoughts. It is feeling the weight of their flesh on your own bones, the bloat in their stomachs from their heavy lunches, the dizziness from their alcohol or drug trips, their helplessness in the face of death, their joy at winning a race, the adrenalin coursing through your veins as much as theirs. So many lives wrapped up in the world of stories, and through them so much understanding of what success and failure, joy and hurt, giving and accepting, mean.

I’m loth to stir out and about. When out with others, I still have my eyes gazing inward, because of these many lives I’ve created within me and the constant reminder: to each I must give a voice, an existence.

Haven’t been blog-visiting these past months, not as much as I used to. I miss you all, sometimes, as if from within a torpor. Feel like I’ve fallen into an alternate universe, where imaginary people look more ‘real’ than the real and online people in my life.

I’m sure I’ll wake up from this drowsy-dreamlike world, but until I do, here’s a wave and a hug from my world spinning parallel to yours.

Have you ever had a similar experience of being in a faraway world of your imagination? Does reading or writing ever put you in this inward spiral? Do you write Inwards or Outwards?

 

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 !

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24 Comments

  • wildfire8470 says:

    Love the t-shirt! It sounds like we have this in common but, for me, when I'm in one world, I'm kicking myself for not doing what I should in/for the other.

  • Inwards! I definitely write inwards, making it impossible for me to carry on the functions of daily life such as taking care of my children, getting the laundry done or answering those phone calls and messages. People call me inefficient – I don't know whether I want to be called efficient, specially when I'm writing.

  • Jemima Pett says:

    Sometimes when I'm writing I find it hard to come out of the world I'm in. Not physically, but mentally part of me is still there.

  • Life happens, and then we blog. I took a bit of a break too due to life's circumstances, but I really missed blogging and take the time whenever I get the chance. For my writing tips blog that means I'm posting more than once a day sometimes. When I saw I hadn't posted anything in March the other day, I couldn't believe it, and now I'm making every effort to at least show I made an effort πŸ™‚ Best to you Damy! Enjoy those characters and be true to yourself and them πŸ™‚

  • The fact that you're able to capture your feelings so well shows that you still have the writers spirit.

  • I have been facing a similar situation. Out of blogging for months, lost touch with many blogger friends .. and now slowly trying to get back to my world

  • Commenting just because I haven't seen you around. Great to know your writing is going well. I think I am a mixture of inward-outward. So that makes me cross-eyed, really πŸ™‚

    Best wishes,
    Nilanjana.
    Madly-in-Verse

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  • Hi D, it's nice to read your write-up here after not blogging for 11 months. Writing is a sort of therapy for me. So even though I wasn't blogging, I still scribble every now and then on my journal. But I always give in to laziness, though I know it would have been better if I scribbled my thoughts away.

    A-Z Challenge is a big motivation for me to actually write again πŸ™‚

    Will you be participating again this year? I'll be back to read new entries on your page. Have a great week ahead!

  • Li says:

    I spend far too much time thinking and not enough actually writing. I was going to forego the A to Z this year, but signed up anyway because it has forced me to get something "on paper". Glad you checked in! πŸ™‚

  • I always feel that way when I get to the end of a novel. Because that's the part I imagine first, I'm really eager to get it down and get it right so I don't want to think about anything but it.

  • Alok Simha says:

    These are deep thoughts. It makes me wonder if writing by just observing others is writing at all πŸ™‚

  • Oh golly! Now you've gone and made me feel more superficial then ever…
    Stick with what you're doing, Damyanti; you're doing good.

  • Seraphic says:

    felt deeply involved with your writing….keep writing πŸ™‚

  • Susan Scott says:

    Glad you stppped by Damynti good to see you albeit briefly. Once the muse appears you must give her yr full attention to exclusion of all else. …

  • Denise Covey says:

    Hi there! I just popped over to say hi as I haven't seen you around for ages. I'm so glad that you're fully involved in your writing. I try to blog less and write more these days too! πŸ™‚

  • Birgit says:

    I think you need to write and be involved as much as you need to be and enjoy the process:) I never thought much about how I write but I guess that is what makes you the writer:)

  • shelly says:

    Everyday, I go into my far and away place or places. I forget about other things like getting gas in my car and what errands I may need to do. Went through that yesterday. Crazy. Huh? Oh the life of a writer.

  • I'm generally pretty introverted, but oddly enough I'm the opposite when I'm writing. I want to connect with other authors and they always inspire me to keep trying. πŸ™‚ But I also have had a few instances where I was so lost in the story that none of my friends saw me for days or weeks at a time.

  • I don't think I get quite that involved. Probably another reason I like third person point of view best. I don't like being in a character's head THAT much.

  • Shailaja V says:

    I write from a place of intense pain , I think. It is then that my best work (or so I assume) emerges. My happy stories are okay, but the ones with all the fibres of suffering – those are the ones that reach the readers best. Missed you around the blog-o-sphere, Damyanti. Good luck with the writing.

  • I write about external situations, but then my words come out deep from inside me. If I don't feel a connect with myself, I don't write – because it would turn out to be unauthentic and without conviction. So, inward on outward situations – is my style!

    – Venkat
    http://liveandexpress.wordpress.com

  • Andrew Leon says:

    I think I write slant-wise.

  • Beautiful post. Love that third paragraph. Write, however you must.