I have always wondered what people have against short answers.

In school, most of my classmates had problems squeezing ideas into a given limit of 200 words. When it was not about ideas and sheer data was what needed accommodation, they struggled with the squeeze again. There is only so much you can do to elucidate chapters of world history without giving in to the seductive bulk of it.

Even in college, I found word limits greeted with expressions of frustration and annoyance. For many people, being brief and simple actually requires more of an effort than being elaborate does.

Some people think creativity is something innate. Others believe it can be honed and sharpened. I believe it is a matter of willingness. One gets ideas when one is open to them.

Towards the end of my time in college, I began working on a story about an alien orphan on a backward and under-developed planet. My hero discovers that he is the last of a race of super-psychics who ruled the galaxy long ago. The story stayed with me for a month or so. I spared little effort in capturing it in its awesome brilliance, blaming my tight college schedule and my general inability to write long stories due to impatience. To my relief, it eventually left me.

Many writers aren’t good at anything much apart from writing. They pride themselves at it. It’s in their blood, they tell themselves. It’s their soul, they tell everyone. It is what they were born to do. Then the writer’s block hits and life becomes meaningless. They sit with their fingers on the keyboard or palms on the notepad and wonder what is the point of their existing anymore.

Few however, kill themselves over it. They have come to realise that the block is inescapable and have ways to counter it. As in many other fields in life, what is required is that you don’t stop. But that’s too general a solution, isn’t it?

I am reading Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul right now. It is a book that doesn’t just touch you; it feels you up and gets you horny with writerly passion. I was so turned on that I started reliving the most passionate ‘write moments’ of my life. I’ll tell you.

My memories of my early days (in Assam for some part) on this planet are amazingly, almost unbelievably clear. I remember most details of my life from when I was barely talking. Brownish-yellow frog that sat on a brick right outside the bedroom window at night, scary bearded goat that always made me cry out in fright and run away, bored looking street dog that I lay on the cold verandah floor with — everything.

The thing about blogging is that its easy. It is so damn easy it starts making you lose respect for it. I am sure you have come across people who ‘lose interest’ in blogging. Maybe you have too. Ever wondered why that happens? Webmasters don’t get bored of websites. And blogs are websites really, aren’t they? Only, they are websites that are very un-website-like.

Pre-made designs mean you don’t have to bother with your blog’s looks in as major a way as a ‘proper’ website does. Blogging platforms come packed to the gills with information architecture tools (archives, categories etc). Everything from editing content to publishing on to the server is automated. All a blogger needs to do is type and hit the enter key.