“I’d love to write more consistently but I usually cannot find the time”, I was complaining to an editor about not being able to write as much as I would like to here.
“Of course you don’t have time, you’re literally doing a PhD!”, he remarked, almost annoyed by my statement.
I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t put a lot of effort into writing here—it is the work of one sitting for about an hour and a half and I post whatever I end up with. Sometimes I don’t even proofread. Other times, I transcribe a journal entry with some changes and that’s about as much literary rigour it gets. I find it very hard to write as a pastime when a huge part of my actual work entails writing. Academic writing is usually so dense and can become elliptical so fast that by the time I have to write as a hobby, I don’t have the energy left in me.
But recently, I didn’t even have the energy to write as an academic either.
“Something has changed since last year. Your master's thesis was on another level!”, my supervisor said to me during a meeting where we were discussing a new draft that I was working on for my PhD, and comparing it to the thesis that I worked on during the end of my master’s last year.
“Have you been stressed lately?”
“Well, I didn’t think I was, until now”, I chuckled nervously. “In my defence, that one took months to write. This? First draft, finished in a week.”
“Hmm, that’s true. It's okay, we can always refine it”, he said reassuringly.
A week. That's all I'd given myself to finish this first draft, fueled by a potent cocktail of ambition and looming deadlines. The pressure had propelled me forward, but my supervisor’s comment made me question the quality of the fuel itself. Was relentless ambition the only way to get things done? Did every piece of writing, both academic and personal, need to be a masterpiece?
I realised I was holding myself to an unrealistic standard. This isn't meant to be a peer-reviewed journal article. It's a space for me to share my thoughts, even if they're not perfectly polished. Maybe that hour and a half I spend writing isn't about crafting award-winning prose. Maybe it's simply about getting my ideas out there, even if they're a little rough around the edges. It might not be Pulitzer Prize-worthy, but it's a way to keep the creative spark alive, to stay connected with this little corner of the internet. And who knows, maybe in those imperfect posts, there's a nugget of something real, something that resonates with someone out there. After all, sometimes good enough is truly good enough.
So, I have started to see the value in simply hitting "publish" on a semi-regular basis. Even if the posts aren't groundbreaking works of literature, they are a way to keep myself engaged with writing outside of academia. Perhaps more importantly, they are a way to connect with others who might share my interests or find value in my experiences.
There's a certain beauty in the imperfection of something written in a stolen hour and a half. It's a snapshot of a moment in time, a reflection of my thoughts and feelings without the pressure of rigorous editing or a looming deadline. And you know what? That authenticity can be powerful. It might not change the world, but it's a small act of creativity that brings me joy, and that's something worth celebrating.
“I’m going to fix everything.”
“Ah, but darling, you don’t have to.”
― Emory R. Frie, Giant Country
Academic writing can be immersive when one's working on a favorite topic, but man oh man it can be soul-sucking at times. This is good. Writing a little something outside of it will keep you in touch with your literary sensibilities. Writing's both spontaneity and caution: as that done-to-death Hemingway quote goes: "write drunk, edit sober". Just think of it as working on spontaneity rather than caution. Write only a little, but regularly. I don't think you'll miss out that way. And when you're done, you'll have a wealth of material to hack and prune. I've also been a laggard these last months as far as writing's concerned lol.
Also, I'm intrigued by your header photo. I've never see a French translation of a Hindi novel. So cool.