DesiPundit

We were always told to write essays in school, but no one told us anything about the structure or the fact that your writing has to be interesting to read. No one told us that your initial brain dump is not the final product and it has to go through many cycles of re-writing. Now we learn that Jhumpa Lahiri edits her short stories for two years and it took Suketu Mehta more than four years to edit Maximum City. Jiby laments that our schools have failed us in this regard.

What we all continue to lack, is a better understanding of the craft. Some learn the finer points without guidance because these are mostly common sense principles, noticeable if people have thought, compared and contrasted theirs and others writing. Others fumble along blissfully without that self-realization. I for one, hope that schools take a hard look at the absence of well-rounded writing classes in their curriculum and the very real fact that writing is not just a natural or inborn ability but one that can be cultivated in every young mind through proper guidance.