The mind of a writer

Now that I've started writing my autobiography, I'm able to better understtand the mind of a writer or any other person in creative fields such as poetry, painting etc.

I have a typical 8 to 5 job and on most days I'm able to switch off from my job as soon as I leave the Office.The converse also happens. The moment I enter the Office, there's usually no time to think of home or other personal matters.

But I was curious to know how a creative person's mind works. In fact, I was once sitting next to the well known Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu during a flight. As we got to chatting with each other, I asked him whether his mind was always busy composing new lyrics and , if so, how he was able to switch to other thoughts.He replied that creativity has no time limits and the mind usually turns blank when forced to do something. There are occasions when thoughts and ideas come in a rush and he was hard put to put them down on paper before they went away.

I remembered all this when I was swimming yesterday.Thoughts on how to proceed with my next blog came to me in a rush and I was almost tempted to cut short my swim and rush back to the computer at home. I , however, resisted the tempation.

Even as I type, I sometimes find that my thoughts are coming in at 300 wpm whereas I'm only able to type at around 60 wpm.

My experience of the first few days of writing is that I've discovered a new vitality
in me. I'll have to be prepared for the days when thoughts simply refuse to flow.
I'm also tying to avoid becoming a slave to this new found habit of writing. I want to write because I want to, not have to.