Prachi Gangwani's Blog
June 29, 2020
How To Not Let The Internet Distract You From Achieving Your Writing Goals
If the Internet was a person, it would be a controlling, domineering, entitled man but one who has enough accolades to be hero-worshipped by the masses; one who, like the Ambani’s or the Rockefeller’s, manipulates the fate of those who never have and never will cross paths with him. A man who has a looming presence, even in his absence, as if, if we manage to piss him off for merely existing, we’ll be blacklisted from our own lives. A sadistic orchestra conductor who derives pleasure from waving his baton to a cacophony, not a melody. Basically, an asshole of the highest order.
And this is especially true for writers and artists, musicians and poets, potters and singers. For us, this omnipotent entity is at once a library of information, a muse for inspiration, a stamp of validation, and bait for procrastination.
I have often wondered how writers from decades ago wrote so prolifically, producing upwards of a hundred poems or prose, upwards of ten, fifty novels, novellas and letters that continue to sing the melancholy of lovers’ hearts. Almost always, I reach the same conclusion: they weren’t ensnared by the Goddamn Internet!
I’m distracted by a lot of things - a new home project, a random thought I must urgently share with whomever's earshot I may be in, a long-lost friend I must track down immediately. But, the Internet is a devil in disguise. It saps hours of your time, and gallons of your creative juices without letting an inkling alert you. Asshole, I told you. I’m not a violent person, but I’m certainly no Gandhi. I’m more like the sage who said that it’s okay to kill a scorpion first if it’s going to kill you eventually. So, here are five fangs I’ve trained to combat the Chi-sucking Internet:
1. A shitty Internet connection
We can’t survive without the Internet. We can’t fight this fact. But, we can do ourselves a huge favour by getting a shitty Internet that collapses every time it so much as drizzles, so we may soak in the humbling rhythms of nature rather than dizzying blue light emanating from the screen.
Continue reading, here: https://keepingzen.in/blogs/writing-t...
And this is especially true for writers and artists, musicians and poets, potters and singers. For us, this omnipotent entity is at once a library of information, a muse for inspiration, a stamp of validation, and bait for procrastination.
I have often wondered how writers from decades ago wrote so prolifically, producing upwards of a hundred poems or prose, upwards of ten, fifty novels, novellas and letters that continue to sing the melancholy of lovers’ hearts. Almost always, I reach the same conclusion: they weren’t ensnared by the Goddamn Internet!
I’m distracted by a lot of things - a new home project, a random thought I must urgently share with whomever's earshot I may be in, a long-lost friend I must track down immediately. But, the Internet is a devil in disguise. It saps hours of your time, and gallons of your creative juices without letting an inkling alert you. Asshole, I told you. I’m not a violent person, but I’m certainly no Gandhi. I’m more like the sage who said that it’s okay to kill a scorpion first if it’s going to kill you eventually. So, here are five fangs I’ve trained to combat the Chi-sucking Internet:
1. A shitty Internet connection
We can’t survive without the Internet. We can’t fight this fact. But, we can do ourselves a huge favour by getting a shitty Internet that collapses every time it so much as drizzles, so we may soak in the humbling rhythms of nature rather than dizzying blue light emanating from the screen.
Continue reading, here: https://keepingzen.in/blogs/writing-t...
