If writing was easy!


This is my own story - Trying to find time to write a story for a radio program. 

The school holidays are the busiest time for parents, especially those who are designated to take care of their children. I am the designated one these years with my wife studying full time. I could not write a story for today’s episode on the office days. I had to wait for the weekends. This time, I had my family members visiting us at the weekend. So, I had technically no time to write the story for today’s episode till last day of school holiday i.e. Sunday 13th Oct 2019. When Sandy asked me, what is the title for today’s story when we were recording our last episode. I had no answers. I told her- I don’t know yet. Now I can tell her today’s title – If writing was an easy thing?

With a recording on Wednesday, after three days of the last day of school holidays, all I planned was to write the story on Monday or Tuesday. I had thought that I will take something from my daily notes, expand it to make a story and read it in today’s show. It was as simple as I had planned. But, if you out there are listing and thinking- it is an easy thing, believe me, it is not an easy thing.

On top of those things happening, the things as planned to write seemed difficult with a call from the place where I worked casual- as an environmental technician. I got a call saying – there’s fieldwork planned for Monday and Tuesday. I replied back “ok – I am ready for that”. I was having lunch at that time. When I finished my lunch, I thought of today’s show and asked myself – when I could write a story for today’s episode. I had almost no room to write for today’s episode, as the recording was in the early morning at 9 am. The fieldwork as an environmental technician exhaust both physical and mental capacity to write a story.

I could not ask Mac to replace me as I did in the second episode, as this is one of the last episodes to record, and we had no other recording days left for the programs. I had to write but when this was a million-dollar question for me that Thursday afternoon. When my wife returned back home after a long day at college, I shared my million-dollar question with her. I got a normal answer “Just write when we are asleep?” I questioned myself- If writing was that easy! In the meantime, she said that- I would get some free time on Sunday afternoon if I escape a movie, they were planning to go to with the incoming family visitors. I choose to escape. I got about three hours of free time on Sunday afternoon.

All my preparation for the afternoon started very early in the morning. I charged my laptop to 100%, and planned to go to Saint Clear beach and write about the seas, waves, and people. I came to St. Clear beach as planned, stopped my car, opened the car windows, and opened my laptop. I saw the sea, waves, and people but didn’t get anything to write for 15 minutes, and then wrote these two lines.
“The way we look into the sea might have been different with the time but the expectation from the sea is the same. People visit the seashore with some expectations. I visited today with an expectation to write my story”.

I spend another 30 minutes writing about what I could see around me. But, none of these were going to make a complete story. These could be notes for another story but none were connected with each other. I had already made a story connecting short incidence in my last recording. So, I didn’t want to do that. And, the most important rule for our radio show which we strictly follow -as Mac says- make it a maximum of 6 minutes, that’s approximately 800 words for me. 800 words from those random viewing could not be possible from my last experience.

Then I looked into my previous notes on mobile, and
still, I could not find anything that felt like – yes, it can be expanded to make a good story for the listeners. Most of my notes are filled with climate change and resilience writing, which I didn’t want to share in this second season and bore the audience out there. So, I had to find something else. Finally, I decided to write this “IF WRITING WAS AN EASY THING?” As I was writing this last paragraph, I got a call from my wife that the movie time is over. I need to go now. Hey Mac- It’s 812 words today. Thank you. 

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