#234 Through a reader's lens

Through a reader’s lens

Readers are always thought to be the lonely ones. That’s may be because they don’t socialise much. They are always accompanied by the imaginary characters from the novels they read. The kind of happiness that they derive from reading is inexplicable. Being a reader, I can very well connect myself to the world of reading and writing. I find reading   experience something divine and out-of-the world. I hope that might be the similar in case of other readers.

This is an era of technology. The virtual world of internet is the store house of immense information. A reader gets an infinite resource to read from internet. The advancement in technology has been successful enough to compress the bulkiness of books to few grams of modern gadgets like ebook readers which have the ability to house million books. E-commere has brought a revolution in this field. The order placed for any book gets delivered within few days at the door step. The readers get any book of their taste in their hands even without moving out of their homes. Doesn’t it resemble with any fiction? All these intensifies a reader’s craving for books.

Reading is apparently a primary step of writing whether you believe it or not. “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” – Stephen King .Reading exposes you to the vastness of ideas and thoughts. This helps in broadening of the perspective and thought process. The mind of a voracious reader is capable enough to store the important things subconsciously so that during the time of need, those stored things can be retrieved almost effortlessly. Such is the power of reading which should never be undermined. It’s similar to the case of computer, to speak in a layman’s language. Reading helps in building vocabulary which is an important aspect of writing.

For writing something, brain storming is a must concept where you roughly jot down the primary idea of the article. Brain storming is like preparing a rough sketch about every little constituent of the article.

Readers are most attracted to the title of the text. The way a beautifully designed, interestingly titled cover of the novel is capable enough to appeal a larger section of readers, the role of the title of the article is no different from that. Title creates the first impression and to be able to keep the readers enchanted, this impression should have a lasting impact. While purchasing a novel from any book store, I quickly glance through the covers and titles of the novel. Then I move on to the pages for reviews and introduction, later on to the back cover for the gist or to know about the author.

Content is another important ingredient to be focussed on. There are varieties of readers in the market. For the fiction readers, the way of writing must introduce various characters well. There must be a deep association with different characters of the novel. The plot should be interesting. Then, the formation of sentence must not be too messy. It should be made as simple as possible .Language is the medium of communication. So, the underlying idea or message should be conveyed effectively by using the words appropriately. It may not be an 

easy task. It comes though practice and perseverance.

The rise of blog readers indicates the inclination towards the developing technology. This change in trend is giving ample of opportunities to the new budding writers who can attract readers easily.  Blogs are the easily available tools of reading for a reader. Blog offers a feasible method to peep into the writer’s mind. Reading always generates ideas. That may be the reason why every blog has an option of following other blogs .For eg wordpress provides an option of ''reader', blogspot provides an option for following other blogs.

No doubt, blogging has brought a revolution in the field of writing. It has provided a valuable platform to amateur writers for publishing their works. The vast spread of world wide web solves rest of the issue of connecting the words of authors to the readers. It serves as a digital diary for many writers who maintain a regular habit of writing. The design of the blog plays a vital role in attracting the vast multitude of readers just like the cover of the book. By introducing the section for accepting commenting of the readers, a writer can very well guess the taste of the readers which is very important in attracting a large audience.

Like “Kabhi Saas bhi, kabhi bahu thi”- which translates to every mother-in-law was once a daughter-in-law, it would never be wrong to state that every writer was once a reader. In other words, I can say that every reader possesses the potentiality of a writer. So, every journey of writing stems up from the experience of reading.

Swati Sarangi              

14.07.2016