Painful Success!

I stare at the keyboard, my fingers motion less, I stare at the screen, and it’s been blank for the last one hour. Where is the ponder which comes to me every night and gives me the words to write? (Hey it rhymes ha-ha) It surely seems to have disappeared today.

My note pad lies on my desk, containing one of the finest interviews I took and my pen which normally strikes off information used for my article has remained idle tonight. I curse the journalistic ethic of putting the punch line as the lead, getting the lead right needs a lot of brainstorming.

Somehow I always managed but tonight something is not right, I just can’t get the lead right. Am I missing the passion or is it the angered air because of some punks creating a scene outside my apartment?

Don’t be distracted, concentrate I tell myself.

Oh these words tonight just aren’t going anywhere, definitely not to the stories’ folder tomorrow morning.

After an hour of thinking, re-writing, cursing, smoking innumerous cigarettes, sending a few SMS, looking at some pictures, I get a 55 word lead typed.

Balls! A lead has to be about 45 words, I think again, re-write, smoke again (no SMS this time) and finally get a lead of 40 words.

Perfect! The flow is on, my fingers busy, my idle pen striking off the information used, smiling, there is no stopping me now.

Hell! Wait! I cannot figure out a word, damn, I should have asked the interviewee to slow down or I should have written it a bit slowly. I read the sentence over and over, trying to get the word. Damn! How I wish I could just presume it and go on. I figure it out after a while, voila, I get back with the flow.

What’s next? A quote doesnot make sense at all, I pick up my phone and try to call the interviewee to confirm it, and he isn’t answering. I try again, and again and again.

No answer! I rise from my chair, pace the floor to and fro, I stop, and pace again, I stop and kick a chair. I hit my darn toe. The ring of my phone doesnot let me curse the pain. I pick it up, great! I have the quote now.

I hop back to the keyboard and begin to type the last paragraph and get done with my article, finally!

Amazing how pain can unstick the words stuck in the middle of the night. My painful success! Happy and satisfied, I slip into my warm bed; I put off the lights and close my eyes.

Wait! I open it, “my editor better publish this article after all that I have gone through,” I close my eyes and fall into a deep sleep!