The Writer's Nickname as a Daydreamer, Is It Fitting?

Is the decision to pursue writing as a hobby the right one? There is a fear of choosing the wrong hobby, especially when many people think writing is nothing but daydreaming. Their opinion is not entirely wrong, but should writing really be taken so lightly? Feelings like these are what currently make most people reluctant to continue their hobby as a writer.

Is it fair to call writers "daydreamers"? Can we call professional writers such as Tere Liye and Andrea Hirata daydreamers? Of course not, because we all recognise their professionalism as writers.

That is why writers are more than mere daydreamers. Writing does not rely only on dreams or hallucinations; it requires solid, high-quality skill and research to create a piece of writing, whether a story or something else, so that it is worth reading and can be enjoyed by readers.

So a writer is not just any daydreamer; being a writer requires skill. This applies whether one writes novels, short stories, comedy, non-fiction or fantasy. It starts with creating an idea, then arranging the story outline, then doing research, all the way to composing the grammar so that it is poured into a unified storyline.

Anyone can learn a skill, but not everyone can become an expert in it, especially since it takes time. Learning and development over that period require brain work, involve emotions and, of course, energy.

Writing is quite difficult, and what is interesting about it is that not everyone can find their interest. Even more so, finding an interest in writing and then falling in love with it right away. Most people find it hard to discover an interest and then suddenly realise that they have no interest in anything, which makes them start looking for an escape from their feelings of exhaustion at the way the world is spinning so fast these days.

For those of us who have found an interest, especially in writing, we should certainly be proud. We can become one of the lucky ones through our writing. It may well be that an interest in writing will lead us to great opportunities in life that we never expected.

It is not right to call writing "daydreaming", because the word "halu" (daydreaming) refers to hallucination. It is impossible for people to write while hallucinating, or to hallucinate while writing. If the word "halu" were changed to "fantasising", perhaps that would be acceptable, but the most accurate word is "imagining".

Writing has various unique qualities, one of which is that the process of turning a piece of writing into an interesting story is something not many people possess. Imagination is the starting point for someone to write, so it is wrong to call a person's imaginative power "daydreaming". A writer is not daydreaming, but imagining

Here are some steps that can be used to train your writing imagination. Because imagination is an important asset when writing, it will become a problem later if the brain has difficulty cooperating in imagining. These steps can be applied and used every day when writing so that they can grow into written work.

1. Scribble your ideas first on paper or in a notebook. So before the writing is typed on a laptop, first pour it out on paper.
2. Write down and describe the story or writing idea in 6-10 words first.
3. Most importantly, writing must also go hand in hand with reading, so we must have a reading book that interests us. Make a habit of reading at least 1 page per day, then write down the conclusions gained from reading the book.
4. Free your imagination or write whatever comes to mind. Never be afraid of making mistakes and write as freely as possible.
5. Change the pronoun "saya" to "aku" (both meaning "I", the latter more intimate), then absorb it as if we were entering into the writing.
6. Occasionally give your mind some quiet time by pausing for a moment or calming yourself.
7. Write down all the questions that arise and cross your mind, even if they sometimes sound strange.
8. Slowly begin looking for answers to each of the previous questions. Try to look at the answers from various perspectives.
9. Also read books across fields of knowledge to broaden our insight and our points of view for writing.
10. You can also start by regularly writing on social media, even if the writing is only venting.
11. Write on paper every problem we face day to day, then string them into sentences and read them slowly.

Let us not be embarrassed or feel inferior about our hobby of writing, because writing skills will be needed someday, for students in particular when facing the undergraduate thesis. In addition, without realising it, when creating a story we are doing an activity called research, so we can learn new things. For example, when we are making a royal fantasy story, we will research what the culture of that kingdom era was like, and we will also see things from a different perspective.

Let some people say that writers like to daydream; nevertheless, that daydreaming still requires effort to find the right theme, what its problems are like,  how the strategy for the conflict should be, and most importantly, what lesson the whole story offers. Of course, getting all of that is not done by daydreaming and storytelling carelessly.

There is a saying that others will love us if we can first love ourselves. The same goes for writing: we will gain love from readers if we can craft and love our hobby of writing.

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