Lessons For A First-Time Author

    • TNN
    • Publish Date: May 27 2016 6:27PM
    • |
    • Updated Date: May 27 2016 6:27PM
Lessons For A First-Time Author

From seasoned writers!

Don’t fear the unread
Author: Prasoon Joshi, National award-winning lyricist
Books: Sunshine Lanes
Lessons: “My grandfather told me that the best way to learn to become a writer is to read a lot. I read Hindi poetry and my school books, but I was afraid of reading the classics. Firstly, it seemed like an insurmountable task to finish the heavy volumes, and secondly, I doubted this adage. Over the years I learnt that your writing can only grow by reading, and I wish I had believed him then.”

Don’t get lost in the story plan
Author: William Dalrymple
Books: White Mughals, Mungo Park Medal
Lessons: “I still make this mistake — I get so lost in the research and planning that I forget what I started out to do! I am careful and meticulous while compiling my background material, and spend one to two years in research. I have three or four card indexes, organised by name, place, and topic. I keep a dateline on my laptop with every event from the beginning of the story to the end. It usually starts at about four or five pages and by the time I start to write it’s about 400. I then return to reading all about the topics which fascinated me, and like skipping from one webpage to another, I often have to drag myself to the page. However, if everything is planned out and the order is clear, then you don’t end up with writer’s block and you get a clear lesson plan for the book. It’s a wise decision to plan, as a really good anecdote or story can go on for pages, and you can of course go back to chapters and add information. If you can write at speed, then that’s the key. ”

Be careful and comfortable with what you choose to reveal
Author: Jeet Thayil
Books: Narcopolis, DSC S. Asian prize winner
Lessons: “Sometimes you're much too revealing, even in fiction. I wrote about a grim reality, that I had personally encountered and faced in real life. But in later interviews, I think I revealed a bit too much about my life. It compromises the secrets of others mentioned.”

There is always more than one perspective
Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Books: The Palace of Illusions, Crawford Award winner 
Lessons: “I had been thinking about writing on Draupadi for a while now, and since Mahabharata is an action-based epic, it only shows Draupadi’s actions not her thoughts. I spoke to scholars and did my research, and when I went through my first draft, it seemed like I was regurgitating the textbook account of her life. Then I started imagining how she would be from inside and her internal thought processes. I came up with my own perspective, and people told me that this new viewpoint was much needed.”

Don’t let commercial pressures dictate your writing
Author: Ruskin Bond
Books: The Blue Umbrella, The Room on the Roof, Padma Shri awardee
Lessons: “The worst thing I ever did was force my writing. After taking a hefty advance from an editor (my second) in 1978, I felt the pressure to submit half the manuscript in two months. It was horrible as my writing was strained and the effort all but drained me. I didn’t feel like I was doing the story justice as it felt forced. I just wrote for the sake of it. Soon after, I took a two-year break, but kept writing for myself. Today, I get up, go to the desk, or lie down in bed and pick up my pen and write as much as I want to. It’s the characters and the story that asks me, “what’s going to happen next?’’
 

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