Non-Email Manuscript Submission

Dear M,

I wonder why the publishers of English books in India still expect authors to send their works by post. Yes, you heard it right. Most (if not all the good ones) publishers have written very clearly that emails are not entertained. (There has been a slight change in the recent times, though, and one publisher has given an email ID in their website, however no one seems to be on the other end of it, except a bot that sends auto-thank-you-responses.) Another well-known publisher had enabled email submission guidelines, but before long they reverted back to post submissions.

What could be the reason?

The only reason I can think of is that, since these publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts, once the email channel is opened, there is bound to be a flood of submissions daily. There is no effort in shooting an email to anyone at any time of the day. But think of taking print outs of about 50-60 pages of your work (after formatting them according to specifications), making sure the pages are in order, copying down the name and address (making sure the query letter is addressed properly) and taking them to the courier/post office - and doing this fifteen times? (And at least once mixing up the names, and addressing the Penguin editor in the courier that went to Harper Collins?) No, unless you are serious about publishing even one tiny bit, you would not go through all that trouble.

I am not surprised that the publisher who had temporarily opened email submissions had quickly closed it down.

Maybe there is a simpler reason behind it. If there is, I would like to be enlightened.

Love.

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There's no glory in the struggle

Dear M,

New authors are so enthusiastic! Just like young men off to battle (so I have heard). They think it is exciting - the struggle of a writer. They think their bravery, valiance, determination, skill and strength will be put to test. They think they are soldiers in uniform marching in the World War 1. They think they are fighter pilots bombing Nazi Germany in the World War 2. They think they're preparing themselves for the World War 3. They think of the glory, the awards, the recognition, once the War is over.

What they do not know is that there is no such thing (even in a real war). In the writing world, the fight is against one's self. The enemy is boredom. The only thing that will be put to test is your persistence. Your skill, talent, or capacity does not matter, if you give up trying because you are bored and you decided that you have had enough.

The days of writing are long and dreary. Nothing happens. You just force yourself to sit at your desk and write word after word after word. That's your world war. Then, one day, you finish. But then you need to edit it. You go over it again and again and again - as though you are trudging through a desert with only a bottle of water for company. That may eventually give out too. And then you approach an editor, and then you rest for a while. The Oasis, from where you need to set off again. By then you are not the same person who had started the journey... let me see, four-five years ago.

You laugh at yourself and all your old, proud talks of being a "struggling" writer. There is no glory in the struggle. I have had enough, dammit, you say, throw the manuscript, half-edited and half-fixed and all, to a publisher's door and walk away, hoping that you will hear a voice calling you from behind.

Nothing happens. This is not a tragic fiction I just made up. This is the truth. This is the struggle. The waiting. The disillusionment. The pessimism. Then amidst them all, still picking up where you left it yesterday and continuing the struggle, disillusioned, pessimistic, disappointed and exhausted.

Love.

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Validation

Dear M,

Being unpublished - in the traditional sense of being published - is a difficult situation to be in, in your efforts to convince yourself that you are a writer. If you are serious about writing, that is. You'd rather hide that side of yours than have to answer unwanted questions. You do not need that validation from anyone, you try to convince yourself. I know what I am, and what I am not.

But it doesn't always work that way. So you try to prove - to yourself and to others - that yes, you are a Writer, worthy of being called a Writer, you are the one to whom people turn to when they need Writing advice, you are the experienced one, you are the one who knows about Writing.

You try to prove it by actually Writing something that people can see. In places where they can bump into your writing. From where they can come to you with wide, surprised, bordering-on-impressed eyes and say, Oh yes, I read that article of yours. Yes, it was great.

Squeezing that out of some people is tough. But if you manage that, even if it was a passing sentence intended not to catch your ears, it's success in itself.

Love.

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The Magic of the Vocabulary

Dear M,

Vocabulary is quite something. One feels wonderful when the right words appear. And at that moment, you know it is worth all the effort you have put in, knowingly or unknowingly, to learn new words. All that learn-by-rote exercises you must have done and can barely remember, all those books you were forced to read for your exams, all those books you devoured out of love for reading, all of them coming together in culmination at your fingertips at the right moment, and the ecstasy you experience when you write/type the right word - that's the magic of the Vocabulary.

Love.

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Writing as though Speaking

Dear M,

Some authors write as though they are speaking to us, even when the narrative is in third person. As though they are sitting right across the table from us, and telling us what had happened. It seems so effortless, however we know it isn't. There is an appropriate mix of stream of consciousness and the global third person view. It feels as though we aren't reading, we are listening.

I think that is a more modernistic style of writing; by modern I mean early-ish twentieth century. Probably. I am not all that interested in studying when this evolved or when that was founded. (Perhaps I should, though.)

I am interested in understanding how they wrote those, how they conceived the idea, how they prepared their notes which eventually formed this shape that I now hold in my hands.

I read somewhere about one exercise that some writers have done early in their youth. They copy down the writing of their favourite authors, a few lines each day. Writing, as we know, is the best way to memorise anything. And by memorise we don't mean we are going to plagiarise their work. It is a way to decipher their writing, to understand what they have done. And to improvise on anything, the first thing to do is get the basics right. Know the rules, then break them.

Love.

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Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014)

Dear M,

I was planning to write about something else today. Then came the news about Gabo. And I could write nothing else. In fact, I could write nothing.

Why does Gabriel García Márquez's death depress me so much? I have no idea. But it does.

Perhaps because, due to some inexplicable coincidence, I was reading up his Wikipedia page last night. Just like that. For no reason. Just vaguely wondering if he was working on something new these days. And today, when I go back to that page, everything has changed. Overnight. Literally.

Perhaps because One Hundred Years of Solitude had been a discovery of a magical world. A magical world of writing. I had never experienced anything like that before. One Hundred Years of Solitude was an eye-opener. Many lessons learnt from a single book. It excited me and it frustrated me. It motivated me and it terrified me. I wanted to write like that, but I knew I never will.

Perhaps because I always considered myself to be lucky that I live in a time when Gabo was around. Most of the other authors I am fond of are not. Not that it changes anything in the least, in any way. But it somehow was reassuring to know that he, Gabo, was still out there.

Silly. I know.

RIP, Gabriel García Márquez.

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Writing and Rewriting the Synopsis

Dear M,

If my tail were actually on fire, I would not have run as hard as I was running the last few days.

I have absolutely no idea how I survived hopping between the different things and still managed to keep track of what was happening where (of course with enough slips along the way) and to continue where each was left off.

In between that fire-and-smoke existence, I managed to take a look at my synopsis. Now the synopsis, like the query letter, is another frightening thing. That is the first glimpse the agent/publisher has of our work. Either they like it, or they don't. Either they think it has potential, or they don't. Whether it lands up in the trash or the "Exciting New Author" box depends on how well we craft the synopsis.

I had written one for this novel a few months ago, possibly when my first draft was ready. Strictly speaking, there is nothing wrong with the synopsis. It is factually correct, it has a brief summary of the what and the who, and everything. As per the rulebook.
But.
Reading it again after months, it did not excite me.

Now the easiest person in the world to be excited over anything related to a novel is its author. No one else in the world thinks it is a masterpiece but the author. He/She pretends to be all modest and humble about it of course, but secretly, in their eyes, the novel beats the best of the best.

So if the author isn't excited by the synopsis, then there is really something wrong with it - no, a better way to put it is that the synopsis is dead. It was never even born.

The synopsis said exactly what was needed to be said about the novel, but that's not how a synopsis ought to be written. I need to write it again.

Let's hold the match stick to the tail again...

Love.

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The Novel's Own Time and Place

Dear M,

I hate to admit it, but today when a load of work came in, I was so relieved that I did not have to work on the novel. Don't mistake me: I love my novel and all I want is to polish it to perfection. There are only a few more things to be done on it. But one does get miserably bored of reading it a million times. There is no novelty, first of all. You know what's going to happen. You have no shock, no surprise, no emotion whatsoever. All that was spent in the first writing and the second reading.

I can't wait for the day when I can be rid of that novel once and for all. It is keeping me from my next masterpiece, and it is not becoming "complete" either. I want to see it published, of course; if ever that cycle begins, I will be happy to be working on it again, but as long as there is no promise involved, I just want to toss it to one side.

If it has a future, I suppose it will find it. A novel has its "time and place" too.

Love.

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The Art of Interweaving an Idea

Dear M,

Though we claim that the best writers do not force their convictions on the reader and they let the readers decide, I believe that they subtly interweave their own opinions about each man and woman into their writing. No, I am not talking about the Show, Not Tell thing.

It's not about the author showing us what a generous, sensitive, large-hearted person the hero is, or how cunning or manipulative someone else is. It's about how they allow a certain thought or an idea to seep in almost imperceptibly into our minds. At the end of the book, that might be the only thought that remains in our mind, and we'll even convince ourselves that the idea had occurred to us, and that it was not planted in our mind by someone else.

In one novel, the author conveys to us (though we cannot recall or locate where we had read those lines) that the hero was the only person who truly understood the heroine's wild side, and actually loved her for it. This feeling keeps coming back to us every ten pages or so.

Much later, after reading the book 2-3 times, it occurred to me that it is not true, the hero did not actually understand her all that much, because if he did, he would not have done something that he did. Then I had to ask myself where in the world did I get such an idea in the first place? It was not mine. I would never have come up with the notion that he was all that understanding. He was supportive, true. But he did not quite get her as much as we believed he did. It was clear then. It was not my impression; it was the author's gentle suggestion and we had all lapped it up.

In another even more famous work, a certain speech is considered to have stirred up the emotions of the public. It did stir me when I read it first. Then as I grew older and read it again and again, it did not seem all that stirrable. But we were talking about the confused, listening mob. I could be wrong. The very fact that I was doubtful about the power of that speech told me that the initial idea was planted in my mind by the author. The author had subtly suggested that the speech was powerful enough to make the mob go crazy. The suggestion was so gentle and undetectable that we, the unsuspecting reader, believed it was true.

Love.

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Research into the number of rejections

Dear M,

A major activity in a writer's life involves reading up on how famous authors were rejected a million times, how they suffered for a hundred years, how they struggled to get their work noticed, and when that happened, how they shot to fame.

The next activity in the aspiring author's life is to sit and wonder how long he has to go before he gets somewhere. How many rejections has he received so far, and how many more to go before he hits that threshold? How many years has he to struggle before someone notices him? He calculates the average number of rejections faced by the famous novelists, average number of years they struggled, and then he compares with his own numbers.

That's how far he needs to go to reach the bottom of the staircase, from where he can at least start climbing. So far whatever he has been doing is wandering left and right, and in all possible directions, seeking to find that magical, vanishing staircase.

Love.

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Of Luck and Meeting the Right People

Dear M,

Frankly, I wonder how authors like Hemingway or Virginia Woolf or even Rushdie got away with their writing. Their writings must have fallen to several hands and must have been rejected, over and over. I don't see how else it can be.

I wasn't impressed by any of these authors when I started reading them. (They're lucky I wasn't their agent.) The first page of Midnight's Children surprised me - is this how the world famous book begins? I had to struggle past a few pages (which I did only because the author was well-known and respected) to become truly hooked to it. Same with Hemingway. I became his fan only after reading The Old Man and The Sea. That was something I could put my money on. But that was one of the books he wrote after he became The Hemingway. That was the book that led him to the Nobel.

And Virginia Woolf? Just picture myself taking the first few pages of her book (Mrs Dalloway, for instance) and approaching a publisher, claiming to be the author. Assume also that the publisher has never read Woolf. I am sure she would throw the MS to the trash. This is not a story, she would tell me. This is like a blog where you can write disjointed stuff and make no sense whatsoever. I am looking for a story that has a plot and does not wander all over the place like this does. Give me something that people would read.

The way I see it, someone was impressed enough to give them a chance. They were lucky to get noticed. They had met the right person at the right time. Or maybe they started out writing stories with traditional style plots and sequence, and then once they were accepted, they were able to experiment with their styles.

Which once again proves that we cannot afford to give up. If we have to get somewhere, we've got to keep walking.

Love.

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Honest Feedback

Dear M,

Continuing from our discussion on Rave Reviews, when we share our stories with our friends and family, they also are under tremendous pressure to live up to expectations. They tell themselves, the reason why they shared this story with me is so that I can give them an honest feedback. If I say well-written, nice, etc. they are going to be disappointed. So, in the public domain, I could praise them to my heart's content, but privately I need to inform them what areas they could improve on. And they go through the story in critical detail.

The result is that we get an email from them with their "honest feedback." Ouch.

The plot could be further developed.
The attempt was good, but the execution did not live up to it.
The characters were one-dimensional.
The writing was okay, but I found it phoney and contrived at places.
The theme did not come out properly, you could try to bring it out further.
The elaborate descriptions could have been avoided.

Wha-?

Okay. Deep breath. I read through them fifty times - up and down, down and up. I go back to the story and read it up and down, keeping these comments in mind.

In the end, I shamefacedly confess to myself that I have absolutely no idea what they meant when they said the plot "could be developed". I had developed it as I saw fit. I had developed and developed and developed till there was nothing else left to develop. Tell me how, I want to scream.

Attempt and execution? I have put all my attempts into the execution. Don't talk Greek.

The characters - yes, I get that. I know how to give them more shades. That's something I understand. But did you mean all characters? All of them were absolutely dull and single-dimensional? Come on.

Phoney writing?
Bringing out the theme?
What in the world are you trying to say?

I know what you mean, I write back to them. Thanks a lot for your comments. I will definitely try to work on those.

Then I throw the story to one side and start on another.

Love.

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Rave Reviews

Dear M,

There was this book whose name I happened to come across recently. It was apparently getting "rave reviews" on the Internet. Much over-used phrase though it was, I was curious. Every new book claims to be getting "rave" reviews. But some of them might be true too. And we don't want to be the last ones to know.

So I went to read those rave reviews. Out of the 50-odd reviews, all - believe me, all - were about how brilliant the book was. No wonder the author seemed so ecstatic. However, it failed to excite me. 100% good reviews doesn't really happen - the sceptic in me thought. Maybe these readers have never read anything else in their life. I have read reviews of many authors' books - all those best selling, Pulitzer/Booker winners. Even with those authors, there will always be a number of bad reviews - from readers who claim that they wasted money on the book. It is natural, it is healthy, and it is normal to get a certain percentage of bad reviews. This one looked suspiciously as though the reviewers were friends and family of the author.

My point is that (again, I have made this point several times in this blog) no author gets 100% good reviews. There will be people who do not enjoy his/her writing, who do not like stories of that kind, who did not think the characters were well-etched, or the plot was impressive or the writing extraordinary, who say things like "the plot was promising, but the execution did not live up to the expectation", "this new author has a lot to learn" or "the whole idea seemed preposterous". If those people aren't there, then probably the book isn't worth reading at all.

Just my thoughts.

Love.

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Merging Plots

Dear M,

I have found the solution. It's perhaps not the best solution, but I am feeling quite adventurous today, and it's perhaps time for a little experimenting. I'm referring to the problem of the surge of stories.

A couple of seemingly brilliant story ideas had been shadowing me for a while now, and I made elaborate notes on both, unsure which one I need to work on next. (After I go back and finish the older one, of course.) The truth is that though both appeared promising, neither had enough material to last the 80k or 100k test. Without having a strong premise, it was not a good idea to plunge into it. There is a third, independent storyline that has made its appearance, to further complicate matters. If only we could finish our masterpieces at the speed of thought itself.

Anyway, today the splendid solution came up - two of those plots could be merged. It may or may not work, the 'splendidness' remains to be seen. There aren't a lot of obvious overlaps between the two, yet there are certain areas that could be reworked on so that a merger can be signed.

I hate to admit I am not overly excited about it. The result should not look as though a half-apple and a half-orange were pasted together in a desperate attempt to make a mango.

Love.

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A Surge of Stories

Dear M,

I don't know if all writers face this problem - a surge of story ideas. But of course they do. How can it be otherwise? Anyone who has tasted the exhilaration of completing a story would also know that the stories (or those that are disguised as stories) have a way of rushing on to us when we are quietly enjoying dinner with family or in the middle of the deepest of sleep.

We - hapless writers - have no idea if the story is good, if it is worthy of being explored, if it would abandon us like a bored lover a few days later, or if it would be the masterpiece we have been waiting for. Like everything else, if we need to find out if the idea is worth anything, we need to chase it, capture it, tame it and see it for what it is. Will it take us to the 80K mark? Will it emerge polished and beautiful like sculpture out of marble? Will it teach us a thing or two?

If we do not pursue the ideas that hit us headlong, we may never know what it could be.

Love.

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