Are you a Writer?

Dear M,

You know you're a writer if you get up in the morning, decide that you have a story to tell, put your regular chores and jobs aside, and start writing. All of a sudden, the pending tasks, the deadlines, don't seem important - rather, you feel as though there is all the time in the world to get to those tasks, but your priority today, right now, is your story. It is beautiful, it is inspiring, it is exciting and it is what you want to do.

And, that is the true test of every writer: do you drop everything and jot down your story, at least as much as you can? Or does your "better sense" prevail, and do you sigh and move on to your job, telling yourself that you will get to it when you are free? Not everyone has the luxury to put their tasks aside and take up writing, even if it is for an hour. But if you think about it, there might be an hour in the whole, long day when you can do a bit of writing, at least to give you a sense of achievement, a feeling of satisfaction.

I think we all deserve that one hour of euphoria when we are doing what we are good at, what we love to do, what we want to do.

Love.

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How to figure out if your story is any good

Dear M,

Every idea we come up with for a story need not be great. But when the inspiration comes, we do not know if it is going to be good or bad. Naturally any idea that strikes us feels superior to any other idea that has hit anyone else on this planet so far. (It's like a What An Idea Sirji moment.)

There is a way to find out if the new story idea or our execution of it is any good. It may not be a foolproof method, but having some way to figure out is better than having none.

I began writing a story a month or so ago. The idea had been hovering around for a long time now, then suddenly it occurred to me how I could present it. Who was going to be the protagonist, how is he going to uncover it, what was the POV, etc. As always, it felt like a flash of brilliance. So I quickly made notes and arranged things in chronological order and made short character sketches.

Then I plunged into the writing. I knew it was going to be a long story, more than 20 pages. My stories don't usually go beyond 10, or 15. But I figured this was one story that needed space. I had to take the reader through a lot of stuff. So I kept at it, day after day. Then I skipped it for one day, because I had to edit the synopsis for my completed novel. Then I skipped it the next day when something else came up. Soon it was four days since I had written a word on the short story. Then the gap became one week. When it became ten days, I stopped short and asked myself what was going on.

I had lost interest - was what had happened. I did not feel excited when I read the story, any more. I did not feel the urge to go on. It was not driving me now. If I, as the writer, had lost interest in the story, how would the reader find it? No one is holding a gun against his head to make him read.

I have been writing stories long enough to know the difference between a story that does not allow me to rest until I finished writing it, and one that kills me of boredom while writing it.

So if you are bored writing it, and if you try to keep away from it as much as possible, if you don't feel excited when you read it after a gap, then the story isn't going to excite the reader either. Better try to rewrite it or trash it, and move on. Otherwise we will be stuck there for weeks or months. The effort will not be wasted. Good story ideas never leave us. At the right moment, they will return to haunt us again. And this time, we may get it right.

Love.

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Fearing the Family and Friends

Dear M,

I think one of the drawbacks of people reading our books is that they try to see us behind the stories. We, as story-tellers, try to narrate different stories from different perspectives, we try to place ourselves in the shoes of others. But when our friends read the stories, they (some of them at least) imagine that we are the protagonists. That it has to be our story. That there must be an element of truth in it. I have been asked about a couple of my stories, if such a thing has happened to me. They never actually believed it when I said it wasn't my story, that it was in no way related to me.

It is a very difficult situation, if you ask me. Imagine our story exploring forbidden topics. What conclusions are the reader-friends of ours going to arrive at? We have a major crisis arising from misunderstanding heading for our doors. I have often wondered if I can get away with an anonymously written book. (I don't fancy wasting my life explaining my stories to others.) But the problem would be marketing it. How can an anonymous author promote his/her work on the Internet? This isn't like the olden times when the publisher took care of all the sales and marketing.

We should, as they say, have a thick skin if we want to write about sensitive topics that could raise an eyebrow or so - within the family. Yeah, we can face the nation's wrath, but the family's floors we fear to tread. At some point, though, we have to decide whether the need to write would triumph over the fear of a few scowls or raised eyebrows.

I remember reading that Rushdie's educated father was annoyed at the way the protagonist's father was represented in Midnight's Children, but his mother was okay with it; everyone knew the story was loosely based on Rushdie's own life.

Love.

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The Connection

Dear M,

One of the things that excites a reader (or a viewer of a film/show) is how well s/he can connect with the characters. Which is probably why they say, your character should not be flawless, there should be weaknesses that readers can identify with. They should lie and make mistakes like you and I would. They should be helpless and desperate and lost. And they could find happiness in small things (well, not exactly like us in that case - we are all very demanding when it comes to happiness).

Take a story like Avatar. I mean, you do not connect with the settings, I suppose. It is as alien to you as it is to Jake Sully. See the connect already? And Jake is disabled and then he finds his wings - er, legs. In the story, Jake's twin was supposed to go to Pandora, but he died, so they send Jake instead. Why do you think the deceased twin brother's reference was needed? If the twin himself (who was the person who had trained and prepared for the Pandora mission) had come to the planet, there would have been no twist. He would have done his job perfectly and blended easily into the premise and all would have been fine or something. But how will we be able to connect to it? We wouldn't have. Something would have seemed missing. 

The connection is key. If you watch soft romantic movies, you will notice that most of them are from the girl's point of view. Why is it so? Because women connect better with romantic films than men do. And men like to watch an Iron Man or Wolverine and imagine they're they. You know what I mean? (Okay, allow for exceptions and all that; this is just an example.)

The connection, I repeat.

Love.

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The Art of Querying

Dear M,

If querying were like mathematics, there would have been a formula which you could apply to the completed manuscript you have with you, and the equation would have yielded the perfect query letter.

However, writing queries is not mathematics, it is art. Which means that there is no rule, no law, no equation, no correct answer. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Some people like it, some don't. Some stand out from the crowd, some are trampled in the stampede.

As a person who has been writing query letters for a long time, I know what I am talking about. I don't even dare read the ones I had written a few years ago in my height of optimism and self confidence. Really, if there was a touch of arrogance in them, I would not be surprised.

Different agents and publishers look for different things in the query letter (though the essential items remain the same: author's bio, sample chapters, synopsis, etc.). It is important to understand what they need and how they need it before querying. They also could be bored individuals gazing at query after query, day after day after day.

Like every other art, writing query letters can be learned too, to some extent. The query letter is the first hurdle to cross on the road to publishing. It opens the door to the agent or the publisher just enough for you to put your foot in. The rest is up to the brilliance of the manuscript.

As in any other art form, the only answer is to keep trying and keep modifying and keep learning.

Love.

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Writing in the Mother tongue

Dear M,

Why is everyone reluctant to write in the mother tongue? Well - not everyone, many people do write spectacular pieces in their language. But there are some, torn between English and the mother tongue, (wasting time) wondering which one to choose. The regional language has a limited audience, I was told. Probably true to some extent. In this age of publicising books through the Internet, a global language might be a better choice.

But again, aren't we looking at the wrong thing here? I tell this person to stop thinking about the audience. What do you like to write in, which language are you confident in? Specifically, when you think about writing, or when you scribble unconsciously in your notebook, how do the words come out?

Because if you think in English and try to translate to the mother tongue, it could come out wrong. If you think in the mother tongue and try to translate to English, it could come out wrong. A lot of things depend on how it emerges at the first attempt - though we can edit and polish it, if the first output is robust enough, it is easier to work on, later.

Some people are proficient in both (or many) languages. They have the luxury of choosing the language they want to write in. All of us may not be manufactured so.

I don't know. For some, the best thoughts are presented well in the mother tongue, that's what I think. And I also don't agree with a person choosing English just for the audience, because if the writing isn't good, there will be no audience.

Love.

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Write for... whom?

Dear M,

Again, the same advice in another of those sites. They all say it so it must be true. (Probably explains the reason for my track record too.)

Write for the audience. Seriously? How can I write for the audience? I always write for myself. (Shut up.)

I don't agree, but that's what they all say. There must be something to it. See what the market wants, they say. Give it to them.

That's what some people do, and it works. Some people don't, and that works too. So what works? Wait a minute. There it is - right before me. Write what you think is best. If you believe in writing for others, that's what you do. If you want to write for yourself, that's what you do. Who knows, anyway?

Love.

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