On Writing

It has its challenges. Its moments of despair. You feel like tearing your hair apart. There is so much to be done and so little time. The ideas are there and so are the thoughts but they disappear when you settle down to capture them. And of course, there are moments of exhilaration. Of joy. Of seeing your creation take shape and ultimately emerge as a sell-able product, a book. An author’s life is fun. At the end of the day, you need the passion to keep at it, to keep going, which means to keep writing.

Novel Writing Tips

I could feel the tension ease palpably as the book launch function of my second thriller, “Lucky For Some, 13” came to an end recently. It was also the time to summarize a few key learnings which might be of use to budding writers, if not to other writers. “Writing a 87,000 + word novel is pretty easy, its writing the less than 200 word back cover copy that is tough,” I quipped. There’s a lot of truth in what I said. Ask any author.

Tips For Aspiring Authors

Some people were talking to me recently at a party. The topic turned to writing as a full-time profession. A young man said,”It must be fun to live the good life, earning so much that you just write all day long, which anyway is something you love doing.”  I said, “I am doing this as a second career after retirement. Don’t forget I worked for more than 35 years as a professional before taking to writing.” I went on to say, “You have to be a top-notch writer, with a few lucky breaks thrown in for good measure, to be able to live only on the strength of your earnings through your writing.” I don’t mean to be discouraging but a lot of people in India, especially the young, seem to have too rosy a picture of the field of writing. They have a lot of spirit , which I greatly admire but sometimes in their enthusiasm lose sight of some harsh realities.

Punctuating Dialogue

While writing a novel, it is important for an author to focus on aspects of writing, other than the plot or developing the characters. The value of correct punctuation need hardly be emphasized. Incorrect punctuation while writing dialogue confuses the reader.

R for Random Reminiscences

If it was tough to choose what to write for Q, it was relatively very easy for R. A large number of words came tumbling into my mind. This gave me an idea. Why not do something different? Why not capture Random Reminiscences as they came in to my mind? That’s what R stands for today for me.

L for Learnings

As one who has been a talent management specialist and executive coach for over three decades, L has to be for Learning! To me all progress comes through implementing new learnings, be it in your profession or in your passion. Improvements come about as we learn something new.