When life throws obstacles in my way

From the past few months, life has been throwing a whole lot of obstacles my way, and these have stopped me from working on my manuscript. I have been doing so many freelance projects that I have no time to write my own stories. I just managed to work on the second draft of my love story and it took me ages to do that and I’m sure I didn’t do a great job.

I have been so late for a book review that the editor of the newspaper had to send me a gentle reminder about it. But she was also very understanding when I told her that I wasn’t well.

My books to be reviewed list is piling up. My critique partner Mark Noce has sent me his new novel for feedback.

I have ignored my blog and blog buddies’ for days. I have no clue what’s happening in blogosphere.

I feel that to cope with all my other writing and writing related activities, I need to put aside my own manuscript for a few days. That’s the only way I’ll get any work done.

How are thing with you all? How are you managing your writing with other things?

What has my writing taught me?

My journey as a writer has been quite a long one. In the initial years I wrote short stories and features. Then many years later I dived into the world of  books. Over the years I have learnt several things in this journey.  I want to share these insights with my writing friends.  I am sure a few things will make you smile, and some things will make you nod your heads.

1.  Writing has taught me that writers seldom become overnight millionaires. Infact, fat paychecks and writers are like two railway tracks, running alongside and meeting in just a few cases.

2. Writing has taught me that I may be the boss where my stories are concerned but I am at the beck and call of my muse who decides that there is nothing wrong if he pops into the shower to greet me or that there is nothing wrong with a 3 a.m greeting.

3. Writing has taught me that however much I torture my characters they always have the last laugh by putting their foot down and taking the story in another direction from the one I had envisaged.

4. Writing has taught me the skills of a master juggler: trying to balance writing with life, work, friendship, blogging etc is not an easy task. This entire juggling business tires me big time.

5. Writing has taught me that I am the odd one among my friends. I go gushy mushy over books the way people fall over babies, hot guys, racing cars, bikes, diamonds and chocolates.

6. Writing has made me realize that I have more imaginary friends than a small child. My characters become my friends, sometimes reluctantly and sometimes willingly.

7. Writing has made me realize that I am a closet sadist. I enjoy torturing my characters.

8.Writing has taught me that patience, dedication and hard work will never go waste. Somewhere along the way the rewards are waiting.

9. Writing has taught me to develop a thick skin. Not everyone will like what I have written and not everyone will have favourable things to say about it.

10. Writing has also taught me to believe in my stories. There are people out there who will love my words, maybe they will get inspired by it. I owe it to them to keep writing.

What has your  writing journey taught you? Please share with us, we all would love to know.

What has my writing taught me?

My journey as a writer has been quite long, starting with short stories and features for several years before I plunged into writing my books. I have learnt several things in this journey which I would like to share with you all.

               

   1. Writing has taught me patience. Patience is not one of my better known virtues. The time it takes to write a book: from the idea to the completed manuscript, revised and polished, until it shines, is long. Sometimes it takes ages to write that crucial scene or arrive at the resolution. 

   2.   Writing has taught me to respect people with split personalities as my personality undergoes a drastic change at different stages of my writing. When I am writing the first draft, I am quite stressed and irritable with the smallest disturbances. When I rewrite, I am pretty upset with myself, and when I edit, I am relaxed and cheerful. 

3.     Writing has made me value other writer’s efforts. I never dismiss a book as crap or run a writer down, as I am aware of the effort someone else must have invested in that story. The book may have bored me to tears, disappointed me, but it still required a tremendous effort from someone else to bring it to that stage. 

4.     Writing has made me appreciate the little free time I get. For us writers, our work doesn’t end with just writing a publishable book, it starts with that. Once we have jumped onto the publishing bandwagon, we have to actively market our books. At that point we realize that the day could have done with a few more hours. 

5.     Writing has made me realize that if I were to wait for a visit from my muse, I would probably write just a book or two in my lifetime. It’s made me realize that whether my muse joins me or not I have to keep writing. 

6.     Writing has been responsible for me developing a thick skin. An editor/agent/reader/publisher may not have reacted favourably to my work, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I am a bad writer, or, that I have to drown myself in self-pity. For every single person out there who doesn’t like my work, there is another person who loves it.  Not every book we write will win universal appeal. 

7.     Writing has taught me a lot about spirituality. We writers get familiar with every aspect of spirituality: from surrender to working without any expectation. We don’t even know whether our books will get published. Do we know the fate of our manuscripts when we send it on its publishing journey? Do we know whether a character we have worked on for years will be loved or dismissed by readers? Each cheque we receive is a pleasant surprise. 

What has your writing journey taught you? Please share with us, we all would love to know.

P.S. I am reposting one of my older posts as the week slipped past swiftly and I had no topic in mind.

Getting my writing groove back

At the start of this year I had decided to get my writing life back on track. Last year, the depressing submission process threw me off-kilter. After a few days of wallowing in self-pity, my resilient self (which just hates to be suppressed) rose like a phoenix. I decided I needed to get back my writing mojo.

All it needed was a little discipline and time management. I restarted writing for the newspapers (I had begun my writing career that way). I add the links to all my features that are published in the newspapers on my author page on FB.

I also rewrote a book I had written a few years back. I started submitting it directly to Indian Publishers. I am also working on my MG Paranormal Trilogy. I would appreciate it if you all can share tips or send me links on how to plot and plan a trilogy. You can either email me or add the links in the comments.

This year I have made a conscious decision to write short stories for adults. The first story is floating in my mind space. I even have its titled all worked out.

I have been planning on doing a script writing course from quite some time (as I would love to write a movie script some day). Have any of you done a script writing course? Does it help our writing? I have spoken to one of India’s leading directors (he has several award winning plays to his credit). He conducts script writing courses and he has promised to let me know when the next course will be. The writers who have attended his previous course say he is a genius.

What are your writing plans for this year? Any writing dreams you plan to achieve? Anything new you want to write? Planning to do any writing related course? What are your writing goals/dreams for this year?

P.S. Happy Women’s Day to all my gorgeous women blog buddies.

My NaNo Woes

Every year I tell myself that this year I will do NaNo (National Novel Writing Month, writing 50,000 words in 30 days). By October, mysterious forces start working in my path to throw a multitude of obstacles in my way. This year too is no different. I was quite enthusiastic about NaNo. I had even decided on what project I would work on. I had even kind of worked out my daily writing schedule. I had also visualized myself completing the 50,000 words. Sigh. God had other plans for me.

I decided I would outline the NaNo book in October. But the moment October arrived, just like the past two years, life and writing waylaid me. This time it was revisions and edits. I ended up editing a collection of long short stories, a Picture Book, I even wrote two new Picture Books (I have never written a Picture Book before, so I really don’t know how it has turned out.) I also started revising a book I had written 4 years back. I don’t know why I did all that.

In November we in India also have our main festival Diwali. If I were to do NaNo, I would lose out on quite a few days as Diwali is my favourite festival. This year, I will be travelling in mid November for nearly 10 days. So, NaNo is really out of my reach. Maybe next time I will do NaNo and not let anything come in my way.

For all my blog buddies taking the NaNo bus, I wish you lots of good luck. I will be cheering you folks from the sidelines as usual. For those who have done NaNo earlier what was your experience like? Did you complete the 50,000 words it takes to win NaNo? What happened to your NaNo book? Is it out on submission? Is it published? What are your views on NaNo?

Dealing with the inner editor

My inner editor is an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent nuisance who makes my writing life hell. His sense of propriety is so high, that it takes tremendous effort from my side to scale the walls he builds around my first drafts.

He has started interfering with my plot, character motives, scenes and has thrown my writing rhythm off kilter. I was wondering why this time my first draft is taking so long. Usually my first drafts are quick. I can get them down either on paper or on the laptop in a jiffy.

It’s all because of my inner editor sitting on my shoulder, squinting at the screen, its eyes narrowed with disapproval, its face contorted with disgust, its shrill voice screaming a flurry of instructions. Practically every instruction starts with “ don’t write like this, this is not appropriate, why have you written this, mellow that down, how can a school girl think like this, how can you think that about a teacher, that’s not appropriate behaviour for a ten year old Indian school girl/boy, that boy is not a role model,  this is just not right.”

By the time I finish arguing with my inner editor, I have wasted precious writing time. The deadline for my first draft has come and long since gone. I have another deadline looming large. I still have to write the last few chapters. Make that the last one third of the book.

Many times I have shut down the laptop to silence my inner editor. This time I decided enough is enough. I can’t let my inner editor bully me. So I packed his bags and sent the bully on a long holiday, as I need to write the first draft my way.

The moment I kicked it out, I got several plot points in picture. I have gone over the earlier scenes and made the changes. This separation is doing me lots of good. It’s given me the much needed breathing space to write the first draft my way. When my inner editor returns, it will probably die of shock. It’s a risk I am willing to take. I also know that quite a lot of what I am writing now will get the axe when I visit the city of edits. I really don’t mind that as I am enjoying my writing after days.

I would like to know how do you all battle with your inner editors while working on your books? How do you deal with a moralistic inner editor who is driving you up the wall? How do you all silence your inner editors? Please tell us. We all can benefit from your experiences with your  inner editors. 

Keeping yourself Inspired

Today, I am guest posting at Misha’s Blog- My First Book. My topic is Keeping yourself Inspired. Inspiration is important for every profession, be it writing, dancing, singing or anything else.

 I tend to have these low inspiration days. During these days I am ensnared by all negative thoughts and feelings, where  my writing is concerned. I need to constantly motivate myself, else I will end up in a puddle of self-pity.

I would love to know the different ways you all inspire yourself. Is there any book you find particularly inspiring? Any person who is your inspiration?

I would love it if you all visit Misha’s Blog and let me know what you think of my post.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Are we Scribblers or Gods of our Universe?

Are we just Scribblers (penning stories) or are we Gods of our Universe. As writers we get to play  God with our literary characters. We  become something akin to their Destiny Makers. We have the ability to bring them to throbbing life, or kill them with one stroke of a pen, or, with the click of a few  keys. We have the means of  ridding  them of their problems quickly, or tormenting  them for several chapters.

In the literary world we can do everything that we cannot do in our real world. Would we create problems in someone’s life like we do with relish in our protagonist’s life? God forbid. No. Never. Would we  ever be accused  of manipulating people in real life, in the way we manipulate all our characters? Again the answer would be no. But when we write we keep aside our guilt conscious, and trouble and torture our characters mercilessly. At times with glee. The more problems we add in their lives the  more believable the character becomes. A case of  the Written Life  emulating the Real  Life. 

As scribblers we give full rein to all our fantasies, create make believe worlds, people the world  with believable protagonists, add loathable antagonists, generously add conflicts of all kinds, and finally resolve it  to universal appeal.

As writers we have complete control of the destinies of each and every character we create, not just the main. We set the stage for the entry and exit of all the people who have initially resided in our imaginations. In real life more often than not we are helpless.

Have you noticed that the lack of influence we have over the people in our lives:  family; parents, spouse, siblings, children, and friends doesn’t trouble us during writing? Our characters unlike our family and friends cannot call us interfering busybodies or control freaks when we meddle with their lives. Writing is  the only time we are in complete control (provided the muse is co-operating, and distractions that deter us from writing are at bay, and we get uninterrupted writing time).

 In our literary worlds characters are created with impunity, they are shown the door unceremoniously, flying on the wings of   imagination our characters indulge in activities that we would never dare to do! Deep down most of our characters  reflect our secret desires and passions. Sometimes I think even the not so nice ones.

Our characters are puppets that we manipulate to put on a wonderful performance that will leave the readers asking for more.

 Are we writers closet control freaks? Is that one of the main appeals of writing for you? To be in complete control of every aspect of our character’s  life?  Or, do we love to create new worlds, new situations and new people? What aspect of writing appeals to you all the most? I  would love to know.

PS: This is one of my earliest posts. As I had no post planned for today, I kind of cheated by re-posting an older post.

Would like to alert you all to a fun Blog- Fest  hosted by Madeleine. Click Here to know more about it and join the Blog-Fest. This is one Blog- Fest in which you are allowed to use Cliches.

What has my writing taught me?

My journey as a writer has been quite long, starting with short stories and features for several years before I took a full fledged plunge into the world of  books. Over the years I have learnt several things in this journey and not just how to create better plots and characters, but also about life.  I want to share these insights with my writing friends.  I am sure few things will make you smile, and some things will make you nod your heads.

               

1. Writing has taught me patience. Patience is not one of my better known virtues. The time it takes to write a book from the day the idea pops into my overactive mind, until the day I see the book/ story in its published form is long. At every moment, impatient little me needs loads of patience to be able to do justice to the work I have undertaken. 

2. Writing has taught me to respect people with split personalities as my personality undergoes a drastic change at different stages of my writing. When I am writing the first draft, I am quite stressed and irritable with the smallest disturbances. When I rewrite I am pretty upset with myself, and when I edit I am relaxed and cheerful.

  

3. Writing has made me value other writer’s efforts. I never dismiss a book as crap or run it down, as I am aware of the effort someone else must have invested in that endeavour. The book may have bored me to tears, maybe disappointed me a little, or a lot, but it still required a tremendous effort from someone else to bring it to that stage.

  

4. Writing has made me appreciate the little free time I get. For us writers, our work doesn’t end with just writing a publishable book, it starts with that. Once we have jumped onto the publishing bandwagon, we have to actively market our books. Its then we realize that the day could have done with few more hours, or, that we could have done with few less activities. 

5. Writing has made me realize that If I were to wait for a visit from my muse, I would probable write just a book or two in my lifetime. It has made me realize that with or without the active participation of my muse I have to churn out those words that will fill my manuscript. If my muse sees me working hard, perhaps talking pity on me it will drop in for an extended visit. 

6. Writing has been responsible for me developing a really thick skin. An editor/agent/reader/publisher/crit partner may not have reacted favourably where my work was concerned, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I am a bad writer, or, that I have to drown myself in self-pity. For every single person out there who doesn’t like my work, there is another person who will love it. Well, I personally have not liked all the books I have read, but that does not mean that the writer is bad, or, has failed. It just means that a particular story has not appealed to me emotionally.

  

7. Writing has taught me more about spirituality than the holiest of books. We writers get familiar with every aspect of spirituality: from surrender to working without an eye out for the desired result, to calm acceptance of our book’s fate. Do we know the fate of our manuscripts when we send it on its publishing journey? No. Do we know whether a character we have worked on for years will be loved or dismissed by readers? I am sure not. Do we know the reactions of the readers to our books? Definitely not. Do we know whether we will ever be able to make a decent living from our writing profession? Certainly not. Each cheque is a pleasant surprise.

8. Writing has made me an observer of life. Nowadays, I soak in everything; from the surrounding to people’s facial expressions to body language to how people speak and react. All this heavy duty observation is to bring authenticity to my writing.

9. Writing has also made me appreciate the value of other writers in my life in the form of blog buddies/writing friends/crit partners and brainstorming buddies. I know how precious a writer’s time is, but every writer in this awesome blogging community has gone out of their way to help each other.   

10. Writing has also taught me to appreciate my readers: both for the stories and features I write for the newspapers and my books. It’s the readers’ appreciation that keeps me going.

 What has your writing journey taught you? Please share with us, we all would love to know.

My Muse has a Roving Eye, and NaNoWriMo

I was very keen on doing NaNoWriMo this year, it would have been my first. My initial excitement  at the beginning of October slowly turned into apprehension when my thoughts focused on my muse. I am currently  working on an MG fiction and a collection of linked stories which I hope to convert into a book.

For a change my usually recalcitrant muse is being generous with both his time and energy.  I have been the  focus of his  undivided attention for days. I am tickled pink. There is no way I want to antagonize him now by  leaving him alone even for a brief moment and NaNoWriMo would require a separation of sorts: meaning I would require his services, but  for another WIP. The moody guy he is, I dare not risk it.

My muse and I have a strange relationship.  He has a roving eye. Several times I have seen him checking out other writers, eyeing them with greed and lust, paying more attention to them than me. At those times I cling to him; so that  I am the sole focus of his wandering eyes. I have even thought of tying him up  and confining  him to a chair.

My muse and I (I am sure it’s a he in  my case) are a strange pair. When I badly need him, he is never around. And sometimes when I am extremely busy with other things he keeps intruding and demanding attention. If I am a bit tardy in giving in to those demands, he sulks and pouts for days. Several times he has packed his bags and left for an undisclosed destination for long stretches of time. My frantic calls and messages are completely ignored. Troubling and torturing me has become his second nature.

I often catch him spying on me, intruding on my  time with family and friends. He knows he can get away with murder as I am defenceless and helpless where he is concerned. At the altar of our rocky relationship, I sacrificed my NaNoWriMo dreams. I am sure if I turn my back, he will do the disappearing act once again and there will be no knowing where he has gone where those two WIP’s  are concerned. I can’t risk that, not while I am working on two books simultaneously.

What about you all? Is your muse a he or  a she,  kind or cruel, generous or greedy? What is your relationship with him or her? How do you handle him or her?

P.S. I  would like to wish all my blogging buddies who are participating in NaNoWriMo, best of luck. I will be rooting  for you all from the sidelines. Here is hoping that all of you reach that magic figure of 50,000 words in 30 days.

What has my writing taught me?

My journey as a writer has been quite long, starting with short stories  and features for several years before I took a full fledged plunge into the world of  books. Over the years I have learnt several things in this journey.  I want to share these insights with my writing friends.  I am sure few things will make you smile,  and some  things will make you nod your heads.

               

1. Writing has taught me patience. Patience  is not one of my better known virtues. The time it takes to write a book: from the day the idea pops into my overactive mind, until the day I see the book/ story in its published form is long. At every moment, impatient little me needs loads of patience to be able to do justice to the work I have undertaken. 

2. Writing has taught me to respect people with split personalities as  my personality undergoes a drastic change at different stages of my writing. When I am writing the first draft, I am quite stressed and irritable with the smallest disturbances. When I rewrite, I am pretty upset with myself, and when I edit,  I am  relaxed and cheerful. 

3. Writing has made me value other writer’s efforts. I never dismiss a book as crap or run it down, as I am aware of the effort someone else must have invested in that endeavour. The book may have bored me to tears, maybe disappointed me a little, or a lot, but it still required a tremendous effort from someone else to bring it to that stage. 

4. Writing has made me appreciate the little free time I get. For us  writers, our work doesn’t end with just writing a publishable book, it starts with that. Once we have jumped onto the publishing bandwagon, we have  to actively market our books. Its then  we realize that the day could have done with few more hours, or, that we could have done with few less activities. 

5. Writing has made me realize that if I were to wait for a visit from my muse, I would probably write just a book or two in my lifetime. It has made me realize that with or without the active participation of my muse I have to  churn out those words that will fill my manuscript. If my muse sees me working hard, perhaps talking pity on me it will drop in for an extended visit. 

6. Writing has been responsible for me developing a  really thick skin. An editor/agent/reader/publisher may not have reacted favourably  where my work was concerned, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I am a bad writer, or, that I have to drown myself in self-pity. For every single person out there who doesn’t  like my work, there is another person who will love it. Well, I personally have not liked all the books I have read, but that  does  not mean that the writer is  bad, or, has failed. It just means that a particular story has not appealed to me  emotionally. 

7. Writing has taught me  more about spirituality than the holiest of books. We writers get familiar with every aspect of spirituality: from surrender to working without an eye out for the desired result, to  calm acceptance of our book’s fate. Do we know the fate of our manuscripts when we send it on its publishing journey? No. Do we know whether a character we have worked on for years will  be loved or dismissed by readers? I am sure not. Do we  know the reactions of the readers to our books? Definetely not. Do we know whether we will  ever be able to make a decent living from our writing professions? Certainly not. Each cheque is a pleasant surprise. 

What has your writing journey taught you? Please share with us, we all would love to know.