Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:09:11 -0800WeeblyTue, 08 Dec 2009 16:01:32 -0800http://www.varshadixit.com/1/post/2009/12/writing-1012.htmlWriting is easy, but writing well enough to have someone publish your work, is painfully hard. And if it was easy, where’s the fun in that? 

Till you don’t go through the grind of writing innumerable shitty drafts, misery ridden days of feeling your writing isn’t good enough even for pre-schoolers, profuse meltdowns cursing the minute the story idea took shape in your head , you can never fully enjoy being a published writer.

Now that my debut book, ‘Right Fit Wrong Shoe’, has sold nearly 10,000 copies, and gone into third print run in its second month (two earlier ones sold out), I can look back at my journey, which officially began in October 2006, as a writer, objectively.

Upon receiving so many queries from aspiring & wannabe writers, I decided to pen a few tips that were and still are, key to my own writing process - a journey that is ongoing and forever learning. Having no one, truly, to guide me, I figured these on my own. However, if I can help even one of you, to hone your writing skills, I shall rest in peace – at least for tonight. With Christmas being round the corner, I’m, also, trying to earn a few extra brownie points with the man in the red suit. so here you go:-

Research - Detailed research is an integral part of any form of writing. And thanks to the internet, local library and bookstores, it is so damn easy nowadays. Few things to research and read up on – Similar Genres (don’t worry about anxiety of influence); Fiction or nonfiction style of writing; book markets; agents; publishers; factual events, if any, mentioned in your manuscript.
Every form of writing requires research. DO NOT shy from this one. The more you read, the more you learn. The more you know, the more convincing your writing comes across. Even Fiction needs to seem real for the readers to believe or identify with. For e.g. How did Robert Ludlum get us gorging on his stories of retrograde amnesiac, Jason Bourne? How did Tom Clancy make Jack Ryan so heroic, so credible? One can feel a similar connection with Harry Potter or Edward Cullen who though clearly abnormal, are still so authentic because of the real factor in the author’s writing. Research is cardinal, in making your writing and characters credible to the readers.

Edit, edit and re-edit – I cannot emphasize on the importance of numerous edits. Remember edits not only make the manuscript tighter, reveal some minute or major structural flaws, trim extra verbiage, but also make the finished work more appealing when submitted. Editors love scripts that require no extra work. Look at it this way; you are hastening the journey of your manuscript from the editor’s desk to the printing press. However, a break of one or two weeks, or a month, in between edits is recommended. 

Feedback – Here, I recommend two kinds:

• A feedback from friends who like to read the genre you are writing in. Please do not give your cherished fiction work to someone who swears by non-fiction. They just might break into hives and force you to shred your labour of love.
• Then there is the professional critique, which should come when you feel your manuscript is ready to be sent out to an agent or a publisher. Get this feedback from someone published, someone professional; someone who will rip open the flaws, without slightest consideration for the thickness of your epidermis layer. You might have to pay for such kind of critiquing. Basically, you pay a literary hit man, to bust your chops. J
  However, an important tip -Do not follow any opinion blindly and learn to discard, judiciously. You know your story best.
  

Hope this article gave you some insight into what it takes to be a writer. Please, do send me your feedback, either through the ‘comment’ section on this page or via the “Talk to me” tab of my website. Also, if there is anything else, big or small, about the writing process, which interests you let me know. Based on your questions and response, I shall decide upon the subject of my next article on writing.
You can get in touch with me through my website (duhh J), Facebook group of Right Fit Wrong Shoe, Orkut and Twitter.
Happy and healthy 2010 to you all. Keep reading….. 

Wikipedi.org   is source for some of the writers and characters mentioned this article

 

 ]]>Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:52:28 -0800http://www.varshadixit.com/1/post/2009/12/harder-times-easier-solutions.htmlWhat does money do? Give us choices! Options! Increase our purchasing power! 

This translates to more shopping hours, in the malls or on the net. More time spent away doing things that we need to do like the extra  twenty  or five minutes at the gym, or give the kid a bubble bath that makes her ecstatic or cook something nice for whoever you want.

Therefore, I would say the recession is a good thing. Suddenly the craziness is gone. Early bird specials at Best Buy are less and late night at chuckee cheese more. Nights @ movies less and days @ parks more. The long laboring hours poured over making the Christmas list is not going to be so long and ‘hair tearing’ this year.

The writing is on the wall. Excess is bad. The excess in the housing market, the excesses in our own lives and the excesses in the name of fight for freedom.

You know what is easier than spending more? Spending less!

  Guess what is easier than paying credit cards? Not accumulating any debt!

So everyone with the teeny tiny dab of common sense between your ears (the only place u can find it), sit back, put your feet up and let the Burberry wallet stay forgotten behind the cushions.  It is no longer uncool to be a Penny pincher or a tightwad.  Scrooge is the new man is town for Santa is busy working four shifts in a three-shift day just to pay off the bills from his overzealous shopping. J

So Peeps the times are such, that if you need Full buy Full not King.

Abientot  ]]>Sat, 05 Sep 2009 13:40:58 -0800http://www.varshadixit.com/1/post/2009/09/first-post.html