Writers of Passage

Can you learn your way to writing a book?

This question wouldn’t perhaps arise in the more mature markets of the West. But for a developing country like India, most aspiring writers are unaware of, or unexposed to, the lessons and master-classes that can catapult them into the league of a J(h)umpa Lahiri or a Chetan Bhagat. In the US, for instance, there are oodles of creative writing courses and workshops and retreats and many more, where budding authors can see their writer’s block unfold into textual bloom. But in India, there are few such options and devices, though things are beginning to change I must say.

So when I happened to be present during a fiction-writing interaction at Delhi’s Oxford Book Store, I lent my ear to lecturing by guest author Jaishree Misra even as my eyes continued to browse the bookshelves. Despite this double act of dual-tasking, I was able to gather some pertinent points shared by Jaishree. What follows is a recollection (and remixing with my own two bits) of some of those tips and traps…

The best thing I liked about Jaishree’s advice was that she urged the audience – most of them young women, a couple of lads and even a few old curmudgeons – to stick to their day jobs (or night ones if they work in a call center). Why, she herself continues to hold her job as a classifier of films in Britain (admission of envy: I want a job like hers) and still come up with a book or two. I couldn’t agree more: writing becomes a full-time *profession* only when you’ve already published a bestseller (unless you’ve inherited ample dough and can indulge in timelessly baking your writerly ambitions).

Another tip the author of Secrets & Lies shared was that aspiring writers must try and live the life of the characters they are going to create in their books. This would enable them to breathe realism into the characters which, needless to say, can have an impact on the readers as well as the number of books sold.

Jaishree also advised the audience to carefully pick a genre that best suits an individual, read up as many books in that genre as possible and reach an understanding of the nuances of writing for that genre.

She also shared some helpful tricks of the trade when it comes to dealing with publishers and agents (their role in the publishing process, how to deal with them, et al) –– in the smiling presence of HarperCollins India’s publisher and chief editor, VK Karthika.

Don't you think we need more of such learning-the-art-of-writing events, especially extensive ones at that?