Writing Fiction - Story Mirror Creativity Workshop II

Sharing my thoughts on “Writing Fiction” from the Second Story Mirror Creativity Workshop, which was organized in association with Story Mirror, Apparao Galleries and Aspiring Authors Group. The workshop was conducted in collaboration with the famous Film Director / Producer as well as a fine Tamil Haiku writer N Lingusamy and popular romantic fiction Author Meera Shiva.

Author Meera Shiva, Me and Director Lingusamy
at the Story Mirror Creativity Workshop II

Why people write?

As the tight grip of Publishers, distributors and established & influential Author’s nexus loosened up on the Publishing Industry in the Kindle Age, the floodgates opened up for new authors and new writing styles. Every day, there are millions of books getting published through online platforms. But why this rush? No one is actually making money apart from a very miniscule number of online authors. So why people are writing all the time?

As I thought more about it, I realised that there are few other reasons beyond making money…

- To become known as Authors

- To be acknowledged as Intellectual

- To leave a legacy

But underlying all these perfectly valid reasons, the driving force is one’s own ego satisfaction…

But not every one is writing for their ego. Certain passionate and sincere writers, according to George Orwell, write for other reasons too, e.g.

1) Aesthetic enthusiasm

2) Historical impulse

3) Political purpose

But like all good things in life, to seriously write good fiction, you need to have this intense desire for self-immolation to illuminate the world around you. One can never be a writer in its true form, if you are in it just for the sake of money or fame…

WHAT IT TAKES…

One of the reasons I write, is to hear the silence of my reader, thinking…

However as Milan Kundera said once, “Any work of art has to have a purpose of its Existence”

So if you have an undying compulsion to write otherwise as Rilke said, you will die, then go ahead and write. But like all things, there are techniques and tools to become a good writer and there is a way of writing a good fiction…

THE PROUSTIAN WAY…

“There are two methods by which a person can acquire wisdom, painlessly via a teacher or painfully via life, and the painful variety is far superior.”  Marcel Proust

“The greatness of works of art has nothing to do with the apparent quality of their subject matter, and everything to do with the subsequent treatment of that matter.” Marcel Proust

Since most of us are not like the author like Proust, at least not yet, what do we do? Well the good news is that whoever has survived childhood and adolescence, has a story to tell. But the bad news is that writing is not a cakewalk or a stroll in the park. It requires discipline, a will to step out of our comfort zone.

MY WAY…

And over the period of my own journey towards writing my books - The Monk Key Series - first of the three part series is already published as “Songs of the Mist”, in which the Monk says to the protagonist Ashutosh, “Every one can bring meaning to one’s life by doing things with passion and love. Even the smallest of life rises up to its full potential with its devotion in doing what the universal design brings along your path. So if you seem to be going nowhere, Ashutosh do not blame living, blame yourself.”

But before I describe my way, here’s a Reality Check. If you are interested in writing something good that will stand the test of times, ask yourself these questions…

Konark @ Shashi 2010

 

1 – Are you passionate enough…?

Willingness to put in sweat, blood and toil day in and day out.

2 – Do you have necessary tools…?

If you need dictionary to write, please don’t. Should be adept in the language one is writing.

3 – Room of your own…?

As Virginia Woolf asked in her famous lecture at Oxford’s young women students, are you financially comfortable? You know most of us writers don’t make enough money to survive.

4 – Are you going in right direction…?

Are you writing what you love and passionate about or writing what you perceive to be the best selling genre.

5 – Are you in hurry…?

Are you looking for becoming overnight Internet sensation? If you are, there is no one who can guide you to become one. So stop reading stuff like this and pray for luck.

All good things life needs time and effort to manifest and sincere effort at that. So, unless you are a celebrity and have million followers on your own or through reflected glory of a celebrity friend, relative or lover, you need sustained effort and hard work over time to write something good.

MY 7-YEAR PLAN TO WRITE GOOD STUFF…

It is known that if you start today with zero knowledge on any subject and work diligently towards acquiring necessary tools, knowledge and technics, in 7 years time, you can become an expert in the desired field. So writing a great book is not impossible. You just need to focus on your goal and discipline to keep writing and honing your writing skills.

For many decades I knew the story I was going to share. But only in 1987, while meditating on the banks of holy river Ganges in Rishikesh, I got inspired enough to share my stories of heart break and pain and the resulting spiritual journeys and assimilated thoughts.

However, as soon as I actively started writing in 2010, I realised that writing and publishing a book is a difficult task. Then my training as an engineering professional, kicked in. I knew that to solve any problem the first step is to know what the problem is. And yes, getting your book published at that time was a big problem. I remember talking to one of the author in Hindu Literary Festival in Chennai and asking him, how to get a book published and he gave me the perfect answer… ‘Write the damn book’.

HOW TO WRITE THE DAMN BOOK?

Even in today’s connected and equally chaotic world, good writing is not about being restless or quarantined. Aspiring Authors just have to work on every aspect of creative process to produce good results and on every aspect of connectivity to reach out to the right readers…

To write a good book and publish it, one has to work on these 3 aspects – Simultaneously

1 – Inner Awareness

Mark Twain said once, “Adam was the only man who, when he said a good thing, knew that nobody had said it before.” So we all have every word of the story all around us, within our inner-self but as I have quoted Proust earlier, we need to treat those stories with our own unique awareness. And that comes from actively working on it.

- Walks

- Deep Observation

- Meditation

- Wonder

2 – Conscious Mind

We should write in a language, where we don’t need a dictionary. So if you are writing, you need to have the right tools. Practice the language; write something you are passionate about. I started writing my public blog in 2010 with start of my book writing and it gave me a firm footing to test my language and see if I am on the right path.

I wrote daily, whatever way the story came into my words… by 2014 I have had written 500,000 words - the first book started with 125K words first draft and published ‘Songs of the Mist’ has 76K words. Suffer if you didn’t write some day as Hemmingway used to.

Read and read a lot. There is no substitute to it. I cannot sleep if I don’t read a book. In this year’s Good Read Challenge, I have committed to read 50 books and have completed reading more than 100 books as of now.

Look within your self, find pieces of characters - we have all the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of our self within, don’t judge, write about them, develop them. It is also an exercise of catharsis.

Whenever an idea, thought or character appears, write it down. Watch people around you, think about their life and their thoughts, go to stations, movies and park, observe and write.

Travel, travel wherever and whenever you can. Preferably take the train or bus, if time permits and walk or trek around the place. Carry a pen, small notebook and a camera. For decades, I have been travelling to Himalayas, Spiritual places, Monasteries, temples, rivers and sea side within country and abroad. Write about it somewhere as I have been sharing at my blog as spiritual travels.

3 – Practical reality

When I started thinking about publishing my book, I looked around and felt that the most of the published authors are not so great. I felt that I am unique and the moment I finish my book, the publishers will be queuing up to sign off a deal. Well it does not happen. Even though each one of us are unique, but is it something that people are looking forward to embrace. I have had seen many author’s book die a silent death as it did not reach out the right readers. So have a plan and yes in this Internet world of connectivity, where millions of other authors are trying to catch the proverbial short attention span of Netizens, you do need to reach out and market your book like crazy, as long as it is not intrusive and irrelevant. Here are the things that I did.

My communities on Google Plus

- Even before I started writing my book, went public online. I created a blog and wrote about creativity, Spirituality, Writing and designs, which went on to become the No 1 Spiritual Blog of India within 4 years, as selected by credible aggregators of Indian Blogging community for the last three years.

- Joined FB, Twitter, Google Plus. Interacted within relevant communities like Good Reads, Quora, Book clubs etc.

- Created groups like Haiku (one of the best communities on Haiku at Google Plus where more than 1000 poets write their Haiku), Aspiring Author’s Group, Shadow Dancing with Mind, How to publish etc.

- Joined off-line book clubs, writing groups and networked with like-minded people in literary festivals across the country.

With Timeri N Murari

Over the years, I realised that it’s me who has to reach out to the right audience and readers for my books not the other way around. Marketing is not about being intrusive; it’s all about being interactive, proactive and helpful to the readers and the audience.

Finally, I would like to say one thing that the world needs its authors, who are the mirror to the society we all are living in. We are there to host, to heal our readers within the pages of what we write. 

As my friend, philosopher and guide - a famous author from Chennai Timeri N Murari said in one of my Story Mirror Creativity workshop, “Write for yourself first, without any thoughts of future result” echoing the famous Bhagwat Gita Verse 47 from Chapter 2

Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,

Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma Te Sangostvakarmani

You have the right to work only but never to its fruits.

Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.

__

Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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ABOUT BOOKS: 10 Tips on the Art of Writing for New Authors

“Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his blood” - Nietzsche

“Can you avow that you would die if you were forbidden to write?” - Rainer Maria Rilke

 

A writer in Delhi @ Shashi 2015

Writing a book is an exhaustive and lonely struggle, which becomes painful in itself if you are not passionate about words and enjoy the stories it brings forth from the depths of your heart. Though I cannot claim to be an author, who has written with blood. I am also aware that I would not have died if I had not written my Spiritual Fiction Book 1 of The Monk Key series, “Songs of the Mist”, but yes there was a desperate need to share what I had within my heart and on my mind for decades. And yes, I enjoyed every minute of writing it too. The process of bringing the characters alive on a blank screen in the early morning every day for years became a kind of meditation. It uplifted me into a state of happiness, which was hard to find in the normal course of the day.  As I dwelled deeper within, thinking like the mysterious wandering Monk, the heart broken Ashutosh, Yogini Anishka, research scientist Ayan or the young Austrian architect Calliope, immersing in the characters over and over again, changed the way I used to think, write or interact with the people and world around me.

As I finish writing book-2 in “The Monk Key” series, I have realised that my perspectives about writing, life and living has completely changed. As I continued writing as an aspiring author, I learned many valuable lessons “About Books”, most of them the hard way. Sometime by trial and error, sometimes by wasting time on a red herring chase and most of the times losing weeks of efforts in writing for my perceived target audience / readers. These upcoming three posts “About Book” is my attempt to share those learning with my friends, readers and aspiring authors in order to save their valuable time in reinventing the wheel.

In this first part, I am sharing my thoughts on writing. What is writing all about and why or why not to write? What is the reason for a book to exists and what it should give the readers. If this posts inspires even one aspiring author to share his or her story out in the world, I will consider it to be a bigger success than the day my book “Songs of the Mist” achieved Amazon’s bestseller rank of #29 at Kindle store.

10 Tips on the Art of Writing for New Authors

This post is divided in three parts:

Why Write?

Why you should not write?

Thoughts on Writing a Book.

Introduction

Most of our thoughts begin from the physical world and manifest within, in sublime way. When we think of creating something, we should plunge deeper in that space, where all our profound thoughts, artistic impulses and deep feelings are stored and ease it out into the world with sensitivity, care and love. Everything, emotions, thoughts, feelings etc. that inspire us into creativity are sacred and should be put on a pedestal and eulogized. And to do that, the simplest way is to write about it to share, however mundane all that seems to you in the beginning.

 

ECR @ shashi 2015

Every one of us has a story to tell, but we get bogged down with self-doubts and inhibitions. But through the years of my own writing, I have realised that these are my friends in waiting. If one can continue to work besides them, one day we will find them to be more valuable than our successes, more so in case of failures. I have learned the hard way, by believing in self-doubts in the beginning that it usually builds a new life from scratch and if you happen to write despite those challenges, it makes you a far better person than you could have been without it.

TIP-1: Writing is not only a chance to explore oneself, overcome your inhibitions and self-doubts, it is also about becoming a better human being. It has been one of my major motivating factors to continue writing.

However, George Orwell once said that there are four great motives (in varying degrees) for writers, putting aside the need to earn a living.

(A) Sheer egoism - Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to

get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one.

(B) Aesthetic enthusiasm - Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement… the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience, which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed.

(C) Historical impulse - Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.

(D) Political purpose - Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.

Now, here you should pause a little to think and list out what motivates you to write and to what extent.

Why write?

Any writing is a mirror of our soul, far clearer than what we portray while interacting with the world around us, obscuring clarity with dusty layers of our addiction to desires and needs. The only way we wipe of this obscuring dust, if we dare to write what we think in the utter loneliness that confronts us within our inner self.  While a book is mirror of our soul, writing is the brush that paints the image of who or what we are. So writing is not only a tool of creativity, it is also the light in the darkness within.

 

Thinking @ Triveni Ghat, Rishikesh - Shashi 2014

TIP-2: When your heart speaks, it is better to stop and listen. If those words reaches out to the deepest depths of your core and convey what lies within, you should write. If you are able to sustain that writing with no other voice of understanding other than what comes from within, you should write.

TIP-3: Sometimes a profound experience choses you, instead of you finding it on your own. Any feelings, pain or happiness that has its root in such kind of experiences has the potential to become a work of art, if only you are worthy of writing it down with compassion and clarity.

TIP-4: If you see writing as the torch of revelation on an unknown path, then probably you should be a writer and more importantly, if you don’t, you will die without knowing yourself. So write, rest is all lies.

Why you should not write?

Everything that exists is born out of struggle. The plants, as it break open the earth, a child that is born in a tearing hurry, a thought that escapes from the chaos of mind. But it is the writer within, the experiencer, who burns him or her self in the struggle, becoming a beacon of light. If you shy away from this self-immolation to illuminate the world around us, you can never be a writer in its true sense.

Goutam @ 2014

TIP-5: We are the only witness to things that breaks our heart, makes us blissful or throw us in dark corners of fear, rest all are readers. In order to convey true essence of these feelings to the readers, you will have to dive in the depths under the surface of storm. But if you can live without writing about things that you feel deeply, probably you should not.

TIP-6: The silence between thoughts is the place, where all writers should go with a pen in hand and awareness sharpened to its intuitive edge. This is where greatest work of art is created but it requires strong will and desire to remain submerged within its depth for creativity to emerge. If you don’t have the courage to bear this silence or the words to hear it, you should not write.

TIP-7: If you are more intelligent than the reader, writing is not for you.

Thoughts on Writing

The life happens and there is no way it is going to end up at the wrong place. It is you who does not bring it to its logical end. There is only one true way of living, which is being creative with what you have got to begin with. Writing is not about describing your experiences but it is about pointing your sense perception inwards and flower forth with words that have the colors of your soul.

Writing is an occupation to enlighten oneself first then only the readers. If a book is not giving you something to live for, to look up to beyond your existence, then it’s a waste of time and effort. Every book has to have a meaning, a reason for its existence. It has to have something that one can go back to after years of its dust collection and still remains fresh.

 

On the Varanasi Ghat @ Shashi 2010

TIP-8: Every writer should strive to release the reader from his or her day-to-day chaos of living life. It has to transport the reader out of the daily existence and give an excuse to be better than what he or she already is. A reader is always in search of deliverance.

TIP-9: Writing should not be confined to a set pattern, structure or style. It should be a journey, a way out of the maze where even you, as an author, are not aware of the end or that you have a set pattern to write in. Writing should be an exploration the self not conforming to others but only to your unique self - however thinking about and handholding your readers through the maze of your creation. If they are not able to get out in the first attempt, it is even better. They will try again; every good reader will try again.

TIP-10: When you write, leave things unexplained that gets reader to fill in the blanks themselves. Never think that they will not be able to work that out, even if most of them don’t, some will and those are the readers you should write for, write to. Hold their interest by kindling their inquisitiveness.

In the end, I would like to leave you with a thought…

“Most of us write to hear ourselves, but a good writer write to hear the silence of his or her reader, thinking. “ - TheMonkKey.com

My younger brother Animesh at Triveni Ghat, Rishikesh @ 2015

__

Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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