Radhika Mukherjee's Blog, page 16

NaNoWriMo 2014 Radhika Style : Day 4 to 23: A Mixed Bag of Longing and Shy Hope

What a mixed blessing hope is!

Day 4: So many words everywhere, just not in my manuscript!

For 5 days then, I wandered in desert doom. A bit befuddled, disoriented ‒ a little unwell.

Wrote things I was thinking of down.

Was a good professional ‒ worked on editing assignments.

Went to a coffee shop one day, to try and write ‒ but wrote only outlines and plans. Worked out more of the world.

But no actual fiction appeared.

Tendrils of fear whispered: Was it a fluke? Why can’t I just write? Why am I the...

Gorgeous Photos But Proofing Fail

Here’s inaugurating a new category of posts: Proofing Fail!

It’s my tiny endeavor to try and ensure more clean copy in the material we read.

So much content nowadays, offline and online, contains glaring errors. Which simply underscores the need for conscientious Editors and Proofreaders to vet the material and only then hit the ‘Publish’ button.

Here’s a beautiful set of photos for you:

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/killian-schonberger-foggy-europe

Marred, quite seriously, by the head...

NaNoWriMo 2014 Radhika Style : Day 3 – The Day of the Tangent

The fresh-scented morning beckons, this day…

Hope:

Day 2 of NaNoWriMo lasted till dawn today, so it’ll be a short, hopefully sweet, day.

It’s a day in which lots of editing has to be done, alone with writing for Nano. And then there’s grocery shopping and so on, in the evening. Thankfully, lots of pasta left, so no cooking. Will put some cheese on top, make a beet salad and hey, presto-changeo! New-ish meal. Or eat out?

Time management will be so very important. No distractions allowed!

Reality:

It...

NaNoWriMo 2014 Radhika Style : Day 2

A mellow sort of day, November 2nd.

Morning : Tried to write, but got totally stuck! Managed to go through my Evernote notes and photo-inspirations for Rackety. So caught up with all of my thoughts and ideas, captured digitally. A stack of handwritten notes from years past still remains.

Brought up a blank Word page, titled it with the name of the book: Rackety and the Beauty Spell (Format: Heading 1, Indigo Ink); then came the name of Chapter 1 (Format: Heading 2, Dark blue ink.) and then…

Form...

NaNoWriMo 2014 Radhika Style : Day 1

It’s so bright this first November morning. A slight chill in the crisp air. And I have a good feeling about this day. Sometime in this day, before noon, I will write the 3rd and hopefully, final version of the opening lines of Rackety and the Beauty Spell.

Plan: I am going to go from start to finish. If something else occurs from the middle, I will jot it down but keep going chronologically. Should be doable as I have the overall structure planned.

In actuality: The whole day kind of got away...

Anxiety and Anticipation in NaNoWriMo Land

Terror, and trepidation and anticipation and excitement – all these rule my days, in the wait to the start of NaNoWriMo. In mid-October I decided I was going to ‘do’ NaNoWriMo, this year. You can read all about it, in this post. Since then, it’s been pretty emotional. Especially as I’ve gone and announced the […]

I’m a Wrimo!

This year, I am taking part in NaNoWriMo 2014! After much prep and recovery, it is time to jump into the deep end of novel writing. This November (my birthday-and-hopefully-lucky month), I am going to attempt to write a YA Fantasy novel, Rackety and the Beauty Spell. A book that’s been on my mind for […]

The Challenge of The Blank Page and First Drafts

Apparently (according to a recent blog post and book I read) one should just gush, almost vomit a torrent of meaningless words onto the blank page. No matter one’s state of mind. And then wade through the dross to mine a few nuggets of gold one may have left there. But what if that work […]

Q&A With Anil Goel : Author Of The New Tech Thriller – Exit Point

Anil Goel is the author of Exit Point (a book edited by me) and Release 2.0. Exit Point is slated for formal release on 30th August 2014, at Crosswords Kemps Corner! He joins us today, at this momentous juncture, to explicate upon Exit Point, his writing process, his publishing journey and a whole lot more! […]

What Do All These Writing Rules Really Mean?

There are tons of writing advice out in the interwebs and beyond. When I started researching the topic, I remember becoming increasingly puzzled at the rules laid down. Some of them, maxims taken from famous authors. They appear regularly in forums dedicated to writing and storytelling. But I keep thinking, that to a budding artist, don’t very specific rules become intensely limiting?

Through the eras, many kinds of writing and writing styles have been popular. Their characteristics cannot pos...