Giving Birth To An Elephant – Part 2
Writer’s Block – I had heard that term floating around in the years when I had absolutely nothing to do with writing. But when I started writing a novel as a first-timer and writer’s block hit in me in it’s full flow, I was left scrambling on the internet looking for answers.
Needless to say much, I didn’t find answers on the internet or otherwise. The answer lay within me (cliche I know!). When I had written myself into a situation where the two brothers – Raj and Saurav, leave home with little money and nowhere to go, I was simply struck for ideas. Where do they go from there? Two years from the time they leave home they also had to end up in Moscow for the 1980 Olympic games. How in the world would they manage that? They would need help and a lot of money! But how!
I scratched my head for weeks, wondering if I should alter that plot point. But them storming out of home, just felt so natural! And that’s when I CREATED another character, an Aunt! In hindsight, I was grateful for creating Aunt Sheela, because she went on to become a favourite character for many readers.
Which brought me to an interesting question – how much should a writer plan before writing a novel? Those who know me well will know that I don’t place great emphasis on planning, but prefer to just get on with it. But this meant that I could write myself into tricky situations.
After the first novel, I found that a balance between planning and writing worked perfectly for me. I have met many aspiring authors who plan so much, that they forget to write!
When a completed draft was in front of me, the next challenge lay in finding my book a home. On April 14, 2011, I wrote my first query letter to an agent, who showed interest the very next day after reading my entire manuscript!
He gave me one week to cut down the manuscript to a 90,000 word document. I had to cut down 30,000 words – a third of the book! I don’t know how I did it, but I did and submitted a tighter manuscript at 93,000 words. A week later I had an agent!
And a month after, I had a publisher!
My first book was going to see the light of day. I had spent three years developing the book in closed quarters and now every man and his dog would give their opinion on it!
In August, 2014, I got news that the book had hit the stands. On my walk to work, I wondered if the book returned any google hits. The first search result jumped out at me – ‘review of wings of silence’.
I clicked on it….(to be continued)
