Neeraj
asked
Nilesh Shrivastava:
Hi Nilesh, Congratulations on the release of your 3rd book. 1. Let's get down to the brass tacks - why do you write? 2. You've written 2 Fiction books earlier. This time around, what was the thought process behind writing a Non-Fiction book - 'Inflection'?
Nilesh Shrivastava
Hi Neeraj - I write simply because I enjoy the process of writing, of churning an idea in my head for a long time; maturing it and maturing with it. A book takes me about 18-24 months to write (given that I also have a day job etc) so that's the time I need to keep the book in my head and stay excited with it. Hence the core idea of the book is really important to me, it must grip me.
After 2 fiction books, I was about to start on my third fiction book - when my-author Pushp Deep and I happened to be chatting about our careers. It had been 16 years since we had started working which is roughly half a traditional career. It was a great point to look back and then look forward as professionals. That's when we wondered if we can look beyond ourselves and into how professional careers per se have transformed in the last couple of decades and what that could mean for us. The best way we could do that would be to reach out to many of our batchmates from B-school and see what has changed in the way they see their careers now and what that can mean for professionals across the board. Hence the idea was exciting as it combined a personal journey (traversing stories of people we knew) with a broader question that impacts virtually every professional.
Secondly, the attraction for me personally was a change in the process of writing I chose. The previous fiction works were a personal and introverted affair - locked between myself and a laptop during the writing process. Here - I was trying to do the exact opposite - reach out to many many people, have detailed interviews and collaborate with a co-author. It was an extroverted writing process - which I thoroughly enjoyed both for what it was and how different it was from my previous books!
After 2 fiction books, I was about to start on my third fiction book - when my-author Pushp Deep and I happened to be chatting about our careers. It had been 16 years since we had started working which is roughly half a traditional career. It was a great point to look back and then look forward as professionals. That's when we wondered if we can look beyond ourselves and into how professional careers per se have transformed in the last couple of decades and what that could mean for us. The best way we could do that would be to reach out to many of our batchmates from B-school and see what has changed in the way they see their careers now and what that can mean for professionals across the board. Hence the idea was exciting as it combined a personal journey (traversing stories of people we knew) with a broader question that impacts virtually every professional.
Secondly, the attraction for me personally was a change in the process of writing I chose. The previous fiction works were a personal and introverted affair - locked between myself and a laptop during the writing process. Here - I was trying to do the exact opposite - reach out to many many people, have detailed interviews and collaborate with a co-author. It was an extroverted writing process - which I thoroughly enjoyed both for what it was and how different it was from my previous books!
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more