Goodreads asked Sitharaam Jayakumar:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Sitharaam Jayakumar Well, it would be slightly out of place for me to give advice to aspiring writers because I am myself an aspiring writer. But I would like to share something from my brief writing experience. Before I began writing 'Eighty Hours To Save Karen' I had read a lot of interviews given by thriller writers. Most writers held the opinion that before beginning a book it is very important to have the plot clearly laid out in one's mind. They also mentioned that a lot of thought has to go into developing the characters and mentioned several such things. I tried to sit down and think of a plot and I could not come up with a single idea. I felt like big Moose in an Archie comic trying to solve an Algebra problem. I almost gave up the idea of writing a book.

But just for the heck of it I switched on my laptop and typed out some five or six paragraphs. This ultimately became the first chapter of 'Eighty Hours To Save Karen' which I hope you will all like. Mind you, I don't mean to belittle anyone. The interviews I read were from really fantastic authors. I am myself a fan of those writers. They are far far superior to me and their advice definitely is valid. All I am saying is you may be a person for whom such advice may not work. So do not go with pre-conceived notions. Work out your own method by experimentation.

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