Debut Author? Keep these 07 Points in Mind

Yes, I am here again! 

This time I have tried to arrange a few essential things a debutante writer must, MUST, look into. This, I feel, will be useful for those “dreaming lot” out there. At the same time, you may note that it is purely my perception and hence is not foolproof. 

Then, who’s, what’s, infallible in this world!

I will not go around, and around, filling in unnecessary, meaningless word. I don’t want you to stop halfway and get back to whatever you were doing before landing at this page. Saying inwardly, “we don’t have time for such bull crap.”

The points are….

• Sit down. Sit down in front of your PC/Laptop. Sit comfortably. And start typing whatever comes to your mind. Believe me the words will not be meaningless. Since you are thinking to turn a writer, you will be bearing a thread in your mind. And most of the writers (at least, me. Yes, I claim to be a writer. Don’t you agree?) do not start writing after creating the whole story inside his heart.

 They will only have a speck, a small seed, a sentence.

• Are the words meaningless! You may think so, at the beginning (however, chances are very less). Not to worry, the pieces will definitely fit into some parts of the novel/ story. You will start understanding the meaning as you go ahead.

No, do not stop, even if you think you are typing meaningless crap.

• Read a lot. Read whenever you get the time, read whenever, wherever possible (if not possible, make it POSSIBLE). THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE STEP to begin the answer with, still, I deliberately put it here presuming that you are an avid reader and that only made you think about writing one (No, don’t tell me that you are a fan of Ravinder Singhji and don’t require to read books before writing one. Please! )

A good writer definitely should be a good reader first.

• Control. Control your characters, according to the length (word count) decided for your book. Otherwise, the characters have the habit of going around places and meeting new people and creating unnecessary subplots, which will make the book thicker.

Word count from 45000 to 65000 considered the apt length for a novel.

• Minimize Subplots. Keep the subplots less and short. Of course, subplots would make the book layered and it’s good. At times, you may find a particular subplot interesting and end up writing a lengthy and strong subplot. This would overshadow the main theme. It will be difficult to bring the readers back to main theme, once they find the subplot more interesting.

Moreover, subplots normally break the flow.

• Descriptions, VERY, LESS. A good and pacey book (am saying about commercial fiction only) would have a balanced description/ dialogue ratio. Check the paragraphs (a) and (b):

****

(a) Mumbai (/mʊmˈbaɪ/; also known as Bombay, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India and the ninth most populous agglomeration in the world, with an estimated city population of 18.4 million. Along with the neighboring regions of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, it is one of the most populous urban regions in the world and the seсond most populous metropolitan area in India, with a population of 20.7 million as of 2011. Mumbai lies on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2009, Mumbai was named an alpha world city. It is also the wealthiest city in India, and has the highest GDP of any city in South, West, or Central Asia. Mumbai has the highest number of billionaires and millionaires among all cities in India (courtesy: Wikipedia).

****

(b) “Hey, Mumbai is the capital city of Maharashtra,’ I said Arun. “Did you know that?”
“Of course yaar.” He winked. “It is the most populous city in India and the ninth most populous agglomeration in the world.”
“Is it!”
“Yup,” Vijay said smiling. He added raising his right eyebrow, in a typical Arun style. “It has the estimated population of 18.4 million and has the highest number of billionaires and millionaires in the world.”
“I didn’t know that,” I said rubbing my chin.

****

Which one you liked? It must be (b).
In fact, have you read (a) completely?
That is what happens when you add too much description.

• Don’t tell, SHOW. Readers should be able to connect with the story, the characters. They should feel all the emotions, which the characters are undergoing.

For example, check the two methods of telling the same situation:

****

(a) He was angry. He said her not to disturb him. He walked back to his bedroom angrily. She tried to stop him, but failed.

****

(b) He stood staring at her. His fist tightened, eyes red. “Don’t disturb me.” He ground his teeth.
Tears oozed out from her eyes. “ I…I…” She stammered. Her lips shivered.
He turned back shaking his head and walked away.
She wanted to hold his hand, stop him. But, her frozen legs refused to budge. She could hear him slamming the bedroom door.

****

Which one conveyed the situation better?
Isn’t it (b)?

These are some steps you may consider (You may check this video by Harry Bingham on how to plot a novel). At the same time, your mind is the biggest game changer and it can do anything. There’s no hard and fast rule in the world of creativity. Your ultimate aim is to entertain the reader.

That’s it. 

Salvation of a Saint - “Planned, Perfect”

Keigo Higashino was a name unknown to me till it was connected with the Malayalam movie “Drishyam”, which was later remade into various languages including Hindi. It was told that the movie was inspired from his first book “The devotion of suspect X”.

I would have gone for “The devotion of suspect X,” had I not seen the movie. 

Coming back to the story of Salvation of a Saint, Yoshitaka, who was about to leave his marriage and his wife, is poisoned by arsenic-laced coffee and dies. His wife, Ayane, is the logical suspect—except that she was hundreds of miles away when he was murdered.

The only other suspect is Ayane’s pupil Hiromi. 

However, the question of the story is not “who done it”, but how he (or she) did it, as we can guess the culprit after certain point of time. And you will keep on assuming the method used by the culprit, till the end! 

Some may find it a normal murder mystery. 

The language is simple and the story is laced with small doses of twists throughout. There are no unnecessary subplots, which may have affected the pace. Once begun, it will be difficult for the reader to keep the book down. 

Even a slow reader like me could finish the book in two days!

A thing that I distasted was the number of investigators. Not one or two, but five investigate the case in their own way. I have never come across more than two (one male and one female) investigating a case in any of the story I have ever read. Maybe the author used a real life scenario, wherein different teams would be investigating same case. 

All in all, a good read. You can go for it, if you like to read a fast-paced murder mystery.

Pros:   Well narrated and fast-paced

Cons:  Nothing out of the box, another murder mystery 

Rating:     4/5

BOOK REVIEW- The Secret – “Monotonous, Overhyped”

It is said that you should never have high expectation about anything. We are human beings, not programmed machines, and hence forget this very logic many a time. Resulting in a broken expectation and a dull day.  

That exactly was my condition after reading “The Secret.”

Stop reading this blog post at this point, if you intend to read the book. I am going to reveal the “secret” from “The Secret.”

As you have decided to continue reading, here you go.

 Do you want to become famous?

Think, feel, of becoming famous. You feel it as if you already have become famous. Act as though everyone around and media (both national and international) is speaking about you. Feel it. Believe it. Realize it. 

Bingo! 

You have become famous. The “law of attraction” will make you famous.

Do you want to become a millionaire?

Think, feel, of becoming rich. You feel it as if you already have billions of money in our bank account. Feel it. Believe it. Realize it.

Bingo!

You have become famous. The “law of attraction” will make you rich.

Do you want to achieve something?

Think, feel, of becoming achieving that particular thing. Feel it. Believe it. Realize it.

Bingo!

You have achieved that unachievable thing. The “law of attraction” will make achieve it.

This is what is said in the 198 page long book. One thing, “the law of attraction” is repeated in every other sentence. As though you sit dreaming about it and everything will happen by itself.

I am neither saying the theory is wrong, nor apprehensive about the power of subconscious mind. On the other hand, I am a firm believer of the power this universe possesses. Of course, it can “make” things happen. 

I am of the opinion that “if we don’t know or believe about a thing, doesn’t mean that the particular things does not exist. But we have not yet developed the apparatus to identify or prove the existence/ non-existence of that particular thing.” 

Forget about the universe, we have not yet made any progress in studies with respect to our own “unconscious mind,” and has not fully understood “subconscious mind,” which are presumably inside us. 

I am not denying anything said in the book. But, the way things are described in the book are too boring to read. Repeating same sentences until you feel sleepy, until you start asking yourself, “What’s the requirement of 198 pages to repeat the same thing?”

It was too tedious a task for me to complete the book. 

Maybe Oprah Winfrey show was the real reason for the huge sale of the book, not the quality. The thought, “how can I say the book is bad, if a personality like Oprah Winfrey is endorsing it?” may be the reason for the sale of the book.  

Or perhaps the real reason is “Law of Attraction.”

I am not recommending it.

By the way, who am I to recommend, once Oprah had recommended it?

Pros:   Timely delivery by Amazon. 

Cons:  Too monotonous. 

Rating:     2/5

Public Speaking - You CAN do

Effective Public Speaking is an art, which could be mastered through thorough preparation and practice only. And those who master the art turns into a leader (not definitely political, but in their own fields). Since conveying your message effectively is the first step in creating your followers. Not only politicians, but people from various fields, including spiritual leaders, also use it to gain more followers.

There are many, who want to speak in public. However, they fail due to various reasons, some known and some unknown. They keep on attempting, but in vain. Some dream of addressing the public, some think of going to the podium and start speaking, and a few reach up to the stage and stammer there, resulting in a failed show. Still, they will have the eager want burning inside their heart. Here are a few tips, which I feel would help you in overcoming the anxiety, tension and low self confidence; main reasons for  the failure.

The first step in becoming a good public speaker is forget what you are.  

Yes, that’s the first step towards preparing yourself to address public. You may be weak in studies, bad at sports, worse at imagination. 


Nobody bothers about it. 

They are there to listen to you, waiting for your opinion, your thought, your view about a particular thing. I agree that it is not easy to master the art of public speaking. It requires days (and months) of preparation and practice. Nobody has ever turned a successful public speaker in an eyes blink. It was always a result of meticulous planning and preparation.

I can give you a few tips, which can help you in developing into a public speaker:

(1)  Read, read and read. Read a lot. Read whatever comes your way. Read everything, but absorb only the thing you feel right. Read across genres, fiction and non-fiction, journals and newspapers. Concentrate on wide-reading, not in in-depth reading, unless you are trying to specialize in particular field.

(2)  Observe, everything around. It is not that you will stare at people and things much to their inconvenience. No, don’t do that. BTW, your observation skill will improve by itself through reading, without you realizing that.

(3)  Learn looking into eyes of the people during conversation. Because it shows your confidence. Don’t keep on checking your grammar and other things inwardly. Nobody cares whether your grammar is correct or not. They are interested in the information/idea/knowledge you have got. And that makes my next point…preparation.

(4)  Prepare as much as possible for the talk you are about to give. None can have 100% knowledge about anything, but we can, at least, try for that. Don’t mix-up the things, arrange the things you have prepared in an orderly manner.

(5)  Don’t vomit everything you prepared at once. Audience also require time to think, to understand the things you say. So, pause in between, let silence speak to them, let the idea sink in. You need to understand where to raise your voice, where to lower, where to stop, where to pause. Learn voice modulation. 

  *If you don’t know anything about it, listen to Julian Treasure's    TED Talk here.

(6)  Practice the speech with modulation, as much as you can, in front of a mirror. Practice also will improve your confidence level.

(7)  Believe that the audience have come to listen only you (you don’t have to think about the other speakers on the list). Just simply say to yourself that the audience is YOURS.

Get back to me, if you are unable to became a successful public speaker even after following the above-mentioned steps :) 
(authorshines@gmail.com)

Where should I start?

Many want to start reading English books, but they don’t know where to start. They try to read, push through two or three pages, get confused, and drop the mission. This is what happens most of the time. At least, it had happened with me, back in late 90s. My repeated attempts to read English books failed miserably. 

I used to get books issued from library, try reading it for 2-3 days, then return with a saddened heart. The process repeated for at least a dozen times. 

I failed to understand what the real problem with me was. 

Then one fine day (it had to be a fine day!!), one of my friends advised me to try Sidney Sheldon. I was considering him BIG and never had the courage to attempt his books. Without much hope, I issued his book THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT (you guessed it right, sequel to MEMORIES OF MIDNIGHT). 

What can I say more? 

The book was simply, wow! It changed my reading habits. I got all the books of Sheldon issued back to back. 

It was as if Chicken Tandoori to a person, who was hungry for months!

From Sidney Sheldon, I moved on to Ken Follet, to Mario Puzo, to Arundhati Roy, to Vikram Seth, to Vikas Swarup, to John Grisham, to Paulo Coelho, to Jeffrey Archer, to VS Naipaul, to Orhan Pamuk, to Aravind Adiga, to Gillian Flynn, to Paula Hawkins....

and the journey continues.....

Hence, I will advice (rather, request) you to try Sidney Sheldon or his kind of thriller (presently, Tilly Bagshawe has copied his writing style). Those will be pacey and real entertainer. Once you are habituated with English books, you can read any book. And each book will nourish you in some or other way. 

So, don't hesitate. Just jump into it. 

Because, you have to enter the pool to learn swimming.