Dreams Galore

If someone had given me this advice before I happily googled for ways to quickly publish my novel, I would have shown some restraint in my search. Nevertheless, I wasn't that lucky. I opened numerous web pages on publication, modified and re modified my search keywords to trace that inkling hope hidden in some obscure web page, even resorted to sort through websites on publication on page 9, but alas, can we alter the truth by looking away? I realized that we cannot. The end result is nothing but an undefined hiatus from my book to give myself space to breathe and get together the high on which I was riding in the past month. So what is it that I found that's got me so upset about the whole publication industry? Well for a starters, the average time of getting your book published, as time and again it was repeated to me, is around 2 years! If you want to read the sentence again, you are welcome. Myself with my pea-sized patience would forget my entire story if I have to w...

Today while spending my precious 40 minutes on my way to office in our company bus, I was listening to songs. Which is not uncommon after the advent of small and cute iPods. As usual I would keep skipping perfectly good songs in favor of others. Most of the time, the song I want to listen to depends on my mood. Sometimes I choose to listen to all energetic and happy songs, while I majorly choose soothing or sad songs when I am looking for relaxation. So, today I chose songs that helped me relax because the morning was not very bright and gloomy. While skipping through, I decided to listen to the famous Enrique song “Addicted”. Now this was not the first time I was listening to it. I had heard it many times before and enjoyed it as well. Yet today when the notes begun, it tugged to my heart and I could feel each and every pain that the character in the song was going through. And along with it started my version of the story. Yes, I day dreamed about how the hero of my story is going ...

42676 words in one month. If it was the NANOWRIMO contest, I would have fallen just a tad short of completing it. But then if I would have got my what I call "Writer's sunshine moments" as often as I got it this month, I would have stuck to my guns.  It has been an incredible month for my novel. And with almost Nil pressure at work, it was easier for me to write more than I could have otherwise. I had never felt this tuned to my story before. If there were moments of blankness, there were also some unbelievably inspired moments that brought out some of the best twists I could ever hope in my book. I think I could have reached this milestone much earlier than a month if I hadn't been distracted by another milestone that I need to reach soon. I have decided to take the GMAT exam in approximately two months time. A rather ambitious target I would say. But so is the NANOWRIMO contest, isn't it? Every year thousands of aspirants start their journey to scribble, if not...

Since last two days, I have had this eerie feeling that one of the future heroes of my upcoming novel is around me, watching me, stalking me, and promising me forebodingly that he is never going to stop chasing me! I have been thinking about him in every possible waking moment and of course, dream about him when asleep as if he is real. His eyes are so menacing yet they look at me as if they are begging me to go back to writing the book which I have left unfinished because something really important came up. I wonder if this is really nature's way of telling me that I am making a wrong decision and I should indeed be writing the book? Nevertheless, the point that I want to explore here is One, has this happened to you? Because if it has, I would be delighted to know your feelings when you went through it. Second, how can we channel this new found friend's (or foe's) energy in to writing our novel? In my imaginative stalking, this character of mine (OK. Let's call hi...

OK. So you have this great story buzzing in your mind and you are itching to make it in to a novel. You think “How hard can it be? I can see the whole thing in front of me like a movie! I can write it down right away!” Congratulations! This is what I would file in to my “Writer’s sunshine moments” and trust me, there are very few of them. Nevertheless the best part of those moments is they compel you to go beyond your boundaries, switch on your laptop and pour your heart out which is a brave thing to do. If you have had this sunshine moment and wondering how can you start your novel (if it’s your first novel, my heartiest congratulations!), then read on. I am hoping this will help you the way it helped me. I often get bouts of the best scenes when I think of my new story and I get desperate to write it down. True. You should write it down. But then, once written, please file it safely and forget all about it. At least till you have reached that point in your novel. For you to reach ...