Writers & Writing

Writing is hard because every word means so much to us. Not writing is harder because the guilt causes sharp pain. Writing is our passion. But writing should pay more than peanuts. Writing isn’t so hard once you begin. But some of us are the best procrastinators. Writing is like breathing for us. Not writing…

A Few Holiday Reminders for Writers

It's party time/family drama time for a lot of you. I will be celebrating my own way with fruit cake, Christmas cookies, my cats and Kindle. I've been on a writing break for the last one month so I may write a short story or two during these festive weeks. I'm shockingly productive during festivals…

Reminders for Writers

Have you written something today? No? That’s okay. Start NOW and be proud of yourself even if you get in a hundred words. Because every word matters. Are you doubting yourself today? Yes? Stop it. Be kind to yourself. Don’t think and say mean things. Did you compare yourself to another writer today? Yes? A…

NaNoWriMo is almost here!

National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo is about to begin. Writers all over the world will attempt to finish a 50,000 word manuscript by the end of the month. That's a 50k word first draft -- not a final, polished manuscript. I can see the motivation and anxiety all month as writers gear up to…

Finding Story Ideas

There's a saying that we are all surrounded by story ideas every day but it's only us writers who are able to spot them and make art out of them. Ever since I started writing stories for the world, I've been asked where I get my story ideas from. Plot, characters, twists, and setting --…

Monday Motivation for Writers

It’s a new week. Every day is a new day. A fresh start if that’s what you want. It’s easy to forget the basic stuff when we look only at our ultimate goal. Here’s a gentle reminder from me to you. You are not your word count. Take breaks when you need them.You are not…

V is for Validation – How Writers Want It

A to Z of Writing series Are you a writer? If you answered in the affirmative, chances are that you've been asked these certain pissing off questions more than once: "So what's your REAL job?" "You actually get money for that?" "You must be from a rich family, right?" Ouch! No wonder we seek validation…

June

It’s been a mix of crazy productivity and zero work done thanks to viral fever. But yes, I managed to release my short story Mother & Son before the fever hit. This story explores various family relationships including that between siblings and that between a controlling mother and her son. So not my usual sweet…

T is for Time Management

Welcome again to our series of blog posts where eight of us – Devika Fernando, Preethi Venugopala, Adite Banerjie, Ruchi Singh, Reet Singh, Saiswaroopa Iyer and I – will post on a myriad of writing-related topics with the topic corresponding to the Alphabet of the Week. Today, I’ll be talking about Time Management. Twenty four…

R is for Research

As most of you know by now, my first two books were of the nonfiction genre. After a few years of working in print journalism and writing numerous research papers during my college years at Rochester before that, research was something that didn't scare me. I mean, writing a book of any kind is a…