Skip to main content

A talk on 'The Writing Process' by a writer of 13 novels on BlogChatter

I've written about Andaleeb Wajid before.  Yesterday, I had a chance to interact with her on Blogchatter again. Her talk was about The Writing Process. I tuned in and she spoke about how she wasn't a very methodical writer during her first couple of novels, but now after 13 novels, it has all changed. Initially she had an idea about how her book would end and then worked backward. She used to let her characters 'control' the manuscript. She said she couldn't let all her characters 'surprise' her all the time. She said she couldn't 'wing it' all the time. 

Now she makes a lot of notes about her characters and their motivations. She plans her books. She gives herself the freedom to change the story from her synopsis although the synopsis becomes the blueprint.

She says she doesn't believe in writer's block and that she'd rather say she is stuck. If you are unable to write a particular chapter, you should just let it be and come to it after a while, says Andaleeb.

She writes at least a chapter a day, which is at least 1500 words a day and describes herself as 'anal' when it comes to writing. It is like a job to her, a job that she enjoys. This, according to her, is the secret to her speed - treating it like a job and not a hobby.

Someone asked her how she networks, she says she is quite anti-social, so the best place to network with others, is probably at literature festivals.

She tries not to take long breaks from writing. Once she hits 10,000 words, the book hits the 'zone' and usually takes off.

She usually writes at a desk - her home office. She says she can't sit at a coffee shop.

She said she was currently reading Stephen King in answer to a question I asked her about what she liked reading. Unfortunately, technology decided to act up and posted my question just as she was trying to promote her own book, so that it came across as really thoughtless and rude:( 


To listen to the rest of the video broadcast, like the Blogchatter page on Facebook.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Book Review of 'Bitch Goddess for Dummies'

Recently, I attended a zoom session on chick lit by the Chennai Lockdown Literary Festival (CLLF). In the session, one of the speakers was Maya Sharma Sriram. I was so impressed with the way she conducted the session and answered the questions that I decided to pick up her chick lit novel, ‘Bitch Goddess for Dummies’ brought out by Rupa Publications in 2012. And I was not disappointed. I’m not sure if I was biased toward the book by the personality I had seen on zoom or not, but I quite enjoy chick lit and have read several chick lit novels in my thirties.   So the novel is about a 27-year-old woman Mira Iyer who decides to transform her personality from good girl to ‘bitch goddess’ to deal with the people in her life. Her mom who is constantly trying to fix her up with some eligible guy so that she can get married and Sanya, the real office bitch who is always cosying up to their bosses and vying for a promotion, are just two of the people in her life causing her angst. So it’s go...

Book Review of 'Resilience: Stories of Muslim Women'

I read ‘Resilience: Stories of Muslim Women’ by Shubha Menon recently.  The author, who belongs to one of my writing groups, requested a review of the book and also sent me a review copy. The foreword is by Syeda Hameed. Syeda Hameed established the Muslim Women’s Forum in 2001. The author, Shubha Menon, has documented the life of Muslim girls and women of Nizamuddin Basti in Delhi. She discusses the origin of the basti, how it became a magnet for displaced Muslims and goes on to outline “scenes from the medieval ages” in the basti. Sordid realities such as the practice of halala and mutah are discussed, which are used to terrorise women. The author shares the story of Farida, who has five sisters. By the time Farida was sixteen, she was a mother of two and abandoned.  She had been only accorded the status of a domestic servant. Her husband had cruelly divorced her saying “ Log teen bar talaq datein hain, mein tumhein hazaar baar talaq deta hoon.” After a few years, ...

Blogging with a Purpose - Theme Post

I’ve loved books since I was a child. I vaguely recall the 'Ladybird' series of books that I read as a child, but the first novel I remember reading was ‘The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage’ by Enid Blyton that my mom brought home for me to read from the library when I was in Class 4. I then finished the children’s books section in library after library in my neighbourhood. Reading has served me well since I now work as an editor. Reading was what filled my hours as a child and kept loneliness at bay. Reading is what helped me find myself at age 40 when I got back to the habit after several years of reading sporadically. I now average about 25 books a year that I track on Goodreads .  I’ve had the opportunity to interact with quite a few authors online and offline. My cause for the Blogchatter #BloggingWithAPurpose campaign is "promoting authors." There is a popular joke in the publishing industry these days that there are more authors than readers. Authors a...