I try and write 20 minutes a day every day. I also keep a weekly quota of 3.5 hours of writing. Mind you, I am not a full-time writer. I don’t have an agent and I am not being commissioned every week for something or the other.Everything I write is new and creative. I work and rework the picture books I have created. I edit, revise, re-write. I paginate, I do dummies, I re-write.
I also have a notebook full of ideas – so I dip into them and every time I write, I unconsciously write in the 32-page book format. Some fit, some don’t fit. I try and fit the ones that don’t fit the first time. And if it works, I continue on it as a picture book. If not, I try and make it a chapter book.
Either way, everything I write is for fun. I do send them out at some point, when my first reader and has seen it and commented. I rewrite over and over again and then submit to my critique group. Then I rewrite again. Sometimes it changes the story, sometimes it just changes the words. Either way, every rewrite is valuable.
One such writing episode was the story of a boy in a village in India. I wanted to call him Ramu. My father is called Ramu at home. I wanted my father to be part of my books, in some way. He has always been proud of whatever I wrote. He had celebrated my victories with prayers to the Almighty and blessings to me.
And then I had this particular publisher in mind. They gave me a brief a year ago on what kind of books interest them.
The final piece of the jigsaw was an idea that has been in my mind for many years now. I have tried to write it many times, with no success.
A boy, a village and an umbrella. My new picture book was born. It was the kind of story that was inspired by Malgudi Days unconsciously. The kind of story where you meet characters, people with real charm, and individuality.
I worked on it just a week. My first reader had some comments. Not a lot. I revised it a few times. But something inside my head asked me to send it to the editor right then. Normally the manuscript will ferment for 6 months. But this time, I decided to send it the same week.
Like any other thing I submit, I forgot about it promptly and went back to working on my other projects. A week later, on a morning, my phone pinged telling me I have an email. Normally early morning emails are from Tescos and other supermarkets inviting me to spend my money with them. I didn’t bother checking the email.
An hour later, I checked and there it was – the message every writer wishes they got it every day. “We loved your book and we want to publish it.”
That’s why I write.
For that one message amongst millions of spam emails. For that one validation amidst thousands of rejections. For that one paperback picture book with beautiful illustrations amongst a thousand sheets of white printing paper.
That moment was worth the 100 other picture books that are still waiting in the hard-drive. Their moment to send them out will come too. The stars have to align, the mind has to clamour for release of this bird into the real world.
With a job that keeps me busy all day, with chores that never seem to end, with books to read by so many writers better than me, I still manage my 3.5 hours a week so that I too can get an email that says “We loved your book, we want to publish it.”
Visit www.chitrasoundar.com
www.chitrasoundar.com
Congratulations! Very inspiring story.
Lovely to read this, Chitra. Congratulations!