I have been reading the second volume of “Paris Review – Writers At Work” interviews. These are giants of literature being interviewed in their own lifetime. And boy, is that revealing?

Today we are talking about books in print and digital and the Internet as a publishing domain. Would these enduring writers have cared? Actually, would they have been more prolific if they had the same toolsets we have? If they could publish whatever they want on the Internet, would they have still chosen the traditional publishing route?

Many of these writers had mastered their form, that they can change their content to anything. Most writers were not reverential to their audience or to their peers. They didn’t believe in writer groups, discussing the craft or talking about the process of writing.

I do understand the craft has to be learnt. In schools or by self-study. I did most of it by self-study. I learnt craft in workshops. I listened to greats like Jane Yolen, Joy Cowley and others. And then I went to retreats and conferences to connect, to meet with editors, to meet with publishers and of course other writers.

I was sending out bad manuscripts until I joined SCBWI and read their resource materials cover to cover. It was so useful that I started getting published as soon as I figured what to submit and when to submit. I wrote different things to try my hand – newspaper articles, magazines for grown-ups, children’s non-fiction, stories, poems and more. Then I started focusing. On one thing – writing for children. I don’t keep to one form or medium in children’s writing. I tried my hand at everything – trying to understand what suits me. What is my natural style?

These Paris Interviews I am reading now are re-iterating the same thing. Many of the greats who have been interviewed are quite critical of their own earlier work. They do try their hand at different things before they figure out what suits them. It is almost like being an athlete competing in multiple events. Time and time again, the commentators talk about one of them being a specialist in one event, but wanting to try their hand at another. Like a 100-m dash runner also trying out a 400-m just to test their skills, to expand their repertoire.

So, should I worry about the medium, the form, the type of writing I do? Or should I trust my instincts and try various things and zone into the one I enjoy writing. It is always good to expand your horizon and look at different things. I always try my hand at poems, riddles, non-fiction, and slowly into novels and plays – although I think I am very comfortable in a picture book format.

Should a writer take all the advice from a retreat, a conference or a speaker and apply it in absolute terms? We do have a proliferation of books that teach writing that writers are worried about breaking some rule or the other. It is no doubt important to learn the rules before you break them – because then you will know how to handle the consequences – but should writing be just within the confines of rules that are propagated by rules?

How do you write? Do you experiment with forms? Do you write a particular form for pleasure and another as a profession? Do you try and break out in other genres and market?