All the backbenchers. Look Sharp!

As it turns out the Internet has its own school, to which I am referring to. So I thought there would be a meager bunch of websites outlining what a would-be writer/novelist/author should do to find success. Boy, was I wrong! You know those cake decorations called hundreds and thousands, well change that to billions and trillions and that is how many websites there are that cater to my needs. ( Not that I’m complaining or anything). Obviously it would be well beyond my short period of life, to not only read all of them but follow them and study to become a professor.

Multiply by 1000s,

Nevertheless I did try my best to read most of them (and man, was it a journey or what) . So what did I glean from the 2-3 hour research, well I will tell you, but you promise to judge me and criticize me and tell me what I should do and when, then only will I tell you ( just kidding) . So here goes.

Wait, I didn’t memorize them or anything, in fact I didn’t even bookmark any of the pages, it’s just stuff I remembered. In a nutshell, this list is not exhaustive, so don’t yell at me that this is isn’t here and you didn’t include this and so on( if you read it, please)…..

1. Visualize, Imagine, Look around.

Generally speaking, this is what you do, before you start writing. Ambition is needed to write too, but as you sit down to write, the Word document remains blank. Don’t worry, it happens to the best(I’m not included in the best, Jeez). Sometimes when you focus really hard on one thing, you are unable to come up with any ideas. Many-a-times, when you are

Do you have time to stop and stare?

busy, an errant thought crosses your minds and fleetingly passes away, before that happens, jot it down.  What good authors do is they take the ordinary and twist it around into an intricate braid, creating the extraordinary. On the way to school, college or your job, look around, there is a hidden story in every crevice. Coffee shops are great for novelists.  Stray pieces of conversation can be the foundation of an excellent idea.

2. Write it all,  no matter how worthless you think it is

Any idea any thought, a poem, a starting sentence, any and everything helps. Start a journal, write it down. Who knows when you go back to it, an idea pops up into your head. Don’t be scared if its bad. These are great bases.

3.  Be Imaginative

Take something ordinary and imagine the worst possible situation or the best possible. Think in both extremes, tone it down. Go in different ways, plotting and planning. Think in the way you want to read . If you enjoy supernatural, add elements of that. B

Remember, jot it down...

ut its important to make it natural, not forced upon.

4. Writers are sadistic and masochistic.

Its true actually. Again, a bit of looking around and people-watching is requires, whether you are on the bus or at your dentist appointment, or in a cafe. Observe people, and then think up multiple ways you could do stuff with them. Torture them, mangle them. Its like playing the Sims, except you have as much freedom as you have creativity. Take inspiration from people you meet everyday, friends or family or colleagues, since you know their character so well, or simply create a brand-new one.

5. Write everyday, keep at it, till you come up with something

Writers, readers, bibliophiles, love to vent. What better way than writing . Try different strategies poetry, ha

The many times I've done this...I'm going to hell.

ikus, short prose, essays, speeches. What comes to mind. But its important that you stay at it. Write everyday, without fail. Most authors recommend doing it first thing in the morning, but its your choice, but remember everyday. Being a writer is a commitment. Honour it.

I am in absolutely no way done. (its part Un(one in French) you dolts!) Many more parts to come. This guide is for all the readers and writers, but mostly for me. Hope it helped, do comment.

And yeah catch me on twitter http://twitter.com/Evanescentquill Follow me, DM me, talk to me. I’m all ready for you. No wait, I meant I’m ready for any help *smacks head* what wrong with me???? Don’t answer that.

Thanks for reading,

EQ

P.S Just something I thought I should add.

So I was researching(read: Googling) for the most beautiful, authentic etc bookstores around the world. One in particular struck my eye, which was Shakespeare and Co. located in the place which I would give my arms and limbs to go….can you guess it……no..okay, its Paris.

The magic reeks from this place.....

If you want to read about it buy Jeremy Mercer’s novel ’Time was soft there’ . Its about his experience when he lived in that bookshop, so on ,so on.  A very interesting read for a bibliophile, sharing the likes of me. But until you buy that book, content yourselves (partly) with this gorgeous video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUpSR9fhQDM

Okay long enough Post Scriptum, please comment if you enjoy. Every one needs encouragement

Right well, let’s get on with it, shall we.

Clearly, the title cannot be completed with ‘bedroom’( An Austen in the bedroom), since I clearly do not know of Jane Austen’s prowess there, however, I do know that she is superb at the writing part, and because I am most certainly not ,I was unable to think of a good name that would mean writing and rhyme with bedroom.  My point is,well, I don’t know what it is, but whatever.

So first the Nigella part and before I get started ion a rant about her, let me update you with my rendezvous a la moi with cooking. So I tried the aforementioned Pudding-y Cake, which looked every bit as dissimilar to the picture in the above post.  Admittedly the cake won’t win any beauty pageants, but remember that old notion about not judging books by covers, well apply it here. The thing with chocolate is that it always looks good, no matter what( as long as its only chocolate, don’t mix cow poo with it and come running to me saying it looks bad). Long story short, the cake feels like a party in the mouth, tons of chocolate sauce and the best part is, its pretty low on the whole fat content thing, no cream only one egg…you get the picture. Accompany it with pure vanilla ice-cream and its divinity is decadent. So try it, you won’t regret it.

On a completely unrelated but non-the-less important note, I found this great article which has scared several forms of living daylights out of me:- http://www.trappedbymonsters.com/2010/07/the-score/ ( I meant the article, not the picture, but you have to admit, it’s not a sunshine and rainbows kind of picture,is it?)

But I digress, on to Nigella Lawson. I love her. Plain and simple. She, to

With Love, Nigella

quote normal slang, ‘rocks’. You watch one of her shows, and you’re captivated, under this spell. You watch her do things haphazardly,  shoot spur-of-the-moment ideas and just be so, so normal. Its amazing, and, quite frankly, liberating.  I may be a novice cook, but I can cook quite well, no, not well, I can cook passionately. I am a great believer in the fact that whatever you do, you do it with passion, it turns out great, It has to. It’s an unwritten law. I mouth the steps a recipe calls for, imitating her style. Admittedly I don’t cook like, 6 days a week. But when I do cook, I cook differently.

SO enough about cooking, lets move on to the Jane Austen part of the title. Madame Austen is regarded as the greatest or the most renowned female author in English Literature. Indeed, several movies have been made based on her books and even a biography based movie of her life called Becoming Jane. My ambition is not confined to writing like Jane Austen. I enjoy satire and , indeed, many times black humor. Supernatural does not suit me, even though I find it highly enjoyable to read it. My point is that, I find it admirable that a woman who did not lead a liberal such that I have the liberty of  leading wrote tales of such sublime fantasies that almost two centuries later, have not failed to entertain people the world over. Simply speaking literature is my life. No joke, I started a blog about it. Reading was probably something I learned before I learned to potty train. Writing came soon after(after the toilet training, not the reading). Which is why my iPod contains an equivalent of a handful of songs, and (currently) Oscar Wilde and Anne Fadiman(Ex-Libris) audiobooks. But more about audiobooks later.

Thanks for Reading,

EQ

Thats all I've got!

ke me, just keeps adding more and more to the list. The aftermath results in me wallowing in misery and shame, for shirking my novel-writing and blog-updating duties and indulging in some light reading which did not bring me any closer to cracking my list.

Nevertheless, I’m back(with a vengeance) to blogging at the very least, but because I read some books on my toilet-paper roll of a list, I don’t feel so miserable. But before I start going on about those, lets get something straight about the novel.

So I know its ironic that I began this blog sith the intent of writing my novel, however, I want to experiment and explore more texts, and methods of writing before I jump headfirst into such an overtly ardent task. I guess you can call me a perfectionist( whoever is reading out there, that is), I want to write my novel in a clear-headed and mature way. I know its not a snap of the fingers, but I want it perfect, now and 20 years later when I read it.

Water For Elephants. ( love the shiny coat)

Back to the book reading. So the books that I read are fairly popular. Incidentally  all three of them related are were of the Holocaust, or the German Occupation or more popularly World War 2 . The first one that I read( from my list, not the first of the summer, good heavens!) was Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. I must confess I would not have come across this book if it hadn’t been for Robert Pattinson’s role in the movie, based on the book. I was kind of apprehensive about reading it, because as a child, circuses were pretty much in every book , be it Enid Blyton or otherwise.  And admittedly, it was the picture of Rob in a tuxedo, dancing with Reese Witherspoon ( and sucking face with her ) that was the catalyst in me reading the novel. Nevertheless it was a fast-paced read with not too much emotion, some comic relief was added. I felt there was a little too much sex in the book for being categorized in the YA section.  However, what I liked was that the book takes place in the present time where a 90 year old version of the main hero reminisces about his time during the, world war 2, when he joined a circus (the Benzini Brothers) . So the actual plot is about a 23 year old man during 1939 and how, when now he is , 90 or 93, ( you’ll see in the book why) he is nostalgic about that wonderful period. I did come away from it learning a lot of things, for

Counldn't resist

example the wealth of knowledge stored inside the old, that could easily be the makings of a bestseller, amongst other things.

That is the one thing I always try to do is , try to see what I learned from the book. It was a lovely read, and not much mention of the Holocaust. The life of the circus is/was very entertaining. The reason I felt it lacked emotion was because that it was from the point of view of a man. The man (Jacob)’s parents die in the beginning of the book. But this wasn’t overly-dramatized, so hence the no-tears formula.

As much as I want to continue on with the review of the rest of the two, I will stop here and make preparations to construct this  sinful, seductive masterpiece :-

Can I lick images through the screen? No? Okay.

Thanks for reading,

EQ

We all used to write short stories since we were in kindergarten, abut bags and bottles and breakfasts and favorite pastimes and so on. Then as we got older essays were expected to be written on major social and other problems affecting the humanity. Stories got wilder, with more violence, a healthy essence of fright and a cupful of romance. However, maximum word limit ranged from 500-2000 . Not a big deal, really. I mean all you have to do is make two people embark on a perilous journey, go through wild, hair-raising escapades and fall in love(I wish that happened in real life!) and eventually get killed(or not killed, depending on the mercy of the writer) by an absolutely terrifying( I’m talking fangs, three heads, 10 feet tall, blows fire) monster.

Come on, you do remember it. (okay, its only me).

Nevertheless, a novel is a rather ambitious task. Not only does the writer has to work towards writing almost, but not confined to, 50,000 words.  For an amateur writer, sharing the likes of moi , the task seems impossible at best. But as I open a fresh, crispy-clean, white as  snow Word document, with eyes full of dreams of attending the movie-based-on-book premiere,  I crack my knuckles and begin to type. What?

Exactly what I type, is a mystery to me . So I do what I do best(no its not procrastination, what makes you think that?!) I think and I pace about and think some more and some more pacing follows and eventually, an idea comes up, its not the best, but it will do.

So i am pretty excited about it and so now I, hereby, vow to start my novel (on Microsoft Word) and end it, hopefully.

Of course I’m going to blog about random stuff to get my mind off it.

Thanks,

EQ

I wish we could revert to these times!

I love books. Not all books. Not all sizes. Not all colors. I admit I am a bit choosy, leaning towards European authors, contemporary literature or even the top young adult bestsellers. Whatever passes my fancy, like this one time I became a crazed fan of historical fiction.