Nobody really realizes the Hustle sometimes? Eventually your 14 year old daughter will ask you ‘papa what are you writing?’ but you don’t have anything to show her. Couldn’t help but daydream a scenario where you take her onto your lap and read her the “big - big” words you used as you penned down everything which also led you to be awake the whole night and pot the coffee almost every other hour. Even though that part is true and indeed caffeine and warm lights in your room helps with the creative juices to flow.
Your mind wanders around if the nearly overcooked pulao that you brought from that Indian store is left unattended on the kitchen counter.
Your mind wanders around that one argument you had with a fellow colleague in 2012, a year before you left that job
A girl that caught your eye back in the rebellion, shenanigans college days You almost approached her but the geek in you forced you to stay back in the library because that was all that it ever was, in one’s young mind, roarin’, ambitious. The spirit that will take you to places. Zooming out and you’re here thinking of all the places that you didn’t go to. Life circles around that same loophole, the same peer pressure of your parent’s words in the ‘What are you doing with your life?’ or ‘Are you earning well?’ discussions
On your hometown’s dining table.
The two questions every writer runs from. You’re a bit older now (just a little bit) the question mark still scares you cause’ no matter what
The societal pressure is as terrifying as walking into a warzone.
Zoom out rather a few pixels more. Stay seated on your study, let the coffee turn cold and so the pulao.
Volume down the cartoon network in your head that’s on the television distracting you (because the daughter won’t listen SHE’S NOT GOING TO TURN IT OFF!!!)
Focus on the same union that the geek did, You and your amazing writing skills. The impactful out of the box mind. The wisdom you’ve been extracting from all these years. Even the mistakes that never mattered,
SET A GOAL
The first few lines should be gripping. As learning or personal it can get, because both works!
Try forming all elements together, Top to the bottom. The picture of the Nobel prize in your head and the correct exterior for your book to get there. Angle the plots, fixate on what you want to put on the table otherwise It might look scattered if you take too many agendas
One strong one is enough.
TAP OUT FROM THE TIME LIMIT
There’s no time clock. Just time management. Being sufficient and proactive is different from holding yourself hostage with fear based “time outs” as it doesn’t exist on the intellectual level
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
With your content you already know what type of audience and readers will it attract. Approach a few things from that perspective.
BOOK’S ANATOMY
Just like an old television show, we hate or love it. The conflicts, the reflection of one’s actions and the main protagonist’s winning speech in the end drives most Indian households especially the females in the families being their chosen audience (yes! That serial that’s flickering in your head that you once saw your mother in law crying on)
Living the journey through a person is the most eye catching or captivating to our emotional foolish hearts. The struggles, ups and downs. The dark night of the soul and the light after the tunnel all engages people to never want that story to end The sighs and the gasps never fail
THE FORMAT
Like every book cannot be the same there’s a certain pattern that goes differently in whatsoever the book represents or you would like for it to.
Choose the format
Choose the overall look like a platter that becomes the eye candy
THE FIRST DRAFT
As much as we would want everything articulately accurate on our first go. Your first draft is a resemblance of your own
Messy, with errors and some corrections here and there.
Be wide open to criticism as long as it makes your piece more polished.
There’s no problem correcting yourself again and again. If it makes you feel any better. I went through all of these lines a million times and counting. you’re your own best critic. But make some exceptions to take genuine feedbacks from your friends and family
So when you’re having an ‘Oops’ moment with something that you wrote. It stays in the inner circle.
THE TITLE
When it comes to the title , it’s the people’s attraction that will lead them to your book. Makemake sure it resonates with what’s inside. The title is like the first and the final clap in a theater. It represents everything in a nutshell. So make it witty or simple.
THE COVER
Don’t judge a book by its cover is a famous saying but the truth is that we sadly do. The aesthetics of the book cover is the intriguing part.
Once I bought a book purely because it had one of the Van Gogh’s painting as its book cover
We as viewers work from our subconscious and when it navigates us we drop everything and follow.
With such aspiring writers these days , it can get intimidating how everyone starts so early. The sulking is blinding.
Embrace the experience that you hold
Many writers start their path to success a little late because they started experiencing life so early. The thoughts just expand and expand but in the end they’re the path breakers!
Like Richard Adams wasn’t 52 or J.K. Rowling didn’t have her share of rejections. Helen DeWitt when published her first novel ‘The Last Samurai’ was 41. Someone who had her academics at Oxford, quitting her job. She gave herself the time to finally invest in her book wholeheartedly and publish it later on in divine timing Toni Morrison (A Nobel prize winning author Aged 40) , Bram stoker, Anne Sewell. I can go on and mention a ton of writers who were late bloomers because the hustling indeed doesn’t end on your age or life circumstances
You get to decide when is your time.