BIN TO BESTSELLERS: THE IMPORTANCE OF OTHER PEOPLE IN YOUR WRITING LIFE

Making money writing is the hardest job on planet earth, however, there are people who do it effectively and make a living out of it. Being not one of them is not your problem, but aspiring not to be one is.

Is finding a publisher the best option for you as a writer? Richard Bach once mentioned in an interview; it’s not a publisher a writer searches for, but an editor. This relationship is one that should last for a lifetime. An editor understands where the music of words has to be slowed down or where it must run faster. But to get one worthy enough, you must do a lifetime’s waiting.

As a beginner in freelancing and in professional writing, how do you get an editor whose service can be worthwhile? Beginners are always stuck with the same problem; lack of funds. This in turn hampers your look out for an editor. Good editors are sale items with relatively high price money. There are many writers’ communities that offer editing services. Even some literary agencies offer you with editing services. However, if you are a first timer and one without enough weight in your bank account, hiring an editor for your book or manuscript will not be, normally, easy.

The best way to tackle this situation is to find reliable and easy options for editors. One need not go much farther for this end. Just look around and you will find yourself to be blessed with many minds, gifted with the one serum of eternal life—love—around you, ready to help reading your manuscript.

Showing your manuscript to your friends and family or girl friend would be a better option. In such a case, the money spent would be much close to null on editing services. The best editors are those who actually care for our work. You must be open to their criticisms; however, in harsh criticisms you can always rely on their lack of professional experience as the hideout from humiliation.

Stephen King, when he wrote his first novel, Carrie, did not think it would make up to the publishing standards and threw it into the bin. But his wife Tabitha King accidentally discovered the manuscript and read it. Thinking that it would be something worth of a quality, she put it back on the table and later helped King to rework on it. The novel went to become a best seller of its times and was made into a successful Hollywood movie.

This is one real life example from the life of America’s most celebrated and enthusiastic writer, Stephen King. This could be yours too. A relationship not just helps an individual to maintain one’s emotional health but the creative output as well. Now wait your sweet heart to tell you where to put the period.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anu Lal is the author of Wall of Colors and Other Stories. His latest book is Clenched Hands, Bloody Nails.  You can catch up with him in Facebook too.  

FREE THAT SEAGULL IN YOU

That Unforgettable Story: Bestselling Author Anu Lal at Capitol Mall, Kannur, Kerala

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a small volume of fiction written by Richard Bach. Some of you have read it. Some of you haven’t. It’s a highly readable novella with a seagull named Jonathan Livingston as its titular hero. The totality of the essence that shines through this story is not just about a seagull and the quest for success. More importantly, one must look at this book as a motif that corresponds to the inner voice of an individual. When I read this book, as a young student of English literature, I immediately associated it with a writer’s journey. I contemplated on the many nuances Mr. Bach, who I consider one of my gurus, must have employed to reveal his own life through the pages of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The reason I considered the possibility of an autobiographical element in this book is that in every writer, there is a seagull.

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Those very few successful authors are able to free the seagull engraved in their consciousness by the same creative power that generated their life force. Is it possible to live without consciousness? Perhaps, but think about the quality of life one must be missing under an unconscious state of existence. Every writer goes through stages of evolution. We evolve into being who we are. This evolution need not be biological. It could be spiritual or intellectual. Just like an ordinary person having lost his consciousness, a writer struggles if one does not free the seagull within one.

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What do I mean by “the seagull within us?” The seagull within us is our inner voice. This same voice sometimes gives a character in one of our stories, a unique individuality, and the narrative a significant identity. Voice is literature has a different meaning. It is not literally an audible sound. But in a novel or a story, ‘voice’ is the narrative style and peculiar alignment of thoughts and words. In order to achieve a unique and poignant voice on paper, one must achieve the same in life outside the paper.

There may be a multitude of concerns that haunt you each day—electricity bill, water bill, cable and internet bill, food, family, house maintenance or mortgage, etc. Often, these many concerns put a lock in the cage in which our inner seagull resides. This inner seagull came with us while we were born, within the same package that is we.

Once we realize our karma that is the cause of our restlessness, the path that we need to travel, we must take the courage to let the seagull free. Let it fly, away and above, everything we have known and seen; let it find new horizons; let it guide us. Let your inner voice take up thoughts that were, until then, impossible for you to handle, or improbable. Let your imagination accompany that inner voice. This is where fiery books were written.

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In the last decade of the previous century, a woman had a dream-like idea. It was highly improbable and senseless. Had she been living in Kerala, her own self-respect might have prevented her from penning down this story. But she lived in Europe, and she took the courage to free her seagull that is in her. In a few years, her book became a phenomenon. You must have heard of her, everyone does. She goes by the name, J. K. Rowling.

About The Author:

Anu Lal is the author of Wall of Colours and Other Stories, Book-1 in the Hope, Vengeance, and History Trilogy. He resides in India. His upcoming book is Clenched Hands, Bloody Nails. His second book You Should Know How I Feel has been a bestseller in Amazon India.

Blog: http://anu-lal.blogspot.in/

Author Page: Here

Twitter: @Anulalindia

Start the Ball Rolling

by Anu Lal                            

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Today, I have a special article for you. This article is special because it touches one of my favorite subjects—writing. I am trying here to suggest three strategies that can help writers find their rhythm in their craft, after a severe writers’ block. The mantra of course, is starting the ball rolling. And keep it rolling too. I hope you would enjoy this “post-writers’ block strategies.”  

To hope for success, one must first start the journey. Starting trouble is fear in its vigorous imposition. Often writers succumb themselves to the fear to start a new story. This often happens immediately after writing a story or a book, as a post-publishing syndrome, mostly. The next work would always be decisive. It would chalk out the identity of the writer. These thoughts crowd the writer’s mind and more often than not, every writer feels insecure to begin something new, after one successful work.

This is not exactly the fear of losing or the lack of competence. On the other hand, starting woes are essentially associated with the insecurity in looking failure in the eye. This is in effect, a ‘what if?’. It would tear off their shields of confidence. What if I could not produce the quality, they suppose me to be a master of? This question breeds insecurity, but it should not be misunderstood with the occasional bout of inner stress known by the notorious name, writer’s block.

Efficient planning and effective strategies can help writers start the ball rolling again. Three key points are given below;

Editing any previously written manuscript

Go to you file folders or notebooks and find any manuscript you worked with some time before. The next is the process of preparation. Pick up a publisher’s address or a magazine’s website and prepare your manuscript according to their guidelines for publishing. Re-read, edit and proofread your manuscript. By the end of this process, you will be able to clear your thoughts on unnecessary concerns. This method works through a process called ‘channeling’. As a writer, you are channeling all your attention and energies on the craft, while editing and proofing your unpublished manuscript. Through channeling, individual would be able to fix one’s attention and eliminate other concerns.   

Compulsive writing on random ideas

This is a traditional method and like all traditional methods, based on ritualistic practices. Through compulsive writing on random ideas, a writer is partaking in an initiation process. The ritual and the practitioner are equally important in this method. The writer, starting on a random word should keep on writing whatever comes to his mind, with or without a prior planning. This method works better when the writer attempts to follow the stream of randomly generated words.   

Extensive reading

Although, no ‘writing’ is present in the sub-heading, this is a very useful method with an undeniable impact. This always worked for me and for many of my friends too. Extensive reading, here, suggests not just a long period of research, or even reading for research. It suggests a focused attempt to spend as much time as possible with the book you read, currently. The principle that is under work in this method can be called invocation. The writer invokes the elements of craft that lay in dormant stage in one, through a voluntary attempt to peruse without stop for a long time. In my case, it goes on to four or five hours.   
   
The one idea I would like you focus, the one idea that can help you beyond anything else, is hope. However, hope is inevitably related to action. Without starting a project, we have no right to hope for its success. 
 

Bio: Anu Lal is the first Indian author to write a trilogy of short story collections in English. 'Hope, Vengeance and History' trilogy is an interconnected neuron of short stories. The first book in this trilogy is Wall of Colours and Other Stories. He is also a columnist in an American journal and a translator.

blog: http://anu-lal.blogspot.in/; 
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