The world is not only made up of heroes and heroines. Every novel has its share of minor characters who shore up the story, who lend insight, who add to complexities or who just happen to be around when needed!
Month: November 2010
Yay! I have just finished NaNoWriMo 2010 having reached 50,000 words for my novel “Lucky For Some, Thirteen”. I recognize that the novel is far from being complete though I have much to celebrate about. I have finished the first step- that of writing the foundation of the novel. Typically, novels in the genre I write in of thrillers/mysteries should be of at least 70,000-80,000 words.
In every story particularly in the mystery/thriller genre there are bound to be conflicts. It is conflict that drives people to say and do things which make up the story. Being fascinated by human psychology, in this novel I have given additional Continue reading “Internal & External Conflicts”
When ever I find the time, I feel like browsing the pages in The Quotations Page, a website which gives you thousands of quotations on a wide variety of subjects. Here for example is the page on Quotations on Writing. I find myself inspired, amused and provoked to think as I browse through them. If you have a writer’s block, drop in here and see these quotations. There are over 100 quotations on writing here. They may just inspire you to write more!
Irving Wallace was a top selling author and I vividly remember some of his books from the ’70s like ” The Prize”. He inspired many, like me , to write based on our imagination. One of his outstanding quotes was: “You need not have lived something to see it, to write about it. You were provided with imagination. Use it. Da Vinci did not have to attend the Last Supper to paint it.”
The debate continues. Should your novel be plot-driven or character-driven? A J Humpage has this interesting post which speaks of the differences between the two. On reading this I immediately thought of my soon- to-be published debut novel “It Can’t Be You”. This is hitting the stands at the end of November 2010. I started off believing my story was largely character-based. I tried to delve into the minds of my characters to think as I believed they would. As things moved on and the story took shape,
I first thought of what I would write for this year’s NaNoWriMo when I was recuperating after my heart bypass surgery in July 2010. I was advised to walk about for a little while every day, starting with 3 minutes and going on to reach 45 minutes, which is now the prescribed duration of my daily walk- for as long as I live! While walking I naturally thought of NaNo 2010 and a few ideas came to me which looked quite promising.
As I flipped through the blog posts on this site I realized that while the author may be very familiar with a location he writes about, not everyone reading the book need be. Much of It Can’t Be You is set in picturesque Coorg in my home state of Karnataka in the south of India.
When you are not a rich person but aspire to become one, you are driven by sheer ambition. Elena Dietrich was one person who had, more than anything else, a fierce determination to get out of the less affluent society she was born into in Berlin.
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 