The first thing that came to my mind when I reached D was “D for Dialogues” but then I noticed I had used this in the 2011 A to Z Challenge. Having decided not to use the same theme for even one of the alphabets, I needed to think of something else. So this year, I am going with D for Diary as I have been writing diaries ever since I can remember.
Author: Prem Rao
Author, Blogger, Book Reviewer, Coach, and Podcaster
When you write fiction, your story hinges on the characters you create. So for me today, C is for Characters. You could have a splendid plot and storyline but they fall flat if they are not carried off by your characters. To me much of the pleasure of writing a novel comes from creating and developing characters. They are at first vague ideas in your mind. Man or woman, young or old, they assume shape in your mind as you think more about the story. It’s amazing how attached you get to your characters. By the time you are through with your novel it feels as if you know them personally. You know every intimate detail about them. And it’s natural to do so, because you were the one who created them.
Today is the start of the Blogging A to Z Challenge in which I am participating after a break of a couple of years. Did you know that some 1800 bloggers from all over the world are participating in this event? I am proud to be one of them and have chosen to go without a particular theme this time.
Seeing that the challenge starts off on April 1, A has to be for April . Today, April 1, is celebrated as April’s Fools Day or All Fools Day in many parts of the world. Friends pull each other’s legs with pranks and everyone has a good laugh. With so much tension and stress around us, I think April Fool’s Day is a great stress buster. Of course, much of the enjoyment depends on whether or not you are on the receiving end of the prank.
Decades ago when I was working in Mumbai (then called Bombay), some of us decided to teach a lesson to a colleague who was very stuffy and looked down on our easy-going attitude. He used to mutter, “Grow up, fellows. You are no longer at school,” whenever we cracked jokes or had a laugh which was very often.
There were no emails in the ’70s and one morning he found a hand written message slip on his desk that the Big Chief, the General Manager of our Division wanted to see him at 9.00 a.m. the next morning. We youngsters and, I suspect, most of our seniors too, were terrified of the General Manager who was a nice person in his own way but a strict disciplinarian. Our colleague didn’t mention about the note , nor did anyone else. The next day at 9.00 a.m. sharp he presented himself at the GM’s office. The Executive Secretary to the GM who wielded almost as much power as he did, stared at him in a cold manner. She asked what brought him there so early in the morning as she had just walked in after a harrowing journey on the local trains which most of us used in Bombay. Our friend said he wanted to meet the GM. She said he can’t be seen without prior appointment. He said, ” He wants to see me. ” She replied, “I decide who gets to meet him.” When in triumph he showed her the message slip, she laughed loudly, bringing work in that part of the building to a standstill. “You poor fool. Someone has made an ass of you. I don’t blame them for it. Today is April 1. In any case, the boss is in Tokyo and he can’t see you or anyone else.”
Coming back to A for April, I find that April is the month for the National Poetry Writing Month, where poets write a poem a day. I guess this is much like NaNoWriMo where we writers write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November each other. I am thrilled that I have successfully completed NaNoWriMo for five consecutive years. Frankly, I believe writing a poem every day for a whole month is far more difficult than writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. To each his own, I guess.
You may have seen my earlier post which speaks of the Blogging A to Z Challenge I await this as excitedly as I am sure many do from all over the world. When I last checked, I found that 1800 blogs/bloggers were already registered for the mega event. I use the term blogs/bloggers because some bloggers have more than one blog in the fray!
Last week, in a post titled, “ Working With Scrivener : More Tips” I had written about my progress in using Scrivener. I want to share with you this time some perspectives that I have gained from posts by others who shared their experiences in using Scrivener. I found these to be pretty useful, and I hope they will be of use to you.
Yes, it’s official. I am one of the new fans of Scrivener. In an earlier post, I have described how I finally signed on for Scrivener hoping to make it, over time, the only tool for my writing going forward. Last week, I had shared with you my first lessons in working with Scrivener. I was caught up with a lot of other work last week and honestly didn’t spend as much time on my writing as I should have. Nevertheless, I thought it might be useful to share a few more tips based on my experience in using Scrivener.
Some days ago, I posted about how I got on to Scrivener, at last! I want to build on that theme and let you know what I have been up to and how I have fared. My objective in sharing this is to help newbies (newer to Scrivener than me, which isn’t saying much anyway) with tips so that they don’t make the mistakes I did.
I entered the National Novel Writing Month ( NaNoWriMo) for the first time in 2009 and that’s when I heard fellow participants speak of Scrivener. I had no idea what it meant. Some cursory research led me to understand that it was a kind of ” content generation tool” for writers. To be honest, I didn’t explore this any further for two reasons. I feared it would be too complex for me to use and too expensive for me to afford. I was then deeply engrossed in writing my debut novel, “It Can’t Be You” anyway and my focus was more on thinking through a plot, fleshing out characters and the like. I did all of this in the only way I knew, using Microsoft Word. Continue reading “Getting to Scrivener At Last!”
I had the pleasure of reading, “Potluck” recently. This is a collection of 26 short stories published by Become Shakespeare with the contributors being members of the Critique Group. This group came together when they attended Creative Writing courses at the Xavier Institute of Communication in Mumbai. These course were conducted by Renu Balakrishnan who too has contributed a couple of stories to this collection.
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 