Every year, Indian Top Blogs lists it’s Directory of best Indian Blogs. I am delighted to share with you that this blog features in the list one more time. It is one of the 525 blogs chosen for this honour. I feel quite elated today. I started this as my writing blog called, “Writing To Be Read” and as you know merged all my writing related stuff into this blog/website some time ago. Continue reading “Directory of Best Indian Blogs 2013-14”
Category: On Writing: Resources for Writers
Sharing insights, suggestions, tips and almost anything which will help you, and me, become better writers.
It’s become a cliché now to say that writing is only a small part of the author’s job. There is so much to do in the realm of marketing, branding and so on, that one sometimes winders if more time is spent on these activities than on the core activity of writing itself. I can’t recall who led me to starting an author page on Pinterest. I am sorry I have forgotten your name but I can’t forget to thank you for your idea. Continue reading “Are you using Pinterest, Mr. Author?”
I am terribly excited as later today I am organizing an event which, for me, is unique in two respects. Firstly, I am having a Virtual Book Launch for which I have created an event on Facebook. This is scheduled for 7.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. Indian Standard Time on April 26. In the event, I have mentioned what this means for you in terms of your local time should you be living in San Francisco, Boston, London, Singapore or Sydney. I would be happy if you could join us, and feel free to share this with friends and family who might be interested. Continue reading “Virtual Book Launch of “Let The Dead Stay Dead” Today!”
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.
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!”
Here’s some exciting news. The 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award has just been announced. If you feel your manuscript is ready, have a shot. The rules are here.
The Grand Prize Winner gets a publishing contract with an advance of $50,000 with Amazon Publishing. You could also get contracts with advances of $15,000 if you are one of the five finalists. Winning this contest, I need hardly say, can change your fortunes as a writer.
Gosh, I wish I had seen some of these earlier! I didn’t, but perhaps by sharing these someone else somewhere may gain from them. Here are a few links which I think are extremely useful to those of you who seek to get your book published through the traditional route. They are from experts who know what it takes to succeed in getting published. Continue reading “Getting Published: Useful Links for Would Be Authors”
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 