The Idea-smithy

NovelRace Week 4: If You Fall, Get Up & Run Again!

IdeaSmith — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:43:14 +0000

Table of contents for NovelRace

NovelRace Week 2: Adventures Galore!
NovelRace Week 4: If You Fall, Get Up & Run Again!
NovelRace

Here’s my NovelRace update, not one but two weeks later. After a ‘I do me proud’ start in the first fortnight, I slacked off for a week in between, making full use of my 30th birthday as an excuse. Pune and its wonderful people gave me a delightful celebration spread over 4 days (a birth-weekend rather than birthday) so I’m full of fervent enthusiasm now, all set to prove myself again.

What have I learnt? Other than the fact that creative endeavors don’t follow regular schedules but do need discipline to keep running, that is. I bemoaned the fact that I didn’t like my protagonist and realised that it was very important to understand and empathise with your characters to be able to tell their stories well. I did something else, almost a reverse process this time.

Instead of creating a character and endowing him with attributes that I would like, I formed images of people whose stories I wanted to tell. That is to say, instead of creating a character, I just picked out people and decided to build stories around them. As you might expect this means that the characters are drawn from real life, people I’ve known or in some cases, my own self. I don’t want this to be either biographical or autobiographical so what I did do is use my real-life inspiration only as a reference (”What would he do in such a situation? What would she think?”).

It is actually not as difficult as I thought it would be. For one, I’m superimposing the personality traits of one, on the lifestyle of another, overlaying it with imagery of my own thoughts and spinning the character’s life into a direction that suits the story. I’m fairly sure that there’ll be very little resemblance left to the original inspiration at the end of it. In fact, I’m not even really telling the story of the person who I started with. They only inspire the character, not their stories. Does that make any sense? I would hope so, it makes perfect sense to me and the art of telling stories is being able to make sense to other people too.

While on characterization, I was also recently (2 hours back to be precise) struck with the thought that there might be a certain typical range of characters that make a good story. All the good stories I’ve read have about 5-7 key characters and everyone else is just scenery. The exceptions to these are the Mahabharata and The Lord of The Rings (off the top of my head, I’m sure there are plenty more). All of these are magnum opera (which wikipedia tells me is the plural of magnum opus) – huge, sprawling canvasses with big, grandiose stories. I seem to have a huge character set already but I don’t know whether I want to tell such big stories. My worth is in my details, small everyday observations of life. Still, things are changing at such rapidfire rate, I really don’t know how tomorrow is going to look.

The loss of a week meant I dropped out of the running, a fact that made me panic earlier this week. The numbers continue to do a number on me. But my competitive streak may turn out to be an asset, yet.

At the end of this week, in a late burst of effort, I’ve managed to pull up the wordcount to 10,896 which puts me back in the top 20 (just about). I see the gap between the forerunners and the others widening and I really, really do want to be in the first group. Well, I was one of the surviving bloggers from the bunch that started 5 years ago (yes, that’s how old this blog is!) so it’s a matter of pulling off the ‘not fall by wayside’ trick again.

If you can’t already tell, I’m playing coach to myself by now, giving myself several pep talks. It’s a horribly lonely thing, a writer’s life (and hell, I’m just starting!). For one, the story is forming in your head, right before your open eyes and no one else can see or hear it yet. You can’t quite explain or put it in words, the characters and names and plots and situations and conversations and actions are firing through your head too fast and the best you can hope is to be able to pin at least a few of them down in words.

The other thing is something I remember reading about in Richard Bach’s ONE. Ideas come to you when you’re in the shower or brushing your teeth or right in the middle of your slumber (which is about 3am for most people and 7am for me) or taking a walk or crossing the road. In short, at the most inconvenient, embarassing, socially inconsiderate time possible. I wonder if any of my friends have noticed me fade in and out of conversations this week. Well, since a number of them happened on the phone, they probably didn’t notice, having gotten used to a quarter-attention-quote from me while at work. Ideas are not very nice creatures, they’re horribly pampered brats. It’s getting so I’m rethinking even my fondness for babies and kids.

And at the end of it all is the gnawing, throat-strangling self-doubt. Writing a blogpost is one thing, even a business report, a short story or an article…but a real, honest-to-goodness, full novel?? I really don’t know if I have it in me. I have ideas but I really don’t know if I have a novel in me. Why should that matter, ask the most supportive of my umm…supporters (gah, and I’m supposed to be a writer). It matters because whatever I choose to create will be made word by word, character by character, every silver tinge on every cloud in every goddamn horizon on every page will be created by me. And if that doesn’t mean something to other people, it will be a colossal, utter, heart-breaking waste. Like giving birth to a stillborn.

Okay, I’ll stop panicking. DEEEEEEEEEEP BREATHHHHHHHHHH. Wish me luck, if you love me. I really need it!! Until next week, I’m still going to be running.

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The 30 diaries

IdeaSmith — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:04:39 +0000

Table of contents for The 30 diaries

I started the 30 diaries three months back because I couldn’t wait for the answers that I hoped would come to me with the big Three-O. I turned thirty yesterday and guess what? There are answers. Just waiting for the right questions to be answered. Just like 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. It’s difficult to explain without sounding weird and really, why bother?

I feel good. I don’t think 29 was ever an age I was at. It was just a period of waiting to be 30 and now that 30 is here, it feels like I’ve been here for a long time now.

I’ve had friends saying things like ‘Life begins at thirty’ and ‘30 is the new 20′. Well, I wouldn’t know and for a fact, many of them aren’t 30 so how would they know? Funny, no?

All I can see that it is considered a big birthday, the way ten, thirteen, sixteen, eighteen and twenty-one are. Thirty in comparison, doesn’t bring you any additional powers or rights that the aforementioned numbers do. Or perhaps it does but it isn’t determined by your parents or your hormones or the law.

Thirty is when you have been you for long enough (and perhaps a few other people too) and you can decide to go on being who you are or change if you like.

Thirty is when you realize that it isn’t about generation gaps or world crises or deprived childhoods or unhealthy lifestyles or abusive relationships or failed career decisions. Shit happens and that’s all it is about.

Thirty is when you’re a little older than the average age at a disco or a birthing class. You’re also a little younger than the typical age for mid-life crisis, death or depression. But you’re also lucky to still have your figure and just as fortunate to have had as many experiences as you have. Thirty is when the arithmetic goes out of the window and you realize that there are no patterns except the one your own life follows.

Thirty is resigning from being a time-accountant and collecting your feeling-pensions to get you started on whatever the rest of your life is going be about.

I was asked after one of the earlier posts whether I was happy with the way life has turned out. I am okay with my body, my family, my talents, my deficiencies and my career. I have a few issues but none that overwhelm me. I am really okay with everyone who has been a part of my life, the good and the bad. And thirty, that’s okay too. In fact, the next ten years look like a lot of fun, compared to the twenties. That’s peace of mind and hope both in one. If that isn’t the definition of happiness, I don’t know what is.

Thirty is just an number but a lovely one it is.

The song that’s playing on my list and in my head right now is Yehi Meri Zindagi Hai. Happy birthday to me.

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10 Comments

At July 15, 2009, roy wrote:
happy birthday!
.-= roy´s last blog ..Age =-.
At July 15, 2009, Chronicus Skepticus wrote:
Happy birthday gorgeous!

May you be showered with alcohol and chocolate cake.

*sprinkle, sprinkle; crumble, crumble*
At July 16, 2009, Kalpana wrote:
Aah...welcome aboard to ze thurtee..It gets better, if i may say so! Many happy returns of the realisations and the peace within..
.-= Kalpana´s last blog ..Validation =-.
At July 16, 2009, Ranjan wrote:
Thanks for pointing out that 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. I turn 42 this year!

Happy B'day, once again.
.-= Ranjan´s last blog ..Have you got your Financial Health Check done? =-.
At July 16, 2009, Rashmi wrote:
Happy Birthday :),your thirties diaries give me hope,when i begin to question all my choices and worry abt my life :)
At July 16, 2009, Ms Taggart wrote:
Belated Happy Birthday to you!
Beautiful song it is, one of my fave ones, and I agree with you said about 30 as a number.
And yes.. I feel anything after 28 is just a temporary age.. you waiting to turn 30.
Strangely, I feel excited to be turning 29 so that I can be 30 soon.. and yes.. I am cribbing to turn 30 too..
.-= Ms Taggart´s last blog ..Aging – Part 2! =-.
At July 16, 2009, Ms Taggart wrote:
And oh yes.. *high five to a fellow H2G2 fan*
.-= Ms Taggart´s last blog ..Aging – Part 2! =-.
At July 17, 2009, DC wrote:
Forever young ;-)
Love lots and love always.
Hope it was good.
At July 17, 2009, Dharini wrote:
Hey happy happy birthday! I ve been an avid reader, but couldnt stop myself from wishing you today! You fill me with hope! I wish and pray you have a great life ahead! :)
.-= Dharini´s last blog .. =-.
At July 17, 2009, Poonam wrote:
Belated Happy birthday, dear girl! :)

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Katy And I

IdeaSmith — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:30:50 +0000

My school had an interesting way of encouraging children to read. A book-fair was held every year in a couple of the classrooms. After school-hours, parents coming to pick up their kids could buy those books. It was a much anticipated event for me and I’d go and look over the books during my lunch break and go back tell my mother about what was on offer. A few days later, I might be surprised with one of the books I mentioned or perhaps she’d come and look at the books with me and then decide to buy something. Those are my earliest memories of browsing.

In the later years, as the school board got marketing-savvy, they’d also visit each classroom and display a few choice books and talk about them – a promotion of sorts.

By the time I got to secondary school, I had discovered the vast library my school owned and was a regular there, matronly (scary) librarian notwithstanding. But the Book Fair was still a special event.

At the end of the year, would be the annual day when various dances, songs and recitals were put up for the benefit of the parents. And at the end was the long-drawn out prize distribution where children were rewarded for good academic performance, winning scholarships but also sports victories as well as cultural activities. I had the pleasure of walking up the dais a few times in my twelve-year long school career, for a few scattered academic wins and once for a music prize.

The annual day of my third standard yielded the first prize in the singing competition for my rendition of ‘My Favorite Things’. It was my first time on that dais. As I nervously shook hands with the school Father, he smiled and handed me the certificate. Attached under it, was a gift-voucher redeemable at the next Book Fair. I would learn the next year, when I walked that dais again to get an academic certificate, that all the prizes included a Book Fair voucher.

When the Fair came along, mum and I walked down the stacks of books on desks and as we came up to the teacher’s desk, I put down a heavy bound book and my mother handed over the voucher. I couldn’t believe my luck. I was the proud owner of the kind of book I had only seen in pictures. It had a solid navy-blue leather bound cover on which was embossed in gold letters,

Hamlyn Classics

What Katy Did
and
What Katy Did at School

Susan Coolidge

The text was bordered by gold lines and edged with pictures of trees. I thought it was beautiful. The spine had the title and author’s name in smaller typeface, crowned with the same tree motif. I fell in love with the book instantly.

It actually was over a year before I got down to actually reading it. I was too scared to breathe on it till then but the fine-stroked pictures in it won me over and I dived right into the story. The adventures of a motherless, lively 12-year-old girl, eldest of six siblings kept me amused for many long hours.

Katy was only one of the many books that I had the privelege of growing up with, as my parents kept me well-supplied with good books. Owing to Mumbai’s space constraints however, my father was also equally strict that some books should be disposed off every year to make place for the new ones. I dreaded the annual book-clearing as much as I looked forward to the Book Fair.

The books that I had outgrown were removed and given to the raddiwalla. I was required to do the sorting myself, after which one of my parents would inspect my shelf and tell me that I needed to get rid of more, else I’d never have place to stock anymore. There were many accusations and tearful confrontations and books were handed over with a heavy-heart.

Katy resisted the clearing attempts of a number of years, my parents also yielding probably due to its beautiful binding (they are book-lovers too, after all). When it finally made it to the pile, I sneaked out of bed in the night and retrieved it – two years in a row.

Finally, the summer that I was twelve, the same age that Katy was at the start of the book, I finally sighed and gave up the fight. Katy went out of the door that day with a pile of books that were deemed too young for a soon-teenager. I didn’t sleep too well that night and was restless all of the next day.

Two days later, I couldn’t stand it anymore and went down to the raddiwalla’s shop in a frantic bid to buy back Katy. To my utter dismay, it had been sold already while the rest of my collection still lay in the same neat stack in one corner of the shop. If I had a best friend or a blog in those days, I would have ranted and raved all day.

I think Katy was special to me for a lot of reasons. There was of course, the fact that in a way, it was the first book that I really earned for myself. Then there was its beautiful hardbound leather cover, its striking pictures and each chapter beginning with old English lettering. And finally there was Katy herself. The book was about a girl, with a very different world around her, than mine. But inside, she felt so much like me, with her grand intentions that often came to nothing, her bright ideas distracted by momentary mischief and silliness and the mistakes she made. Yes, Katy was special.

I would come to realize just how special only in the years to come as I faced some of my own personal challenges, had my own little victories. I did read the sequel called ‘What Katy did next’ borrowed from the school library. But it was a paperback with a coloured cover and didn’t impact me all that much.

There must have been some kind of divine connection or perhaps my longing for my beloved book was so strong that – would you believe it – I got it back!! After I finished school, I took to haunting the raddiwala’s shop often. I had always known that his shop was a treasure-trove of books but till then I had been dependent on my mother to pick out good books and pay for them. As my pocket-money and my geographical boundaries increased, so did my browsing.

And one wonderful, brilliant, lovely day, I found my beloved Katy sitting atop a pile of magazines. It was inconceivable that the book should come back and be spotted by me but it did happen. I opened the leather cover lovingly, after all those years and sure enough, on the page leaf was my name and the date of purchase, albeit crossed out by a strange hand. On the facing page was the rubber stamp of a bookshop in another part of the city. My Katy had gone on an adventure and come home to me.

I just finished reading it again last week and as always, it kept me engrossed. This precious navy blue leather-bound volume will stay one of my treasured possessions and will be passed on to my children or bequeathed in my will to someone I love.

9 Comments

At July 6, 2009, Allytude wrote:
I grew up reading Katy too! I don't think i quite enjoyed What Katy Did Next. I was pleasantly surprised to find most of Katy online!
.-= Allytude´s last blog ..Feynman on the rational view of the universe =-.
At July 6, 2009, Reshma wrote:
Such a beautiful post!! Thanks for a good Monday morning read.
At July 6, 2009, Kalpana wrote:
Aaah aah and aah...i still have my green bound, wood smelling, yellow paged Katy. ..You know, Idea, I never managed to find anyone who had heard/read the Katy series.. !I usually had to lend it to others to read, wait bright eyed and eager to see the reaction...and feel deflated..This post makes up for all those moments...so thank you!
.-= Kalpana´s last blog ..Endless possibility =-.
At July 6, 2009, rakhi wrote:
The Katy books were my absolute favourite while growing up. :) So glad to know that you found not only the same book but your very own copy, once lost to the raddiwala.
At July 7, 2009, A Cynic in Wonderland wrote:
i had the exact same book. loved it.I still have it. My friend and I used to play a variant of that game in what katy did at school for years. I have the chits of that too.
.-= A Cynic in Wonderland´s last blog ..Designing the Designation =-.
At July 7, 2009, ramyan wrote:
i read smwhere that the blogger Ideasmithy or Ramya is a mental retard. besides she hogs every party with her crap stuff.

iz itt true ?
At July 8, 2009, Ms Taggart wrote:
Near perfect that you got it back, and almost unbelievable too! :)

And yes.. book fair at school used to be my fave time of time of the year too...
.-= Ms Taggart´s last blog ..Art of Living!!! =-.
At July 14, 2009, DC wrote:
T'was one of my favourites :) Lovely post.
At July 16, 2009, IdeaSmith wrote:
@Allytude: I think her childhood was better than her adulthood.

@Reshma: Thengyu!

@Kalpana: *Shake hands* I'd never met anyone who had read this either! I'm really, pleasantly surprised by the responses to this post!

@rakhi: Yes, that made it even more special. :-)

@Cynic: Ah, the Question-and-Word game? I coerced my friends to try it out once too but they backed out after that saying poetry was too difficult. No literary (or even aspiring to be) friends for me, unfortunately.

@Ms Taggart: Did we go to the same school? I mean, I didn't know any other schools that had book fairs then. :-p

@DC: My soul-kid-sister!!

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NovelRace Week 2: Adventures Galore!

IdeaSmith — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:02:50 +0000

Table of contents for NovelRace

NovelRace Week 2: Adventures Galore!
NovelRace Week 4: If You Fall, Get Up & Run Again!
NovelRace

NovelRace, I’m very happy to note, is up and running well. It has been exactly a fortnight since I signed up and it has actually been an adventure so far.

The first major event was when I realised that I didn’t like my main character. No, not just as main character, I just didn’t like the guy himself. I can imagine what you’re thinking of – I did too. Characters are fictitious, how can you develop such strong emotions for them? But that really is the crux of the lesson. How can I tell a story unless the person it is happening to, is real to me? I must believe in him, I must understand him well enough to see the world through his eyes and sit inside his head and I most certainly must empathize with him. How else can I get my readers to empathize?

I got a handy tip from Vishal who suggested I ‘interview’ my main character to get a feel for him. You know, as crazy as that idea sounded when I heard it, it actually worked! I created a questionnaire that would let me build a character sketch of a person. Before I knew it, I found myself talking to my protagonist and genuinely interested in trying to know who he was, what he was about. The unexpected result was that I decided that he needed some changes in history (family background) and geography (where he grew up). It made me feel so much better to realise that my biggest grouse had been that my protagonist had not sounded believable and now I was in a position to give him credibility. Discovering the problem isn’t half the battle won in this case, it is the entire battle since you can rewrite the character’s life with your imagination.

Right after the above realisation the following comic-relief conversation happened:

@ideasmithy: Being a writer is next best thing to being God!

@samitbasu:HAHA just wait till you encounter publishers!

This discovery also made me think that I was going about it in the wrong way. I had rushed slam-dunk into chapters and run out of steam when I realised I barely had a clue what I was talking about. I mean, odd isn’t it? I was trying to live someone’s life, someone I barely knew at all. So step number two was getting to know the cast and the landscape (setting where my story is based).

Again, I had a handy intervention in this which came from a conversation with my father, when he explained how animation movie scripts created a bible before starting, which detailed each character’s personality and role. I spent a good bit of time creating a bible and this by the way, is still a work in progress as I add characters and build linkages between them.

A valuable insight has been that a novel does not have to get written sequentially. That is to say, you don’t actually have to create the story from start to end. You can put the blocks together in clusters and then link them all up together later. I should have seen that coming earlier. It is after all the same principle that helps me solve jigsaw puzzles well. Bring together those pieces that seem to fit well with each other, don’t worry about where they fit in the grand scheme of things – that will become apparent with time. I call this valuable because last week I thought I was hitting writer’s block already when all I had hit was just a temporary dead-end. I’ve left that section as it is and picked up another thread. I’ll figure out how to tie it all in later or maybe it will weave itself together by itself, just the way a jigsaw does when the last piece ‘falls into place’.

My last and most delightful lesson has been that writing is indeed, not an 8hours by 5 days job. I’ve been feeling a tad guilty about not putting in a consistent effort each day and producing x number of words. But at 14493 (not including the bible), this weekend’s wordcount tally shows that I’m number 7 on the list of top NovelRacers. I don’t know if that is necessarily a good reference but it at least tells me that I’m not falling behind – or *gasp* – out of the race.

So I end a fortnight of writing and lessons on a happy wordcount-ey note. I am going to get into another burst of writing so this may increase. Then again I might find that instead of writing, the best thing to do is to weave the pieces together and end up editing out words so the count could actually go down as well.

I have to add that writing a novel in this way – publicly with a group of other writers, all of us sharing ideas and egging each other on is tremendously satisfying and what’s more – encouraging. I dreamed that writing would be fun but I never, in my wildest imagination, thought it would be such an adventure!

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The Bandra-Worli Sealink Opening

IdeaSmith — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:00:43 +0000

The much awaited Bandra-Worli sealink opened yesterday. In the unlikely case that you don’t know what I’m talking about (in which case, what are you doing reading this post?), this is a bridge built across one of the bays between the islands that comprise Mumbai. It connects Bandra reclamation to Worli seaface and has been predicted as the solution to easing up the daily traffic snarls from the western suburbs to town.

The sealink has been a long time in the making, having faced some setbacks and delays as well. It has been a part of the grand plan for Mumbai for so long that it has almost made a mark in local lingo by now (Yeah, I’ll get a promotion by the time that damn sealink gets made, maybe then I’ll be able to afford a car too!).

Most Mumbaikers have seen its grow, inch by agonizing inch on the horizon, from each direction. Just last year, I looked out at the impressive seaview from the window of a friend whose Mahim flat faces the then under-construction sealink and said,

Whatever is taking them that long??!! There’s just another inch to go!

After much fanfare, the sealink was inaugurated by Sonia Gandhi last morning and thrown open to the general public at 7 a.m. There will be a Rs.50 toll to traverse the sealink but that becomes functional only as of next Monday. So for the next few days, you can expect most Mumbaikers to derive full paisa vasool rides, riding Mumbai’s first ever sealink.

Quite fortunately (for me) I had an appointment in town that same morning. Fortunate I say because I (like many suburbanites) detest the painful commute into town, even less by road. What a stroke of luck to have a reason to go into town on the very day the sealink was inaugurated!

So I nagged dad into turning off into Bandra reclamation, shushing his incessant doomsday prophesies that the sealink would only add to commute time and what was so great about that damn bridge anyway, it’s taken long enough to come up and blocked Mumbai’s strained resources as it is.

In a few minutes, I was ready to jump out of the car and dive for cover as we ran smack-dab into the middle of the kind of traffic that makes road-rage seem like a pardonable offense, not punishable by law. I think every Western suburbanite must have been on that road to Worli today, whether or not they wanted to go to town!!!

I actually saw a few cars take U-turns and head back out, presumably to get to their destinations, the old-fashioned Mumbai way.

But as we inched forward and the high beams of the sealink came into view, my spirits surged and even my father ceased his complaining and grudgingly took out his own phone to take a picture.

We passed an impressive-looking toll-naka. Oh okay, I know there’s nothing impressive about a toll-naka, I’ve seen the one at Mankhurd and what about that huge one leading out to Mumbai-Pune expressway that I passed, not three days ago?

It still was a momentous occasion, for we were on the brink of breaking new ground. As we passed, I’m rather afraid to say that the insofar well-laned traffic just sort of melded into itself and became one sea of cars going helter-skelter. The road curves a bit before it touches the sealink and the lanes just sort of get lost in each other. The authorities are just going to have to do something about that if they don’t want to face choke-ups every morning just before the Bandra end of the sealink.

Very near the sea, I saw a flock of crows flying around frantically and wondered aloud,

Why are there so many birds around? What are they so agitated about?

Dad said that perhaps there was an colony of nests in that place which had so far been pretty secluded and undisturbed. Displacement was a sobering thought to start the trip on, but well needs must.

Once we actually got closer and closer to the sealink, I could feel the anticipation electric in the air. Cars slowing down, audible gasps, people zooming their camera lenses and phones, excitement was rife.

I can’t even begin to describe what the journey was like. I am sure, in a short few days I’ll become as accustomed to it as the regular train and road commute. But today, this first trip was special. It was the realization of the great Mumbai dream. We were riding over water. All my hitherto unvoiced fears that the bridge would give way were blown away in the cool breeze. The bridge is rock-solid (not at all like Lakshman Jhula, ma, you can stop worrying, it won’t sway in the wind) and it would otherwise feel just like riding on a concrete road, except there’s the sea on both sides.

What an odd feeling to turn to one’s left and see Mumbai, the city, the familiar buildings and roads on the horizon but on the wrong side and from so far away!

I saw a media van pass in the opposite direction on the clear Worli-to-Bandra lane, with a journalist standing out of one of the windows holding a mike, and a cameraman standing out of the opposite side shooting her. It was a funny sight and I’m only sorry I didn’t have a chance to shoot it.

The image below shows the proud and cheering workers who were lined up to watch the first few travellers on the sealink. What a moment of glory it would have been for them!

The couple in the Qualis next to mine were carrying balloons and traversed the entire length of the sealink with their balloons held aloft and flying out of the windows. Viva, the spirit of Mumbai!

We touched terra firma again at the Worli seaface end. I’m rather afraid this means the end of those long, wonderful soujourns ending in masala milk and sandwich. With the incoming and outbound traffic to the sealink, the seaface is bound to become thoroughfare and lose the charm it has.

We’re losing a few lovely spots and the traffic problem may not really be solved. But the experience of riding over the sea is something every Mumbaiker should have. This link has been far too long in coming. In the larger picture, perhaps easier access will level out some of the differences of Mumbai’s very own caste system?

I can’t tell just yet. My head is still spinning with the adrenalin rush of yesterday morning. I really feel like I’ve been part of a grand day in Mumbai’s history, almost like the fall of the Berlin wall. It is a big thing for this city and as a Mumbaiker, I feel really proud.

6 Comments

At July 2, 2009, Gradwolf wrote:
I am sure Bombay now feels even more like New York than ever before. There is a panoramic pic of the link on its wiki page. It gives a new dimension to the pics of Bombay that anyone would have seen so far.
.-= Gradwolf´s last blog ..Switching Coordinates =-.
At July 2, 2009, ajit gopalakrishnan wrote:
All this talk and the pictures make me so proud - and jealous at the same time. I wish this was inaugurated in Dec. 2008 as per schedule - wud hv got to ride it then! Oh well...thanks for the update though.
At July 3, 2009, Chanda @ BizDharma wrote:
Gr8 pics. On the spot and lively :)

I do Hope this over budget and out of schedule bridge serves the purpose for an ordinary Mumbaikar.
.-= Chanda @ BizDharma´s last blog ..Nandan Nilekani can sneeze but Steve Jobs cannot ! =-.
At July 4, 2009, Moonie wrote:
Pretty nice review! I like the pics too. Somehow the cynical tinge was uncalled for! Also amusing that your Dad thought there could be colony of nest in middle of sea !! Sea gulls do make lot of noise and I guess they'd be happy to find a structure to chill on before their usual landing on the beach/bay
At July 4, 2009, Aniket Thakkar wrote:
Okay, I didn't knew what you were talking about before I read this [Hangs head in shame] Well sue me for not watching the news.

But this sure looks pretty awesome. Would love to see it on the next trip to mumbai. :D

Thanks for sharing the moment and the pics. :P
.-= Aniket Thakkar´s last blog ..Small Talk =-.
At July 5, 2009, IdeaSmith wrote:
@Gradwolf: I don't think so, unless New York has rattling autorickshaws and pot-holed roads. This sealink has been far too long in coming, as it is. Let's hope now that it is up and running, the authorities can concentrate on ramping up the rest of the city's infrastructure.
@ajit gopalakrishnan, Chanda: :-) Thengyu.
@Moonie: The nest wasn't in the middle of the sea. It was under the railings at the very edge of the road, before the sealink begun. Understandably that area would have been undisturbed for a long time. Also, it was a flock of crows, not seagulls.
@Aniket: Aajaaiye janab, we would be happy to take you on a tour!

Respond

Agni

IdeaSmith — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:10:41 +0000

I woke up half an hour ago with not a coherent thought except to enjoy a stress-free Monday at home after heavenaloneknows how long. Fifteen minutes back I walked into the kitchen to make my breakfast. I put the saucepan to boil and busied myself taking out tea leaves, honey and biscuits. My grandmother had come into the kitchen to talk to me so I turned when on the wall behind her I suddenly saw a blazing light where the dull grey shadows of the window behind me should have been. I turned back to find the gas range had caught fire. Not just the gas-ring under the saucepan but the knob below it too.

I always thought I was calm in a crisis but the only thought I had was,

This can’t be happening. That knob isn’t made of flammable material, how can it be burning? This cannot be happening.

My grandmother with more presence of mind, but less mobility had already recovered and was directing,

Switch it off!

But how? I wondered. I couldn’t reach into the flames to turn the burner off. I had a vague memory of a fire extinguisher in our house but no clue where it was kept. And then random impressions of the fire-safety brochures that used to lie around the house. When I died, would anyone remember that I was the grand-daughter of the Chief of Fire Safety, New Delhi? Would anyone even know that when he was specially requested to extend his tenure for six months to organise a conference of fire protection teams around the world, he designed an invitation inscribed with the following words from the Vedas,

O Agni,
Be thee kind to us,
Be our friend and our guide
And keep us safe

This was topped by the picture of a baby with a wide, sunny smile. That child of course, was his much beloved grandchild – me.

Such were the thoughts that ran through my head as I stood and watched the kitchen cooking range catch fire. People who describe others as ‘frozen in shock’ don’t know what they’re talking about. I was perfectly mobile, my mind was racing with irrelevant thoughts.

I briefly considered grabbing the stick that we used to hang up clothes, to prod the knob shut but realized just in time that it was wood. I did manage to turn the fan on at full speed and holler my grandmother into going back to the hall. The kitchen tongs, made of metal would have been useful but they were hanging just next to the cooking range.

Finally I just ran next door to find my neighbor’s father. Neither he nor his wife were home, the only two ‘adults’ on the floor but his daughter followed me back into the house, asking what the matter was. I had come running back to stand and stare at the fire. Suddenly a man was standing next to me, asking,

Kya hua?

All I could say was

Aag laga hai. Kitchen mein aag laga hai.

(Fire. There’s a fire in the kitchen.)

He strode in and turned the gas cylinder shut. Then, as the knob was still burning, he just blew it out. Then he turned at me, smiled and said,

Leakage tha. Valve kharab hua tha. Saare building mein fael jaata tha.

(It was a leakage. The valve is faulty. It would have spread to the entire building)

It turns out that he was the gas service man, visiting next door and was walking out at that exact moment that I knocked on my neighbor’s door.

That in sum, is the story of this morning. My mother wasn’t home and neither was dad.

I don’t know what I should think or feel. I opened up the kitchen windows and asked my grandmother to stay in the hall, watching TV as she had been. And I lay down on my bed in my own room. It is too big a coincidence for me to digest, that a gas serviceman was next door at just the exact time there was a fire in my own house. What does it all mean? Was it divine intervention? And if it was, why was there a fire in the first place for me to be saved from?

If it is one of those ‘feel grateful for what you have’ kind of lessons I’m meant to have from life, it isn’t working. I am not feeling grateful or happy or anything at all. All I feel is a cold, hard knot of something that feels like anger. I don’t know what I have to be angry about or who.

I guess I’m writing this down so that I can take it out and examine it later. Nothing makes sense.

10 Comments

At June 29, 2009, Rada wrote:
Oh! Scary!

Must have shaken you up for sure!
.-= Rada´s last blog ..A Barman in Galle =-.
At June 29, 2009, a traveller... wrote:
Three years ago, my 16-year old brother stayed home school due to fever and a bad cold - missing an exam for the first time in his life. That afternoon, with just mum and him at home, the electric chimney in the kitchen caught fire. Luckily, he managed to keep his head and went into the smoke-filled kitchen to switch off first the cylinder, then the electric meter of the house.
If he hadn't stayed home, if he hadn't kept his head, I don't know what would have happened that day. So no, I don't know if it's "divine intervention" but luck was definitely in our favour that day.

I'm so glad you're ok.
At June 29, 2009, iyer studies wrote:
good to know you're safe without any casualties to you or the house...
.-= iyer studies´s last blog ..IPL 3.0 =-.
At June 29, 2009, Prasoon wrote:
That coincidence does make me smile. Someone is there watching it makes me feel. Good to know that all's well.
At June 29, 2009, Arpz wrote:
okay, Im delurking now ...

know what? :-) just let the incident be. By delving really deep ... you might be making connections that dont even exist. So relax, you have been through an experience that has jolted you, so just relax :)

And oh, one more thing, maybe this happened just so that you know that you need to be more "in the moment" :)
.-= Arpz´s last blog ..why get married and etcetra =-.
At June 29, 2009, Arpz wrote:
oh! reading my comment again, makes it look like I sound really condescending, but really, Im not! no offence meant! I just wrote it, like I would talk to a really good friend of mine if she had narrated this to me, but I guess on a public forum to an anon person, it doesnt come out friendly ... but really, no offence meant :)
.-= Arpz´s last blog ..why get married and etcetra =-.
At June 29, 2009, PS wrote:
thank god you are ok..

Everytime an incident like this happens, we will, as humans, always delve into how some coincidence played out in our favor, and if it hadn't how much worse things could have been. When my house was robbed, we thanked our starts that I hadn't been alone at home, or my Mom, else the guy would have raped and killed, as his intention was.. My point here is, such incidents merely show us how things could be worse, and they weren't that bad, because we were lucky the stars were aligned in our favor!

Dont be angry, at yourself, the gas authorities, or old/faulty instruments in the house.. Just be happy that you learned something out of this.. which I am sure you did!! *hug*
.-= PS´s last blog ..How awesome are we? =-.
At June 29, 2009, rakhi wrote:
So glad to know that everybody and everything is alright. Hope the shock eases up soon.
At June 30, 2009, Aniket Thakkar wrote:
You can keep thinking over it trying to find a larger meaning. Me, I just believe shit happens.

Am glad you are safe and soun... erm... okay am glad you are just safe. :D :D

Take care.
.-= Aniket Thakkar´s last blog ..FOUR POINT GreatOne =-.
At June 30, 2009, Kalpana wrote:
Hugs. Hugs. Hugs. It will unravel in its own time. Another hug.
.-= Kalpana´s last blog ..Stigma? Revelation? =-.

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Pune Weekend: BlogCamp2, Beer Tweetup, Geeks & Elephants

IdeaSmith — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:26:31 +0000

I’m just back from Pune Blogcamp2. My weekend began at 4:30am, being woken up by Astra who got the timings wrong by an hour. I grunted and went back to sleep only to get up and rush out half an hour later. Emboldened by the hour, I walked up to a bunch of guys standing on the kerb and asked, ‘Blogcamp?’ They looked at me blankly (no, that’s not true…they looked hungry and interested…tch, boys). Then one asked, ‘Where are you going?’. I said, ‘Pune’. To which he burst into a wide grin and said, ‘We’re not going to Pune but can if you want.’ Idiot.

Anyway, we found @sensonize and @farrhad standing across the road and not at all angry with us for our 45-minute delay. How sweet, they’re learning early. After a pretty comfortable ride down the expressway, away from Mumbai’s dirty grey weather, we were in Pune. Even the air tasted delicious!

I thought the Punekers were a much better behaved lot than the Mumbai junta at BlogCamps. I mean, no one shouted, no one got into any arguments, no one sniggered vilely and even the tweet-bitching was absent. Okay, I tried to add to the last but I since my recently buffed-up pal isn’t on Twitter, it lost its tang. Incidentally, the twitter hashtag to check is #blogcamppune which methinx was a tad too long (bcp would do just as well for next time) but thanks, Tarun for unorganizing it and inviting me too!

Meetu got BlogCamp to a promising start with a talk on niche blogging. In my opinion (and hers too!), WOGMA’s success really comes from the fact that Meetu is truly passionate about what she does, not because it is marketed well. Not all of us can find a niche but if one of you does, Meetu is your poster-child.

This was followed by a number of discussion on the big, heavies of the ‘how to make money online’ variety. Sue me but I think these belong to Barcamp or perhaps, Startup Saturday (if they’re innovative), not BlogCamp. But then again, I’m just the voice of a poor, penniless personal blogger.

I really liked Aditya Marathe’s session comparing Blogspot to Wordpress. He also had some cool (non-geeky) analysis on hit spikes and visitor profiles. This was through lunch and a number of people may have missed it but it was worth a dekko.

The Kabras were obviously in charge of revving up things since Navin kicked off the second half of BlogCamp with an intriguingly titled ‘300 years of blogging’. Among some of the interesting things he mentioned, he suggested tracking Google Alerts on keywords relevant to one’s blog to keep up-to-date on the topic and also for story ideas. That’s exactly the kind of idea that you look forward to hearing when you meet other bloggers. It’s simple, easy and workable.

This was followed by Sandeep Gautam who runs a science blog. Tech-blogs I’ve seen galore but this is the first time I’m hearing of a science blog. What’s really interesting is that while this is a niche area, it provides relevant, incisive analysis to its interested audience. One big difference between such a blog and the regular personal blogs is that the former is factual, written in a reporting style, akin to a journal which provides an objective look at current trends while the latter are purely subjective, based on perception and (in some cases), not supported by facts. I daresay the session came across as rather heavy but in retrospect, it was good to have been able to sit through it because of the quality of his content.

By this time, the post-lunch somna was setting in and the Mumbaiker restlessness asserting itself. With some egging on, Thakker was persuaded to take the stage. Since the rooms were both busy, he took his session out onto the staircase and would you believe – some 80% of the audience followed him! For an hour, our man held forth on the woes of a geek’s life, his (mis)adventures with dating and matrimonial matches and photography.

We ended BlogCampPune2 at the cafe next door with chai and bun-maska. The evening was fruitfully spent savouring Meetu’s bhajia spread at the Kabras’ residence (which requires a map – not to get there but to get around within). At 8pm we got going…no, not to turn in but to the beer tweet-up. The beer brewery is part of The Corinthians, a club/lounge bar/hotel on the outskirts of Pune. The sweet, really sweet part of the occasion was the free, freshly brewed beer on tap.

I tried and liked a wheat-flavoured beer, which tasted more like a nice fruit juice than alcohol. As the beer went down, the jokes began to come up. Not the intelligent ones that (usually) intelligent, evolved people make but the ones that can only be categorized as PJs. Here’s a sample:

How do you kill a black elephant? With a black gun.
How do you kill a white elephant? – Throw mud on it, it turns black, now use a black gun
How do you kill a red elephant? – Scare it till it turns white, throw mud till it turns black, use black gun
How do you kill a blue elephant? – Make it blush red, scare it white, throw mud till black, use black gun
How do you kill a purple elephant? – Choke it till it turns blue, make it blush red, scare it white, throw mud till black, use black gun
How do you kill a yellow elephant?- Pagal hai kya, yellow elephant kabhi dekha hai?!

Amidst elephant-homicide discussions, one of the guys started telling me a story about Eval Conneval (I hope I got that spelling right). When I inquired who he was talking about, he yelped,

Don’t you know the greatest motorcycle stuntman of all time??!!

When I protested, I was accused on being a bonafide girl-geek. I am most certainly not. I mean I get some of the geek jokes but I am not, not, not a girl-geek!!! For the uninitiated, girl-geeks are even lower on the social scale of geeks, than the geeks themselves (a rating of about minus forty-five). Hmph, just you wait, Mr.X (protected to ensure privacy from boy-geek-big-brother), I’ll see you at XXFactor!

This morning I woke up to a full-of-naughty-beans Rabad saying it was time to wake up and how long was aunty intending to sleep? Pune Mirror had a story titled ‘Fourplay at BlogCamp‘ illustrated by a photograph of the event, my bright red tee-shirt clearly visible in the very center of the pic. Bleh, even a girl-geek is just accessorial (men, I tell ya!!!). But the lovely Pune weather must have made me a Punekar too since I didn’t feel like grrrrring about it. (This post was written after I got back to Mumbai, good ol’ irritable Mumbai!).

As the toll-naka approached, I felt the surreal magic of Pune slip away from me as easily as the clouds surrounding us at the ghats vaporized. It’s a sticky, warm night and the rain is pelting down incessantly outside my window. I’ve been woken at an ungodly hour, endured cheesy pick-up lines at 6am, been called a girl-geek and been inducted into an elephant-homicide cult. But Pune is a mere 3 hours away and Meetu and Navin are each a phone number and tweet away. It was a glorious weekend, guys, thank you so much!!
After much dawdling over chai, ek aur chai and breakfast-nahin-pahije-na? Sunday morning, we went out to ‘yewdhe lambh!’ Flag’s for lunch. Full awesomeness happening, I thought to myself over a Turkish moussakka, Italian crosstinis, lasagne and pasta. Then we ambled over to the taxi stand and I rode back home.

* Photograph taken by Aalaap

10 Comments

At June 29, 2009, Sumit wrote:
Were you never a back bencher in school? You should know the vile sniggering and wise ass comments don't happen in the front row. Meetu and I were kind of getting in form with name calling and feigning sleep attacks but decided it would be rude to ignore you too long. After all you did endure pick up lines at 0600 hrs and other atrocities. Least we could do. :D

Incidentally after the public declaration of my blog being down, I made sure it was up and running post haste.
.-= Sumit´s last blog ..Life, The Universe and Everything =-.
At June 29, 2009, Blasphemic wrote:
Lady,

a small correction. Aditya Marathe didnt take a session on Blogger to wordpress, but on "Why isnt my blog popular".

get your facts correct babeh and then blabber along on the raita u guys spread along in every blog camp.

the blogcamp was destroyed by the presence of ppl like u, the wogma lady and the other mumbai shitters....

ahh lady you first tried to go up to those strangers to get a free ride and then when they rightly offered a life, you squealed.

Crap!!!
At June 29, 2009, Aditya wrote:
Thanks for liking my talk :) You also got the details of my talk correct.

I wish I could have waited to hear Thakkar.. I read about it later. Navin's was indeed an excellent talk!

Btw, who's Crap? :)
At June 29, 2009, A Cynic in Wonderland wrote:
ah full confusion missing happened. pity. pune is three hours away. pls to file that thankyou
.-= A Cynic in Wonderland´s last blog ..Vegetably Numb =-.
At June 29, 2009, Rada wrote:
Evel Knievel, the dare-devil motorcycle stunt man!

Now, I am tempted to call you a girl-geek! :-)
.-= Rada´s last blog ..A Barman in Galle =-.
At June 30, 2009, Aniket Thakkar wrote:
See at least Rada agrees with me about Evel Knievel. :D

And I you misspelled Thakkar. bad bad smithy, no donuts for you. :P

A very nice article though. Will linky you for sure. :)

Mr. X :D
.-= Aniket Thakkar´s last blog ..FOUR POINT GreatOne =-.
At July 2, 2009, IdeaSmith wrote:
@Sumit: Gaah. I got upto mischief sitting in the first row!

@Aditya: It was a good talk. :-) And as for your question, people usually sign off with their own names at the bottom, don't they? ;-)

@Cynic: Kya karen, madam is too busy to meet in Mumbai and in Pune too!

@Rada: I am not! I didn't even spell it right!

@Aniket: Bleh, bad child.
At July 5, 2009, #BlogCampPune 2 – Late Reaction :P | Annkur wrote:
[...] Ideasmith’s Roundup of Pune trip (She has my elephant joke there without credits ) [...]
At July 8, 2009, Anaggh A. Desai wrote:
Nice Reading! Wish had taken a look before....would have connected more dots yesterday:)
.-= Anaggh A. Desai´s last blog ..Bandra Worli Sea Link….Opening Mumbai Ishtyle =-.
At July 16, 2009, IdeaSmith wrote:
@Anaggh: Thenk yew! And we can continue to connect the many dots I'm sure there exist, offline. :-)

Respond

Animals Are People Too!: Review of Bolt

IdeaSmith — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:18:52 +0000

I’m not a dog-lover. In fact I am not even an animal-lover, though I could fairly tolerate a cat’s company. It’s not that I have anything against them, animals just never touched me. I’m a people-person, not an animal-person.

But what if animals were people too, just on fours and oh, with paws and fur instead of fingers and hair? Hmm. My animal-loving friends tell me that every pooch, every kitten, every bird has its own unique personality, just like human beings.

I’m convinced, now that I’ve seen Bolt. Bolt is a white dog who adores his mistress Penny, frolics and chews a carrot-shaped toy and chases his own tail. He’s a dog like any other – with one difference. He thinks he’s actually a SuperDog with special powers like an iron-bending forehead, a fire-shooting glare and a SuperBark that can blow them all away (a special genetic contribution from his ancestor, The Big Bad Wolf, one supposes).

How does a normal well-fed dog with a loving owner come to suffer such delusions? Bolt, it transpires, is the star of a television series and the entire world that he sees around him, is an elaborately constructed set with actors playing every role. All so that he genuinely believes in the character of Bolt the SuperDog and acts accordingly. Method acting at its finest.

Bolt is a 3-D movie. Yes, the kind where you get to wear multi-coloured spectacles while watching! You can imagine how much that adds to a story about a dog with great powers and even greater imagination.

John Travolta provides the heart-warming, sometimes whiny, sometimes growly voice of Bolt. Penny, Bolt’s ‘person’ is played by Miley Cyrus. If you listen carefully enough, you can discern the shift in Penny the TV star and Penny, Bolt’s doting owner. During the shooting, when Miley began laying tracks for the scenes where Penny plays with Bolt, she imagined herself playing with her own dog and spoke as she would at home, with a Southern accent. So Penny naturally speaks with a drawl. But while shooting for the TV show, Miley was asked to record without the accent, so the actress Penny delivers her instructions of ‘Bolt, zoom zoom!’ on a crisp note.

When I first saw the promos detailing this story, I thought it was a tad contrived. But the nice part of the movie is that the story actually begins after Bolt accidently gets out of his set and what happens to him in the real world.

The story had a chance to go the ‘Babe in the city’ way with a smirking look at the mistakes of the uninitiated in the big, bad world. Instead, it took a strong bouquet of characters and carried a simple plot with style.

The bad guys are just circumstances (or circumstantial as in the case of Penny’s slimy Hollywood agent, but aren’t all TV agents supposed to be that way?), the good guys leave you wondering if it would be too much of a sin to give them a good kick now and then. Just like human people. We meet Mittens, the smirking New York alley cat, extortionist bully of the neighborhood bird community and expert in the matters of men and dogs. There is Rhino, an exuberant Bolt-groupie hamster energetically running around inside a plastic ball who alternately provides comic relief and the Yoda for Mittens’ hard-bitten cynicism.

And then there are the pigeons! Ever wonder what pigeons keep going on about while they goobgoob at each other from telephone wires and window parapets? Here’s what – they complain about bullies, they play tricks on people, they gossip about people (and dogs) walking about and in Hollywood, they even pitch movie ideas to any stars that they inadvertently bump into!

In all fairness, Bolt is exactly the way I see most dogs. Sweet, sometimes irritating in his antics, pretty lovable but nothing remarkable in himself. The other characters of this story are what make it really special and worth every minute of it.

*Bolt will premier at the multiplexes tomorrow, finally a good movie after the long wait! This movie was brought to me by The Social Media Catalyst.

Respond

Athens To Mumbai

IdeaSmith — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:18:29 +0000

Athens,
sleeps outside my window tonight
And so do you, a sea and a continent away
No camera can capture,
nor words describe what my eyes see

In the city of the virgin goddess, a mortal woman sleeps alone.

~O~O~O~O~

A year later, in a city of no sleep and too much sex, she looks for god.

No pictures have I
nor the fruits of my patience
I look at the handful of words and unspoken, broken promises
A sea and a continent and a first meeting away
You were closer to me then, than this day
in Mumbai

2 Comments

At June 25, 2009, Sharanya wrote:
A year later, in a city of no sleep and too much sex, she looks for god.

My GOD, Ramya. And you're scared about writing?

I envy ANYONE who can write well about the city. It's somethng I've wanted to do for so long, and I keep trying, but am never happy.
At June 26, 2009, IdeaSmith wrote:
@Sharanya: :-) Thank you, that's very heartening. But this is my blog, my buddy, my own little corner where I can put anything I want. A novel is just so, so BIG. It's quite overwhelming. And hey, about writing about the city, might I suggest, just talk about how it makes you feel inside. People are sometimes reluctant to talk about how special places are since they are just 'inanimate spaces'. But that's not true, we form attachments and relationships with our personal spaces and in some ways, those are even stronger than the ones we form with people. Just bring out what's on your mind, onto paper.

Respond

NovelRace

IdeaSmith — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:12:07 +0000

Table of contents for NovelRace

The literary world is never boring. And social media is never quiet. Put them together and what have we? My new passion is the NovelRace that Aditya and Samit have organized. Several people, serious writers and others are scribbling away furiously (okay tapping away on their keyboards), to see who can complete a novel of 60, 000 words first by September this year. Participants tweet their wordcounts and some like me, also share their little woes and joys about the experience.

Well…since this is my own, sweet, undemanding blog, let me share what’s on my mind. I’m scared witless. Frightened, terrified, petrified, spooked, horrorstruck, struck dumb (not a good thing for an aspiring story-teller, I’m sure you’ll agree). What if it comes to rubbish? What if I discover that after all these years, I’m not that great at it anyway? Oh horror, there’s nothing worse than losing a dream. Okay, I’ll worry about that later.

Pull back and onto the point. What’s really interesting is what I’ve been learning about writing in the meagre few days that I’ve been in the race. For posterity, some of my big lessons:

1. You can’t write about a character that you don’t like. Get to know your characters well if you are going to tell their stories.

2. A short story can be created from a plot idea and the characters will just sort of fall into place (I know, I’ve done it). But a novel is different, you really need to work on characterisation and build a case for each character in your reader’s mind, for them to empathize with the story. So Character above Plot is my big takeaway.

3. Writing a chapter is very different from writing a short story. I’ve spent so much time ‘condensing’ my writing…into blogposts, into tweets, into 55-worders, into short stories, into read-all-in-one-page articles, into concise reports that I have to learn the art of writing with a lot of words and not boring my reader. I am finding it really, really hard to go beyond 1000-1500 wordcount. And that’s sometimes not enough for a chapter, or well the chapter just seem like fluff.

4. Just because you can string words together well, doesn’t mean you can tell stories well. BIG, HUGE lesson. But ah, I’ll come to dealing with this on a later date. For the time being, this experience is valuable for how much I’m learning about writing.

And hey! I got quoted in a Mid-Day article about Twitter and NovelRace for this, today.

There are others who use it to post recipes or haiku poems. In fact, Novelrace followers are even giving each other tips on what would be an ideal length of a chapter and style of writing.

For instance:

ideasmithy: wonders what is the right length for a chapter. 1-1.5K is as far as I’ve gone with short stories & now one chapter. Thoughts?
allvishal: @ideasmithy Break them up as you like. Wrote a story with 2K chaps once, this one is leaning to 5K. Some may have none or 100.

Signing off now. I have a novel to go write. In the meantime (in a shameless self-plug), go read about my writing adventures on Twitter.

~O~O~O~O~O~

UPDATE: If you’re a participant, follow the participant discussions on the NovelRace Facebook page. Also, a live update of participants’ wordcount is available at the NovelRace website.

Previous in series

8 Comments

At June 22, 2009, rads wrote:
er, may I also do a shameless plug and say I humbly stand in line (way behind of course) with all you fine novel-writers.

Only difference being I am not attempting to write novel, coz well, I prefer short stories. And two, I am still in two minds over the whole quantity of words being churned out. It's a race you race with yoruself, and I get that, but seriously speaking, isn't there something to be said of crisp succint ideas turning into say I donno, 10 words with depth than perhaps making it a lengthy 25?

Voicing an opinion, while I stand at the end of the line at close to 1800 words or so..
.-= rads´s last blog ..teamwork =-.
At June 24, 2009, PS wrote:
way to go!! A novel's one of the best ways to explore yourself I think..

Also, IMHO, it's very much possible to write about a character you dont like.. there are negative protagonists, and second person perspectives and oh so many other such possibilities..

You know what, I just recently bought a book for my class on creative writing, I wish I could have given it to you.. It has awesome guidelines for sudden questions that pop up while writing a story.. like the number of words needed in a chapter..
At June 25, 2009, Sharanya wrote:
www.nanowrimo.com

I had the best November of my life thanks to this. Yes, I made it to the 50,000 word count-- wrote a "novel" on Bombay. But I'm too ashamed to even look at it now, so after the initial euphoria, it's back to the writing/non-writing days..I am, however, sure that you will do better than me.
At June 25, 2009, Sharanya wrote:
*.org, not .com.
At June 26, 2009, IdeaSmith wrote:
@rads: I was of the same mindset. After all, I've written short stories and I like the format. But I took the easy way out (or is it the hard way) and decided to try a novel. And by the way, you're way ahead of me on the wordcount so heads-up!!

@PS: You can when you see me next. :-) I'm still in the kindergarten and every day is a new discovery in writing.

@Sharanya: Why ever??!! I am never ashamed of anything I turn out even if no one else likes it. It is your baby after all, believe in it!
At June 28, 2009, rakhi wrote:
Finally somebody realized that you should be forced to write, at gun point or :D something like it. I can't wait to hear more.
At July 2, 2009, IdeaSmith wrote:
@rakhi: Is someone forcing you to write? That's just plain wrong.
At July 6, 2009, rakhi wrote:
It was a joke Idea!!! :) Novel writing can be something that seems too scary to ever attempt. Someone like me'd probably need motivation ( in the form of a ;) ) to even think about doing it. :)
Glad to know that it's coming along fine.