Category: Anita’s Notes

For the first time ever in four seasons Anita’s Attic had as its guest speaker a non-fiction writer. The brilliant Anil Ananthaswamy who kept the class ( 12 in the room + 1 online from New Zealand) and an alumnus from a previous season and I transfixed in less than five minutes.

For an hour, each one of us travelled with Anil as he took us on his journey from techie to science journalist to author of two acclaimed books of non-fiction.

It was both an honour and joy to have you at the Attic. Thank you Anil, you star, you.

As a writer gets closer to writing ‘The End’, the next preoccupation becomes: How do I get my work published?

Increasingly as publishers prefer to read manuscripts vetted by literary agents, the role of a literary agent becomes pivotal in the career of a writer and so to talk to Season 4 Writers at Anita’s Attic, who better than star agent Jayapriya Vasudevan of The Jacaranda Press?

Commercial Fiction is the Shylock of the literary world: more sinned against than actually a sinner.

And so to answer the query of what is commercial fiction, who better than Deepthi Talwar, the Chief Editor of Westland Books, publishers of bestselling authors like Amish, Preeti Shenoy and Anuja Chauhan.

Thank you Deepthi for speaking to the Season 4 Writers at Anita’s Attic.

It’s important for a writer to keep faith in one’s ability and work. Sometimes only a writer can make another find that faith through the story of their journey this far. And so the first writer to visit Anita’s Attic during Season 4 was R. Sreeram, author of Kalyug published by Westland Books.

Sreeram isn’t a literary fiction writer but his words of advise would fit any genre, any kind of writer.

Sample this:
– Your genre is important but it’s not a deal breaker.
– Anytime your spirit’s sagging, show it to your near & dear ones but it’s important to get an impartial opinion.

Thank you Sreeram.

It was a blazing hot April day but no one was complaining…for the penultimate session of Season 3, Anita’s Attic had a double billing of guest speakers.

Vinita Nangia, writer & columnist and Director of the ‪#‎WriteIndia‬ project came in the forenoon to share her insights on writing, trends seen in the WriteIndia contest and what constitutes good writing.

Ajitha G.S., commissioning editor at HarperCollins India spent time talking to the writers on publishing trends in India and what it is that makes an editor grab a manuscript and want to publish it.

Just the sort of impetus needed as the writers set out on their individual journeys towards authordom.

What does a best selling commercial fiction author do differently?

Some of the most readable books are written by commercial fiction writers. Be it Marian Keyes, Stephen King, Conn Igulden or Thomas Harris...as for Le Carre and Rankin, they are poets masquerading as thriller writers.

Nevertheless the literary establishment and lit fiction writers are such snobs that we look down our toffee noses and think all commercial fiction is crap; lit fiction deals with the human condition, while pulp fiction is formulaic renditions of the human condition.

Over the last three seasons at Anita’s Attic, our guest speakers have always been literary fiction writers. Some of them have had books that sell many copies but a best-selling commercial fiction author’s numbers and reach is in another league.

Which is why I thought it important that my writers meet and hear about the journey of a very successful commercial fiction writer. And who better than Preeti Shenoy, one among the top five highest selling authors in India (Source: Nielsen scan)and the highest selling woman writer in India?

In a session filled with practical tips as much as personal takes, Preeti gave Anita’s Attic writers a whole new perspective on what it means to be a writer:

• When I am writing, my internet is off.
• I never set out to improve people’s lives
• I refuse to believe that there is something called writer’s block
• Blogging helps; it gives you an inkling of who your readers are !

 
Thank you Preeti Shenoy for the enthusiasm and confidence you brought into the room and giving Anita’s Attic‬ writers an understanding of your creative process.

I remember to this day our first conversation. Circa 1997. Satyr of the Subway reading. Prasad Bidappa had said I should invite her to my reading at a bookstore. So I called. She was warm and friendly on the telephone. It felt like we had known each other a long time. And then she said – Do you know what I do?

No, I said. I had presumed she was Prasad’s friend and that was good enough for me.
I am a literary agent, she said.
I had met literary agents in books but never a real one. Did they have fangs? Did they bite? Or did they have floppy ears and were cuddly?
Did they drink wine or the devil’s brew?
I was curious and we planned to meet.
I think of how she took me in hand and guided me through the highs and lows in my writing career. She covered my back for me, no matter what.
That’s what a literary agent should be like. Though they seldom are.And so I wanted my Season 3 Writers at Anita’s Attic to meet Jayapriya Vasudevan of Jacaranda Press. Super Agent. Super friend. And a truly good person.
Thank you Jayapriya for being who you are. Mwaaaaaaa.

It isn’t often that a 25 year old writer appears on the horizon with a 694 page book of which 120 pages are just notes. The writer : Manu S Pillai and the book : The Ivory Throne [Chronicles of the House of Travancore].

In what could only be termed an invigorating session, Manu talked to the writers of Season 3 at Anita’s Attic on what started him on the book and its writing. As I sat there watching him address the class, what struck me was not just the brilliance of this young writer but also his passion for what he was doing and his diligence.

Without passion, any piece of writing no matter how brilliantly researched will not leap off the page and it is this I hope was the greatest takeaway for my writers along with some of these nuggets:

* Women’s bodies were not sexualized then as it were now
* Myth making is part of holding onto power

Thank you Manu Pillai. You are a star! And I personally look forward to seeing you scale greater heights…