Writing a book can be a life changing experience in many ways.
Author Migs Bravo Dutt shares her experiences and the lessons she learnt while working on her first novel.
- Believe that you can and don’t listen to naysayers. All of us are at once capable and incapable, and we have a choice which frequency we tune into.
- Tools make tools. Borrow books (most libraries have great writing references), enroll in online courses (some of them are free), talk to experts and learn from their experience.
- Have an outline, but be flexible and let the muse take over when she visits, which is a grace accorded to a few.
- At every step, keep checking what’s the point of the novel. What’s the message of the chapter? And yet at the same time, avoid moralizing.
- It’s your book. Listen to inputs, but use your best judgment – some advice are worth listening to, while others are best ignored.