Thread by @wordsbyanmol

*A Creative Writing Thread*
1: It really is true. It takes an entire day of focus to produce a few meaningful and evocative passages of words. The writers who park themselves on remote mountains with their desk set against beautiful landscapes or in coffee shops in the company

of a bitter black cup of coffee aren’t exactly chilling. They are following a time-tested process that works for them. Find yours.

2: Writing requires a deep dive into the well of human emotions. Don’t resurface, forget about breathing, until you have discovered humanity in either its purest or ugliest - most conflicted form. Those are the makings of a story.

3: Put virtuous people in difficult circumstances where their cherished values clash against the sordid ground realities or where villainous characters pause to reconsider the ramifications of their actions.

Perhaps there is redemption on offer or a slide into darkness is inevitable. The readers will lean into your story.

4: Sometimes I am amazed at how much at odds capitalism is with art and creative work. All of the capitalist pillars negate the most basic requirements of art and yet art persists to soothe and sometimes provoke the human spirit. Persist. Persist. Persist.

5: Characters come with distinct motivations and agendas that often clash, conflict and contrast against each other. It’s particularly interesting when none of them get their way. Life prevails leaving a bittersweet taste in the reader's mouth.

5: Stories like life should be proliferated and peppered with learnings and handy little insights. Inconspicuous but present, adding to the flavour.

6: The difference between good and great storytelling is the difference between information delivery and emotional exchange. The words need to jump out the page like a frog.
REPEAT: The words have to leap out the page.

7: If you are describing something, anything at all (site, scene, character, situation, etc.) then you are wasting the readers' time and yours. That's criminal. Writing needs to delve into deeper truths and fallacies of life to be worthwhile to the readers' time and attention.

8: The great writers; the masters of the craft make the ordinary, the mundane, and the banal personal, poignant and even political. Give them perspective!

9: Inspiration is not something that happens to a writer. Don’t treat it with the passivity of a divine blessing. It’s a relationship that needs to be cultivated, day in and day out.

10: Think of every scene as a dish that requires a dash of lemon to come alive. Have you squeezed all the flavour in and stirred it well? Check again.

11: Dialogues are not an exchange of words. They embody ideas, emotions, desires, context, and longings. Be frugal but sharp with dialogues. They ought to serve a particular purpose like a surgeon’s knife.

11: The process of writing is whimsical. You can spend the whole day at your desk with nothing to show but blank paper. When you are about to accept defeat and ready to shut shop, it whispers truth in your ears, without any provocation. Hold your ground. The day has just begun.

12: Dialogues can and should do everything but convey information. That’s a waste of your reader’s time. Go beyond information into the realm of context, situation, perspective, and emotions. That’s where the magic happens.

Compelling stories are often set against and in contravention to statistically significant data points and steretypical notions of life #writing

I have always wondered what makes writing exceptional and there is no one answer. But the one that appeals to my sensibilities is FLOW.

Great writing flows from word to word, sentence to sentence and para to para. It's like a perennial river that slides down ice capped mountains and releases into the ocean seamlessly.

Remember: conflict is to storytelling what gravity is to Earth. Let the force be with you.

What are stories? Not words. Not visuals. Not podcasts.
Stories are whatever gets through the skepticism
and indifference of people #priceless #WritingCommunity

Stories, like monuments, need a strong foundation. If you are not careful to place only the appropriate bricks on top of one another and spread the cement with the utmost care, it all comes crumbling down spectacularly into the minds of its reader #priceless #writing

Storytellers do not narrate facts. They tease out human emotions hidden deep under the rug of polite smiles and half-truths #writing #WritingCommunity #priceless

Do not waste your readers’ time with half-baked conflicts, put life and limbs on the line. Stories are epic battles between good and evil #WritingCommunity #write #priceless

Not morality and certainly not any sense of responsibility to peace and harmony of society, the only choice that a writer needs to justify is the selection of words and how it serves the story #priceless #WritingCommunity

Storytelling is much like character-building. It often takes years of effort, engagement with conflicts, and deep introspection - even mistakes. Horrendous ones. And a deep engagement with truth. Stories, like characters, emerge.

Writing, like all good art, is the long and arduous process to simply do away with all that is unnecessary

I don’t suffer writers block that drive many authors to the point of suicide. But I am driven to the doors of insanity when my stories are devoid of conflict. It’s stuff of nightmares #WritingCommunity

An innocent word, spoken with no malice whatsoever, can hang into thin air and cause untold misery and devastation in the hearts of people. The writers job is to tease out all the flavours #WritingCommunity

A writer narrates two stories - parallely. One story concerns the action on the ground. And the second - far more implicit - is the emotions that underpin each of those actions. It’s the latter that arrests the audience and wins over their heart #priceless #WritingCommunity

Stay with your words. Even when they stubbornly refuse to appear on a piece of paper and your heart aches. Writing a waiting game.

Even God cannot will not guarantee a bestseller. So as a storyteller, you have to put yourself in the best position to succeed and hope that it all comes together into a gift-wrapped miracle from destiny. Do the work!

Everybody desires an audience and why not, but only a rare few have a captivating story to share. Polish yours, so it shines like a fine emerald.

Storytelling is a cruel and blood soaked process of edits and revisions. The end result will often look and feel different from what you started out with, almost unrecognisable. Don't despair! It may very well imply growth.

Storytelling is not spoon feeding. You have to leave enough blanks for the readers imagination to fill #priceless

"My wife made a crucial difference during those two years I spent teaching at Hampden… If she had suggested that the time I spent writing stories on the front porch of our rented house on Pond Street or in the laundry room of our rent a trailer on Klatt Road in Hermon was wasted

"I think a lot of the heart would've gone out of me. Tabby never voiced a single doubt, however. Her support was a constant, one of the few good things I could take as a given…

"Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don't have to make speeches. Just believing is usually enough." ~Stephen King

"Is it worth it?" Self doubt is a constant companion of a writer. Learn to live with it. I'm no commercial success. Not a single bestseller turned Bollywood movie to my name. I am here to tell you, it almost always worth it, even when it fails.

Characters become endearing when they can’t help but act in ways that is detrimental to their own well-being. It’s in those moments that your reader will get exasperated, but connected to the story #priceless

All words convey meaning. That's their part in human existence. But a writer understands where silence or a soft pause will speak louder #priceless

A writer carries within him/her a deep irrepressible desire to express, reveal and deconstruct the world. That is the three-part structure (beginning, middle and end) of their existence #priceless

All characters are-at the end of the day-perspectives on life. Rich soulful writing allows their diversity to shine through, like a beam of light from a lighthouse in stormy weather #priceless

The underlying emotion behind a dialogue can be radically different from its literal meaning. Love, for example, is sometimes hidden behind a veil of anger or indifference. Infuse your story with subtext #priceless

The process of creation is not always enjoyable and fun as it is made out and almost expected to be. It involves sacrifice, sleepless nights, and even suffering. Suffering is not always undesirable.

I seldom enjoy writing. The process of accurate referencing is painful, sifting through haystack of English vocab to find the precise word leaves me nauseous & synthesis of voluminous govt reports into Mozartish vinyls is a pipedream. But words are my chosen form of suffering.

Writers are seldom at peace with their choices. Not when the final draft leaves their sanctuary. Not even when the story is published and the ink settles down on the page, giving it a sense of permanence. The devil nags them to try a different word induces a different plot & line

There is a poison that accumulates and spreads, corrupting a writers soul. The only way to release and end the suffering is to put words on paper

Every writer has to contend with the harsh reality that their words may not find readership, impact and (in my case) a publisher. That’s why it is imperative that your motivation is intrinsic, almost selfless

A farmers hand sports blisters; a writers ink

A writer may seldom write, but he/she/her is never not at work. Every experience adds to the repertoire and every little detail is internalised to enrich the expression and interpretation of life in words as fine as silk

A writer is a thief. You steal time away from family commitments & professional obligations. You borrow good, bad, intimate & unspeakable from personal life, at the expense of loved ones. Even the weekends are sacrificed at the altar of words. May God forgive a writers sins

A story doesn't flow downstream like a perennial buoyant river by its own will & nature's logic. It’s put together like a jigsaw puzzle. Writing is akin to manual labour performed on a piece of parchment. But the reader does not need to know that and best not feel that way

I refuse the usage of full stops (feel a great sense of unease with commas) at the end of my sentences. It symbolises the end or a break, but the words shouldn’t stop or even give that inkling. A writer signs up for a lifetime of endless continuous storytelling

Your journey and struggles as a writer is as unique and alluring as the stories you craft. Don’t diminish it by comparison with others. Instead, take pride in it

Reading is never passive, not easy. The greatest of writers are aware and play hide and seek by crafting words to cover up the real story, only for the most intuitive of readers to decipher

Writing is not frivolous; writing is not merely entertainment. It’s a responsibility to do justice to the lives of the protagonist (fiction or real) in all its richness, complexities and conflicts. A writer is answerable to his craft.

Of course you can and absolutely should write in any state of mind, but words come out sweeter when the heart is content and full of love

Sure, the economic value of stories is laughable at best, but that's not on you. It's the shortcoming of a flawed system that is blind to the power of language and human experience. Don't be dissuaded

The laws of storytelling, even grammar, are of course meant to be twisted and broken. But that’s not the place of an amateur. It falls on a master with unparalleled insights to do so in a way that solves a higher purpose

As a creative writer, I seldom use full stops. For me, a story is an endless space of constant tinkering and improvements

Every word, every sentence, every para moving forward is a window into the world that you have created. A writer is also a craftsman

A devoted writer should meticulously note down and be able to justify the logic behind the existence of each passage in the story - word for word and sentence by sentence. There are no shortcuts and crash diets to a readers undivided attention, never will be.

Stories. They have a scent, a vibe, so to speak. That is why we are enamoured by a few but indifferent to most others. Make it authentic and the readers will get the whiff.

I do not write stories to make a living. It has freed me to choose the ones that carry deep meaning and resonate with my spirit. It doesn’t matter whether someone likes them or not or their commercial success. What’s important is that I write to my truest highest potential

The job of a title is not to lay out a story & certainly not to trick readers into click bait. Stories aren’t short sighted. Stories are not zero sum games. Titles are meant to capture the essence of the story. If you can’t find the apt title; you need to dig deeper. Much deeper

Writing is bloody hard because it's so deliberative and reflexive. You have to find the right balance of looking inwards and outwards to build harmony.

It’s not enough for an artist to offer unique insights into the world. The artist must align them with a deep level of self-awareness. It’s this combination that produces a masterpiece

No computer model can predict success in art. There are no regular pay cheques or health insurance on offer. The aim and effort cannot be anything short of greatness. That is terrifying at one level and liberating at another

Stories follow a curve. They emerge from chaos and transition into simplicity and order

This is essentially what it takes to be a writer. Weekdays and weekends by yourself. Every single day for the rest of your miserable life

To conduct meaningful interviews remains one of the most challenging tasks of a writer. Simply because interviews are founded on trust and rapport, almost impossible without adequate time with the respondent. But it takes you closest to truth and richness of human experience

Great writing carries ease and depth. But what does that really mean? It’s the ability to encapsulate an era - a moment in history - through the story of the protagonist, without ostensibly drawing the reader's attention to it.

Beautiful writing is a product of beautiful, deep, and empathetic thinking

You must try each possible permutation and combination of the story in your head (if not on paper) to find the right fit. That’s the only way to be sure

As a creative writer, juggling day jobs and family obligations, you will always be pressed for time. But that is no excuse not to make time for people you like, respect and admire

Self-belief is the most difficult part of being a writer or anything else that truly matters in the bigger scheme of things. The world just doesn’t accept first drafts and newcomers without some level of hostility and disdain

Stories may be written on paper, but they develop inside your head little by little and sometimes all at once

The challenge with every word and passage in a story is that it has to be interesting, but at the same time merely interesting is not enough justification for its presence on the page. It must add to the larger context, not serve your writing ego

Writing is not about books sold, Pulitzer or Booker awards won, movie rights bagged. It’s only and only about bringing your story to life

A writer needs to be comfortable in his skin to be captivating on a piece of paper

To be able to criticise your own work; to achieve that level of distance and objectivity is the ultimate flex

You are not a writer only while writing. You put yourself in a writers shoe while watching Netflix, while reading books, while sharing anecdotes in social gatherings, etc. etc. etc.
Being a writer is a 24*7 endeavour and commitment

A writer's routine should be as sacred and unyielding as the gospel truth

I know exactly where to park my car in the morning (next to the tree), how to arrange my desk (diary and register on the left and water glass on the right), what coffee to order (cold brew). These are not superstitions, but cues that I present to my mind to prepare for deep work

Spent this beautiful winter day writing a story close to my heart. What joy and privilege

I have lost count (swear to God) of the number of times that my second novel has been rejected by literary agents but I continue to revise and query. Writing is stubborn form of madness

There may come a time (after you have completed the final final draft and shared it with the publisher) when you realise a character doesn’t make sense. What do you do now? Stop the print run. Make the change.

Every character ought to serve a higher purpose. You don’t add a random ingredient to your omelette just for fun

Joy may not mean a sense of mad elation every morning at the prospect of work, but a reassuring feeling of making a small but meaningful contribution to the world

Every draft or revision to the story should serve a distinct purpose and ultimately leave the story better. But that happens only if you are conscious about the enhancements you intend to make and goals you want to achieve

A high level of inner conviction is essential for a writer. The road to publication is bumpy, full of detours and dead ends

Every story is held together by a series of events, just like this thread is by a series of entwined tweets. The moment that connection becomes tenuous you lose the readers attention

A political thriller derives its energy from the unexpected. Good people lose. Bad ones come within touching distance of the prize. Characters change loyalties. Virtues forgotten in the quest for power and revenge. Ask yourself: is the reader on the edge of the seat

That peculiar mighty antagonism - between a man and a woman - in a story can only resolved in two ways. Either through deep love or dark hatred and something in between

It is an absolute delight to be an author. You reconstruct and reimagine defining moments in history and people who shape them. Only you have the leeway and tools to go beyond the absolute definitive facts and offer the tinge of truth that has remained unspoken but felt deeply

The craft of storytelling transforms you. It exposes you to the entangled web of humanity. It teaches you to treat your subject with empathy. Your words are the breeze that clear away the mist of misunderstanding from the valley. You don’t write stories you engage with them

As an author, your DNA becomes such, that the spirit becomes restless if you don’t create stories

To keep your readers in a state of suspense and arousal, you have to keep feeding their curiosity with half truths and semi-lies until the tension peaks and then comes the big reveal

Storytellers are scenario modellers.
They consider each possibility carefully and experiment with every bit of story data until they can narrow down to what serves the interest of the readers

Each chapter title must draw the reader into the story. Those 2-3 words are more significant than you think. Choose carefully

My creative writing flow unlocks in a calm, composed and peaceful state of mind. I cruelly weed out everything and anyone who disrupts my flow, but that’s me. May be you need to feel like a train wreck to mine inspiration. It’s a question for you to answer, only to yourself

A writer’s prerogative is to paint a picture for the audience. One that the writer can imagine and the reader can believe and come to relish

Stories, consciously or otherwise, follow a weightage and virtue/vice metric. The amount granted to each character ought to be commensurate with their importance to the narrative

Writers seldom write but almost always work round the clock. Their stories are unique, unvarnished and engrossing reflections on life and circumstances in and around them. The craftsman is the craft

Epic stories are a sum total of journeys that we undertake as raw and vulnerable humans. Where we set on foot and or mules past treacherous forests, rugged mountains and deep waters; where evil baits us into danger and tempts us with greed

It’s this journey both metaphoric and literal where we discover truth and build character and where ultimately virtue will triumph over vice but not before sacrifice and only after transformation

As a writer, you ought to want to be left alone for large parts of the day and/or night to fill empty sheets of paper with words of consequence

Even a process as individualistic as creative writing requires deep collaboration. There comes a point where the writer is unable to distinguish wheat from chaff.

A good editor steps in with a fresh pair of eyes and points to dry areas within the stream of free flowing words. A writer can survive without love but a good editor is for keeps

Harry Potter subthread. Dursleys are not a side note in Harry Potter saga. They are far more important than you can imagine. In the very beginning, @jk_rowling uses Dursleys to induce a soft spot for Harry. Imagine your feelings if Harry had grown up in a loving family of muggles

Dursleys, however, are not evil or dangerous enough to cause any significant trouble. Harry will inevitably climb the ladder of danger in every book. And it will ultimately lead him to “he who must not be named” (just this calling card puts Voldemort at the top of the evil chain)

Snape has to be cast as evil. @jk_rowling misleads us from the first book so that when the moment of truth arrives we feel the guilt of our misplaced hatred. After all, who hasn’t loved and lost. Snape’s pain is ours. It’s easily the most beautiful characterisation of this saga

Harry cannot be exceptional like Hermoine or Voldemort or Dumbledore. Exceptional talents evoke awe or jealousy not sympathy which is the calling card of Harry. Harry therefore is extraordinarily normal and almost flat by design

Harry is and will always be surrounded by a circle of virtue and skills. Take Weasleys for example, poor but kind and generous; Mudblood Hermoine, the smartest witch of her generation and an outsider; Hagrid an oversized misfit but big hearted

Conversely, Voldemort will be surrounded by the madness of Bellatrix Lestrange and racist Malfoys. There is no way Rowling will allow us to like the villain and his ilk, even for a second

Harry will lose someone dear to him in every book/movie. Parents. Sirius. Cedric. Mad Eye Moody. Remus. Fred. Dumbledore. Snape. Rowling knows that Harry’s pain will become ours and carry us onwards

Lily’s memory is a recurring feature in the movie added to fuel our love for Harry, like a plane in midair. It is important that we feel his melancholy in our heart and continue to root for him. That’s the glue that binds this story together

The finale leverages centuries old tradition and moral storytelling. A siege of Hogwarts. The ultimate battle between god and evil. David versus Goliath. Evil will always outnumber good. And good will emerge victorious but not without being tested & alas after sacrifice

Harry Potter, broken to its building blocks, is the story of a lost boy on a journey to find himself. Rowling builds us a castle, full of mysteries, dangers and secret rooms, to anchor that journey. Every story is rooted in a context. Hogwarts is where it all begins and ends

It’s not enough to defeat Voldemort. Harry’s character arc is complete when he breaks the Elder wand. That’s is when the lost boy finds himself and the reader finds closure

Stories are literally all about our inner battles with ourselves and rigid and unjust structures we come to inhabit. Everything else is jazz playing in the background

In storytelling, you have to choose words as carefully and consciously as a karigar (worksman) chooses to cut diamonds or a painter mixes colours. You are in the business of words

Your protagonist does not have to be perfect to be likeable, far from it. Create circumstances that compels the protagonist to make mistakes and go down wrong paths. Allow readers to feel their flaws and humanity

It takes too much out of you - writing a good story. It is important that your motivation goes beyond short-term gains and short-lived fame. Even with the right intentions, the road can be long and winding

Stories are liked or disliked based on how they make people feel in that moment. The calculation is emotional not statistical or mathematical or financial, to a large part. Emotions are in-built into the design of a story. It’s the most important challenge faced by the writer

You have to mislead your reader into wrong turns and twists before the protagonist reaches the destiny. And something significant needs to change during that journey. Otherwise what’s the point of the story

The real difference, or nuance, between journalistic reportage and creative writing is that in the former you are accurately and deftly reporting what you see. In the latter, you are literally feeling and giving words to the joy or hurt of your protagonist

An editor friend pointed this difference out in her feedback. Commenting on the first para she wrote “It’s written too much in reportage style to be Rahima’s voice” whereas in the next para she wrote: “I can feel Rahima’s discomfort and desperation”

“The measure of the quality of a fictional narrative is not whether it is true but whether it is illuminating”
~Kay and King in the book Radical Uncertainty

As a writer, your faith will be tested by a market that’s designed to place safe bets. It’s not your writing skills so much but your self-belief that ultimately determines success in the long run

The only way for the protagonist to survive a crime thriller is to take revenge and get justice. It’s David vs Goliath. The moral righteousness of the hero pit against the money, muscle and political power of the villain

At some point, before sending your work to the publisher, you have to imagine how readers will digest the story. The hard to swallow tragedies of personal loss. The sweet aftertaste of love & friendship. The salty feel of failures. How all the flavours mix together

"Nations are ultimately built on stories. Each passing day adds more stories that Ukrainians will tell not only in the dark days ahead, but in the decades and generations to come. The president who refused to flee the capital, telling the US that he needs ammunition, not a ride;

the soldiers from Snake Island who told a Russian warship to “go fuck yourself”; the civilians who tried to stop Russian tanks by sitting in their path. This is the stuff nations are built from. In the long run, these stories count for more than tanks" ~Yuval Noah Harari

My dear writer, your words and your stories, are much too precious to only earn money. Do not underestimate them. They must strive to affect change

Think of gravity not as a natural phenomenon that keeps us anchored to the ground. No. In storytelling, it’s that invisible force that runs across the length and breath of your story, holding the reader's attention together until the very last chapter or scene

The hero’s defeat - a complete capitulation - is a powerful storytelling technique. The audience gets drawn into the story when the hero falls and rubs his nose in the dirt. It begs the questions: what happens now?

One loyal reader is worth 100 indifferent publishers

The hero must be unyielding in his commitment; he has to look the dragon in the eye without betraying any fear.
It’s the near impossibility of his cause that will draw readers into the story and turn them into cheerleaders

Everybody gets surprised to learn that a novel takes years to write, decades sometimes. There are of course many explanations. Mine is that you have to allow words to flow at their own pace and not push them out when the water breaks @karunaparikh

Stories may be copyrighted to the writer but they don’t follow a writers will. They are stubborn creatures with a mind and schedule of their own

Time running out is such a powerful technique to build tension in a suspense thriller. The protagonist that races against time to save the world will grab the reader's attention and undying support

The beauty of third person storytelling is in the freedom to slip in and out of characters folktales interpretations, as you please, and leave your reader with a belly full and warm heart

Your protagonist must come face to face with an obstacle at every turn. Learn to jump & crawl & sprint before arriving at the finish line, transformed humbled. The reader knows that the hero will emerge victorious. They reward stories which takes the protagonist to the brink

The writer's one and only job is to suffuse meaning to the ordinary. That's an acquired skill

There is an intuitive source of energy that carries a story to its logical conclusion. The reader may not be able to pinpoint it but it’s what keeps their attention for hours, sometimes days. A great writer is able to harness this energy for the readers benefit

There are no set rules to good writing/storytelling, except one: you must, under all circumstances, find a way to keep the reader's attention

Even in the previous 'innocent' tweet, I create suspense with the first sentence by teasing you with what that one rule might be, prod you to engage with the next line. And then I offer you not a readymade solution but a puzzle. That's writing