Vikram Seth, as we all know, is an award winning Indian novelist and poet. He has won numerous accolades for his writing, including the Padma Shri, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award. If you are looking to brush up your writing skills, he is the man to listen to! Here are 5 tips from Vikram Seth that you must keep in mind, if you aspire to become a good writer yourself:
1. Thoughts on Fiction
According to Vikram Seth, fiction writing offers a great escape from your real life. The writing process behind fiction, though, when put in a nutshell by Seth, seems not too hard. He says, “Fiction basically is a form of gossip where you want to enter other people’s lives, the lives of people you don’t know, and you want to know what’s going to happen to them.” So next time, when you write fiction, follow the golden words of Seth. Be the person you are writing about, and think how your character would think. Forget about who you are, or what you want from the story. Instead, think what the character would do, or what the character wants! That way, it would turn out to be enjoyable for both you as well as the readers!
2. Write What You Are Passionate About
Another point which Vikram makes is, never to give in to public demand. According to him, the best writing always comes when you write what you feel passionately about, and not what others want you to write about. He says, “Dear though the reader might be, I’d be silly to cater to what the reader wanted.” Make it a point to write what you feel, and not what you think your readers want to read. In this way, you will write a better story, and the readers will like your work anyway. Don’t let others decide the storyline for you, it is your story not theirs. “I don’t pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me”, he says.
3. Think Before Writing
Another point that Vikram Seth makes before working on a new project is to think thoroughly about what you want to write, how you are going to go about it, and what outcomes you want to achieve. He says, “I think if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. And worth thinking about it as well.” So, if you want to write well, the key is to invest a lot of time in thinking about what you are going to write, because the more you think, the more finished the product will be.
4. Don’t Be Afraid
If you want to try out a new theme, or a new style of writing, don’t be afraid to try it. Vikram says, “If I’m compelled to do something, I don’t shy away from it simply because I haven’t tackled it before.” If your mind is set on something that you just want to try, go ahead and write it! Don’t fear the outcome; it will only make you doubt yourself as a writer. Once you get the first one out of the way, it will become progressively easier.
5. Never Force It
Finally, an important lesson to be learnt from the great writer is, never force yourself to write something just because you haven’t written anything for some time. Writing must come naturally, and from within. He says, “After ‘A Suitable Boy,’ I didn’t write anything, not even a short story. I thought to myself: ‘I ought to start writing.’ But I can never force myself to write.”
Image credit: Luigi Crespo on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Pranay.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Pranay Kanagat is a freelance writer who has a love for writing on various subjects. In particular, he enjoys creative writing. He is also studying for an Engineering degree.[/author_info] [/author]