#1 Starting the way
Dear Writer,
I’m in a small village called Burwa, around 8 kilometers from Manali, Himachal. This is the place where two years ago, the co-founders of YourQuote moved for 3 months to build and grow their week-old app YourQuote. They were fed up with the countless mentors and their needless advice on what to build, the investors and their mindful yet mindless conversations, the traffic, the crowd and the overall pandemonium of city life. The wilderness of the mountains provided the much-needed respite.
To build something they truly believed in, they decided to cut out the noise and work in peace and solitude. There was nobody else other than a few hundreds writers on the week-old app to guide them on what to build, and I got enchanted. I watched over them from my then abode, a cave in the nearby hill — Katarni. I was happy that finally someone is building something that encourages us to dive deeper within ourselves to find our most honest voice. Soon, the passion of the duo inspired me to meet and guide them. I started my profile of YourQuote Baba and promised that I will help them turn their mission — to make the world write — into a reality. Their journey took them away from the mountains to the city of startups, Bengaluru, and I went along with them. I had given them my word after all. Promises are meant to be kept.
It’s been two years since that promise, a promise that I continued until yesterday when I decided to take a break and travel back home to fill my creative bowl that the city of chatter had evaporated. As I looked back, I was wonderstruck at why I chose to help them. Why help make the world write? What was so special about this mission? Was it just about helping people dig deeper within themselves? It was deeper than that. I found out how the act of writing is the purest of all art forms.
Consider this: every other art form be it painting, reciting, dancing, playing music becomes a performance while you are doing it. I can play the sitar and people could listen and applause. I can recite a poem and an audience can be captivated. Writing, on the other hand, is a solitary act. Writing can never become a performance. For writing this line, I have had to think, pause, imagine, press backspace and edit, change words, find better words, rewrite and finish only to reread and rewrite it. The process in itself is the most immersive self-exploration a human can do. You cannot watch someone write. It’s too boring for everyone else, other than a writer. The fireworks are going in their mind, the outside world is unaffected. An ongoing story, or narrative, is incomplete to give you the joy that a finished piece can. Unlike music, or dance, or even painting. Where every note or riff that is played, or moves that are swayed, brushstrokes that are done are a treat to watch. Writing is one (wo)man’s job. It cannot be done together. Two people writing cannot jam on the same notes, unlike music. Writing is the purest, truest and most pristine form of art. And it’s this realization that makes me feel so proud to know all of you writers and to help the YourQuote guys, who are pursuing probably the greatest mission among all the platforms out there. To raise the consciousness of the world through nothing but writing.7
I’m in a small village called Burwa, around 8 kilometers from Manali, Himachal. This is the place where two years ago, the co-founders of YourQuote moved for 3 months to build and grow their week-old app YourQuote. They were fed up with the countless mentors and their needless advice on what to build, the investors and their mindful yet mindless conversations, the traffic, the crowd and the overall pandemonium of city life. The wilderness of the mountains provided the much-needed respite.
To build something they truly believed in, they decided to cut out the noise and work in peace and solitude. There was nobody else other than a few hundreds writers on the week-old app to guide them on what to build, and I got enchanted. I watched over them from my then abode, a cave in the nearby hill — Katarni. I was happy that finally someone is building something that encourages us to dive deeper within ourselves to find our most honest voice. Soon, the passion of the duo inspired me to meet and guide them. I started my profile of YourQuote Baba and promised that I will help them turn their mission — to make the world write — into a reality. Their journey took them away from the mountains to the city of startups, Bengaluru, and I went along with them. I had given them my word after all. Promises are meant to be kept.
It’s been two years since that promise, a promise that I continued until yesterday when I decided to take a break and travel back home to fill my creative bowl that the city of chatter had evaporated. As I looked back, I was wonderstruck at why I chose to help them. Why help make the world write? What was so special about this mission? Was it just about helping people dig deeper within themselves? It was deeper than that. I found out how the act of writing is the purest of all art forms.
Consider this: every other art form be it painting, reciting, dancing, playing music becomes a performance while you are doing it. I can play the sitar and people could listen and applause. I can recite a poem and an audience can be captivated. Writing, on the other hand, is a solitary act. Writing can never become a performance. For writing this line, I have had to think, pause, imagine, press backspace and edit, change words, find better words, rewrite and finish only to reread and rewrite it. The process in itself is the most immersive self-exploration a human can do. You cannot watch someone write. It’s too boring for everyone else, other than a writer. The fireworks are going in their mind, the outside world is unaffected. An ongoing story, or narrative, is incomplete to give you the joy that a finished piece can. Unlike music, or dance, or even painting. Where every note or riff that is played, or moves that are swayed, brushstrokes that are done are a treat to watch. Writing is one (wo)man’s job. It cannot be done together. Two people writing cannot jam on the same notes, unlike music. Writing is the purest, truest and most pristine form of art. And it’s this realization that makes me feel so proud to know all of you writers and to help the YourQuote guys, who are pursuing probably the greatest mission among all the platforms out there. To raise the consciousness of the world through nothing but writing.7
#2 Become a powerful writer
Dear Abhishek,
It's so sunny today in the Himalayas. The warmth of the sun has brightened the moods, and cheerful travellers from Israel are sipping chai and reading novels near my tiny home. Reading in the sun, isn't it the best way to spend a winter afternoon? You ought to try it if you have never done this before.
I am overwhelmed with the response I received to yesterday's letter #1. So many of you wrote back, and described your writing life over mail and on YourQuote. I was enthralled to read and respond to them. A lot of writers wrote back asking how to become a better writer. This letter tries to answer that.
Who is a better writer?
First of all, who is a better writer? A better writer isn't the one who is merely armed with fancy vocabulary and immense wealth of knowledge. In my opinion, a better writer is the one who is more self-aware than the rest. Who can dive within the recesses of their minds, their past and their imagination, and express what they feel or imagine in their most authentic voice. The better is someone who is within us. There's no external teacher who can help you to distill that life experience that is so innate to you. The honesty has to be discovered by nobody else but the writer herself.
How to be a better writer?
Once you discover that voice, that honest voice that's within, the next step is to arm yourself with the necessary ammunitions to amplify the voice. To make that voice worthy of being heard. And here, we all have that one external teacher that teaches writing better than any human out there. Reading.
There's no greater teacher for a writer than reading. Much like writing, reading is a personal act. Every person interprets a story differently, assimilating their own life experience with the writer's, and that's where reading someone's work becomes more of reading oneself. Much like how when we watch cricket and pick up techniques and style from maestros, or when we hear our favourite singers, we try to incorporate their style into our own singing, reading inspires you to pick the style and craft from the giants. It develops your taste for language, teaches you the basic of expression — from punctuation to paragraph change to metaphors to alliteration. You see a magician's act, and learn a bit of magic yourself. Reading makes you sensitive and heightens your self-awareness that completes you as a writer, and there's no substitute for that. There has been no great writer ever born who wasn't a reader.
How to read like a writer?
We all have read something or the other. From Ruskin Bond's short stories in school to maybe a bestselling rom-com in college, but for a writer, reading gets deeper. What does a writer read? In one line, a writer reads what writers read. Let me elaborate. When you finish one book that your friend suggested, you hop on to another suggestion — most likely another bestseller in the market.
I suggest stopping right there. Don't do book hopping. Do peripheral reading. If you liked the book you read, take a few days out to study about the writer. Read their interviews, Youtube their talks, read what other writers have to say about them, find out which books they read and who were the writers that influenced them to be able to write their book. As you do that, you will find out a wealth of information and reading recommendations which are hidden from the average mass reader. Your library will become richer with quaint books, books that are recommended by your favourite writers, not some bestseller hopper. Imagine what on Earth can prevent you from becoming as good as them?
Do post about your favourite books on YourQuote app with #FavouriteBook. I will read and respond to your quotes. Try reading more about their authors. Feel free to write back to me for book suggestions. If you want to learn about writing, one good book is On Writing by Stephen King.
It's so sunny today in the Himalayas. The warmth of the sun has brightened the moods, and cheerful travellers from Israel are sipping chai and reading novels near my tiny home. Reading in the sun, isn't it the best way to spend a winter afternoon? You ought to try it if you have never done this before.
I am overwhelmed with the response I received to yesterday's letter #1. So many of you wrote back, and described your writing life over mail and on YourQuote. I was enthralled to read and respond to them. A lot of writers wrote back asking how to become a better writer. This letter tries to answer that.
Who is a better writer?
First of all, who is a better writer? A better writer isn't the one who is merely armed with fancy vocabulary and immense wealth of knowledge. In my opinion, a better writer is the one who is more self-aware than the rest. Who can dive within the recesses of their minds, their past and their imagination, and express what they feel or imagine in their most authentic voice. The better is someone who is within us. There's no external teacher who can help you to distill that life experience that is so innate to you. The honesty has to be discovered by nobody else but the writer herself.
How to be a better writer?
Once you discover that voice, that honest voice that's within, the next step is to arm yourself with the necessary ammunitions to amplify the voice. To make that voice worthy of being heard. And here, we all have that one external teacher that teaches writing better than any human out there. Reading.
There's no greater teacher for a writer than reading. Much like writing, reading is a personal act. Every person interprets a story differently, assimilating their own life experience with the writer's, and that's where reading someone's work becomes more of reading oneself. Much like how when we watch cricket and pick up techniques and style from maestros, or when we hear our favourite singers, we try to incorporate their style into our own singing, reading inspires you to pick the style and craft from the giants. It develops your taste for language, teaches you the basic of expression — from punctuation to paragraph change to metaphors to alliteration. You see a magician's act, and learn a bit of magic yourself. Reading makes you sensitive and heightens your self-awareness that completes you as a writer, and there's no substitute for that. There has been no great writer ever born who wasn't a reader.
How to read like a writer?
We all have read something or the other. From Ruskin Bond's short stories in school to maybe a bestselling rom-com in college, but for a writer, reading gets deeper. What does a writer read? In one line, a writer reads what writers read. Let me elaborate. When you finish one book that your friend suggested, you hop on to another suggestion — most likely another bestseller in the market.
I suggest stopping right there. Don't do book hopping. Do peripheral reading. If you liked the book you read, take a few days out to study about the writer. Read their interviews, Youtube their talks, read what other writers have to say about them, find out which books they read and who were the writers that influenced them to be able to write their book. As you do that, you will find out a wealth of information and reading recommendations which are hidden from the average mass reader. Your library will become richer with quaint books, books that are recommended by your favourite writers, not some bestseller hopper. Imagine what on Earth can prevent you from becoming as good as them?
Do post about your favourite books on YourQuote app with #FavouriteBook. I will read and respond to your quotes. Try reading more about their authors. Feel free to write back to me for book suggestions. If you want to learn about writing, one good book is On Writing by Stephen King.
#3 WAY TO HIMALYAYAS
Dear Abhishek,
It's my third day in the Himalayas. I have sort of settled in. My abode is a small cave under a giant boulder named Katarni. A cold stream — that later joins the river Beas — gushes just next to it. I have one small bed, one tiny pillow and two blankets. Every morning at 9, I fill and bring two buckets of water for domestic use. I cook on a wooden stove and mostly sip green tea, staring in awe at the majestic snow-capped mountains that surround me on all four sides.
Yesterday night was the most memorable so far. I was reading through your posts on YourQuote late at night, when I felt like taking a walk. Braving the frigidity of -5 degrees, I ventured out to gape at the clear sky. There were no clouds and lo! I could see the Milky Way. Stars strewn across the velvety black sky like a patch of wheat flour on a black porcelain plate. The flowing stream seemed to hum in the background. My walk turned into a dance, swinging with the sky. I could see the universe dancing with me. I slept with a smile.
Today morning, I wanted to step out but it was so cold that I decided to run. It's been a while since I ran. Bengaluru doesn't let me. A bearded baba running with the traffic on roads or crowded parks would make quite a spectacle there, but not here in the mountains. I ran for eight kilometers, albeit with many breaks, across tiny circuitous pathways through the Burwa and Chanag village, crossing cow sheds, schools and apple orchards. As I ran uphill and downhill, panting, regretting not having run enough, the answer to one question that so many of you had asked me became crystal clear: when to start working on a novel?
Writing a book is like running a marathon. Both writing a novel and running a marathon have three stages: beginning, middle and end. Beginning and ends are too exciting to make you feel like giving up. It's the long arduous middle phase where most runners or writers give up. It's where the going gets tough, boredom seeks in, enthusiasm wanes. Even if you manage to slog through and finish the book, the middle turns out to be boring because the writer finished it with least interest. The only way to brace this gruelling middle is by improving your stamina. With a lot of practice.
You don't start running a marathon right away. You prepare yourself by running shorter distances, say 3 kilometers, 5 kilometers, 10 kilometers. You time yourself. Improve your stamina. You give months or maybe years just to develop enough endurance to sustain the boredom of the middle of the race. In the case of writing, it's exactly the same. You start with short stories. 140 characters. 1200 characters (try writing a short story on YQ). 1000 words. 5000 words. 10000 words. Keep writing. Pen as many experiences. Take the wealth of stories that your childhood, adolescence and adulthood (in case you are one) contain — growing up with your parents, your ancestral house, your first day in school, your crush, the games you played, the first job, the relationships that magically happened or ended. Every little incident of yours (or even your close ones) can be turned into a short story. Use your imagination and turn the endings around. Ask yourself what ifs? What if you had an extra brother or sister? What if your house was too far (or too near) from the school? What if your parents had never met? Unlock your imagination and let the words flow.
Novels usually build an entire world, and as a writer, our job is to practice creating many small prototypes of mini-worlds (in the form of short-stories) that could ensure that the grand world that we create is impeccable.
It's my third day in the Himalayas. I have sort of settled in. My abode is a small cave under a giant boulder named Katarni. A cold stream — that later joins the river Beas — gushes just next to it. I have one small bed, one tiny pillow and two blankets. Every morning at 9, I fill and bring two buckets of water for domestic use. I cook on a wooden stove and mostly sip green tea, staring in awe at the majestic snow-capped mountains that surround me on all four sides.
Yesterday night was the most memorable so far. I was reading through your posts on YourQuote late at night, when I felt like taking a walk. Braving the frigidity of -5 degrees, I ventured out to gape at the clear sky. There were no clouds and lo! I could see the Milky Way. Stars strewn across the velvety black sky like a patch of wheat flour on a black porcelain plate. The flowing stream seemed to hum in the background. My walk turned into a dance, swinging with the sky. I could see the universe dancing with me. I slept with a smile.
Today morning, I wanted to step out but it was so cold that I decided to run. It's been a while since I ran. Bengaluru doesn't let me. A bearded baba running with the traffic on roads or crowded parks would make quite a spectacle there, but not here in the mountains. I ran for eight kilometers, albeit with many breaks, across tiny circuitous pathways through the Burwa and Chanag village, crossing cow sheds, schools and apple orchards. As I ran uphill and downhill, panting, regretting not having run enough, the answer to one question that so many of you had asked me became crystal clear: when to start working on a novel?
Writing a book is like running a marathon. Both writing a novel and running a marathon have three stages: beginning, middle and end. Beginning and ends are too exciting to make you feel like giving up. It's the long arduous middle phase where most runners or writers give up. It's where the going gets tough, boredom seeks in, enthusiasm wanes. Even if you manage to slog through and finish the book, the middle turns out to be boring because the writer finished it with least interest. The only way to brace this gruelling middle is by improving your stamina. With a lot of practice.
You don't start running a marathon right away. You prepare yourself by running shorter distances, say 3 kilometers, 5 kilometers, 10 kilometers. You time yourself. Improve your stamina. You give months or maybe years just to develop enough endurance to sustain the boredom of the middle of the race. In the case of writing, it's exactly the same. You start with short stories. 140 characters. 1200 characters (try writing a short story on YQ). 1000 words. 5000 words. 10000 words. Keep writing. Pen as many experiences. Take the wealth of stories that your childhood, adolescence and adulthood (in case you are one) contain — growing up with your parents, your ancestral house, your first day in school, your crush, the games you played, the first job, the relationships that magically happened or ended. Every little incident of yours (or even your close ones) can be turned into a short story. Use your imagination and turn the endings around. Ask yourself what ifs? What if you had an extra brother or sister? What if your house was too far (or too near) from the school? What if your parents had never met? Unlock your imagination and let the words flow.
Novels usually build an entire world, and as a writer, our job is to practice creating many small prototypes of mini-worlds (in the form of short-stories) that could ensure that the grand world that we create is impeccable.
#4 Himalaya's feeling
Dear Abhishek,
It's my fourth day in the Himalayas and it feels less cold now. I have acclimatised not just to the weather but also to the people around. One of the villagers whom I befriended yesterday, Tenzin, invited me to his house for lunch today. His septuagenarian mother and father, both frail and wrinkled but with eyes sparkling with kindness, welcomed me into their humble cottage. His mother served me soupy aloo-gobhi with rice.
We sat on the worn-out carpet around a makeshift fireplace, talking about our personal histories. Tenzin hails from Jispa, which is on the other side of the snowcapped Rohtang pass. In the extreme winter, they migrate to the village Burwa near Manali which is better connected to truck routes for domestic supplies. We talked about Jispa, how in summer it turns into a comfortable stopover for thousands of bikers who take the perilous Manali-Ladakh highway. Tenzin and family host so many of them, feeding them the homely meal of rice and daal. Sometimes, aloo-gobhi too. As I returned from the sumptuous lunch, Tenzin's mother gifted me hand-knitted woollen socks. It'll keep your feet warm, she said. I gingerly clutched the socks and hugged her.
That's the thing about travel. It stumps you with kindness. And belongingness. Surprises you when you least expect it. You go out as a stranger, and come back as someone whose home is the world. It takes you away from all the religions and brings you closer to the only religion that matters, humanity. But don't get your expectations too high. A lot of folks try solo travelling hoping for enlightenment, including yours truly, but to no avail. Enlightenment, of even the slightest kind, only comes when you are already connected with yourself. If you open yourself to the world, the world opens its doors to you. There's a reason Tenzin's family made me feel at home in this foreign place. I had shared a chai with him the previous day, and I talked about my passion for writing and making the world write. It made him trust me. Trust is the secret of all travellers.
On Travel & Writing
Travel and writing go hand in hand. When you have so many stories up your sleeve, you are bound to become a storyteller. But the greatest impact travel has on writing is it teaches which stories are worth telling. When you have thousands of moving experiences, while moving, you come face to face with the nuances and subtleties of life. Regular coffee-table gossip that we share as stories start to seem facile and meaningless. The stories that stay and remain in you post travel are always the one that gives you a reason to live, a reason to write.
On Travel Writing
Travel writing as an art-form is arguably one of the most difficult. You cannot lie, or cook up fictitious worlds. You have to stay true to your experiences. Travel, in most of its parts, is mundane, boring and tiresome. How then to write about travel? You have to filter out the experiences that truly matter. I follow this simple technique:
1. I start with the weather, how it's making me feel. It helps paint a picture.
2. I then hop on to the place, describe how it's set (e.g. the worn-out carpet, the makeshift fireplace) which completes the picture.
3. I thereafter talk of the people, if any. I talk about their stories, the story of their places. Their emotions and their kindness. People aren't always kind, so if you encounter anyone fun or harsh, even that could be worth writing. Use conversations to build character. You have to be discerning.
4. At the end of the write-up, I try to connect myself in the story & the larger scheme of things. (How Tenzin and his family made me feel. How they changed me?)
This formula is good for getting started. As you get more used to the form of travel writing, you will start to find simple things that only you interpret uniquely. Like what a railway station's smell reminds you of. Maybe your childhood journey to grandmother's place. Or what does the wind rustling through your hair on a motorbike reminds you of. Maybe your uncle with a Rajdoot. You connect the outside world with the inside. And the end result is a story that makes the reader follow your trails and travel just like you by simply reading your work. There's a word for it as well: vicariously. Do Google it.
It's my fourth day in the Himalayas and it feels less cold now. I have acclimatised not just to the weather but also to the people around. One of the villagers whom I befriended yesterday, Tenzin, invited me to his house for lunch today. His septuagenarian mother and father, both frail and wrinkled but with eyes sparkling with kindness, welcomed me into their humble cottage. His mother served me soupy aloo-gobhi with rice.
We sat on the worn-out carpet around a makeshift fireplace, talking about our personal histories. Tenzin hails from Jispa, which is on the other side of the snowcapped Rohtang pass. In the extreme winter, they migrate to the village Burwa near Manali which is better connected to truck routes for domestic supplies. We talked about Jispa, how in summer it turns into a comfortable stopover for thousands of bikers who take the perilous Manali-Ladakh highway. Tenzin and family host so many of them, feeding them the homely meal of rice and daal. Sometimes, aloo-gobhi too. As I returned from the sumptuous lunch, Tenzin's mother gifted me hand-knitted woollen socks. It'll keep your feet warm, she said. I gingerly clutched the socks and hugged her.
That's the thing about travel. It stumps you with kindness. And belongingness. Surprises you when you least expect it. You go out as a stranger, and come back as someone whose home is the world. It takes you away from all the religions and brings you closer to the only religion that matters, humanity. But don't get your expectations too high. A lot of folks try solo travelling hoping for enlightenment, including yours truly, but to no avail. Enlightenment, of even the slightest kind, only comes when you are already connected with yourself. If you open yourself to the world, the world opens its doors to you. There's a reason Tenzin's family made me feel at home in this foreign place. I had shared a chai with him the previous day, and I talked about my passion for writing and making the world write. It made him trust me. Trust is the secret of all travellers.
On Travel & Writing
Travel and writing go hand in hand. When you have so many stories up your sleeve, you are bound to become a storyteller. But the greatest impact travel has on writing is it teaches which stories are worth telling. When you have thousands of moving experiences, while moving, you come face to face with the nuances and subtleties of life. Regular coffee-table gossip that we share as stories start to seem facile and meaningless. The stories that stay and remain in you post travel are always the one that gives you a reason to live, a reason to write.
On Travel Writing
Travel writing as an art-form is arguably one of the most difficult. You cannot lie, or cook up fictitious worlds. You have to stay true to your experiences. Travel, in most of its parts, is mundane, boring and tiresome. How then to write about travel? You have to filter out the experiences that truly matter. I follow this simple technique:
1. I start with the weather, how it's making me feel. It helps paint a picture.
2. I then hop on to the place, describe how it's set (e.g. the worn-out carpet, the makeshift fireplace) which completes the picture.
3. I thereafter talk of the people, if any. I talk about their stories, the story of their places. Their emotions and their kindness. People aren't always kind, so if you encounter anyone fun or harsh, even that could be worth writing. Use conversations to build character. You have to be discerning.
4. At the end of the write-up, I try to connect myself in the story & the larger scheme of things. (How Tenzin and his family made me feel. How they changed me?)
This formula is good for getting started. As you get more used to the form of travel writing, you will start to find simple things that only you interpret uniquely. Like what a railway station's smell reminds you of. Maybe your childhood journey to grandmother's place. Or what does the wind rustling through your hair on a motorbike reminds you of. Maybe your uncle with a Rajdoot. You connect the outside world with the inside. And the end result is a story that makes the reader follow your trails and travel just like you by simply reading your work. There's a word for it as well: vicariously. Do Google it.
