Writing during the pandemic - author interview

A Pinch of Surprise, Finalist in the Literati Pitch Your Story competition by IIT Delhi, published by Mithaas Services was written by Vamsi during the pandemic! A rendevouz with the author who was the Author of the Week by Story Mirror on what prompted him to write during the pandemic, how his book is doing and how has he been marketing it. Interestingly, Vamsi has converted many non-readers to readers with his relatable memes! 

What prompted you to write in the pandemic?

A lot of free time. Yes, you heard it right. Most of my leisure time went into reading books and I consider myself a maniac when it comes to reading novels and just like millions of other readers, during the initial days of lockdown, I too ran out of books to read (excluding my subjects) and with strict implementation of the government guidelines, neither could we go to a bookstore to buy books nor could we receive books in a short span from online retailers. People were trying something new and exciting every day and I thought it’d be fun to write a small memory that involved an adorable conversation and later it took shape into a huge fictional tale.

This is your first book, isn't it? What was the time spent on writing the book?

Absolutely, yes. This is the first story that I’ve ever written. Writing A Pinch of Surprise would’ve been much easier if I had prior experience in writing. I’ve started writing the story without a definitive deadline. The rough draft took two months to complete. When I started writing, there was not a single thought that passed my mind to bring it out in a published format. It was just a story I wanted myself to love reading it as a reader. Fixing the plot holes and giving the story a proper structure took me another two months. The special thing about the novel is its non-linear narrative. 

So, I had to constantly revisit, rewrite many key parts of the story during the edits to make it crisp and proper fictional material for publishing which went on for another six months. During the editing process, I also worked on the first draft of the spin-of to A Pinch of Surprise named A Drip of Suspense as the idea of duology sounded great. Later, I wanted to look at the critical reception for the first book to decide on writing another. Pausing the second book and putting all the effort into finishing the first one, it took close to overall 11 months to finish finishing this entire novel.

Thoughts on writing the book, in the midst of the Covid situation?

You remember the song, ‘Kal ho na ho’, that is how terrified we all were in the initial days of the pandemic. I loved writing the characters and at one point bringing these characters to you has become the sole purpose of living. I was lost in the fictional world I’ve created as it seemed better than the reality outside. I adored living with these characters every day and constantly developing them, writing humor involving them and surprises that I wanted them to have and myself as well. Media has done its job by terrifying us all and pushing us into a state of panic and writing has become my therapy, the characters have become my friends. (P.S. I killed some of them though, I meant the characters.)

You have done some great marketing for the book without being forceful. What was the thought behind each post or meme that you created?

I barely have begun marketing the book. The posts on my IG wall were to raise curiosity about the narration and characters. These posts were directly targeted to the people who knew me personally. They knew about the journey of the book and they’ve witnessed the whole journey of bringing the book out. The posts if done properly these people will be the very first ones to read the story and spread the word about it and the word of mouth brings more readers and that’s what I did. Coming to the memes, they are to entertain all of those who have read the book and are looking forward to reading the book, and in this age of entertainment and digital marketing, it was crucial for me to post in meme format so people will pay attention while reading what post actually is about.

Do share some writing tips for a novice writer?

Write what you love. If you don’t love what you write how can you expect others to love your story.

Also, how important has reading been in this journey?

During the entire writing period of eleven months, I chose to not read any other book as it might have laid an impact on my writing. It was completely an experiment to see how A Pinch of Surprise (APOS) would turn out to be without any impact from the other books that I read during the time of writing. Prior to the journey of APOS, I used to read only the murder mystery novels written by the queen of mystery, Agatha Christie, and that had a great impression on me to write a tale of mystery in a fashion that I’d love to read. Once I was completely done with writing APOS then I resumed reading novels but this time, I went ahead and started reading books of any kind of genre and that is laying an impact to write in anything other than the genre of mystery. So, I believe what you read, will have an effect on what you write.