Writing Right Retreat

Noololyako chenni, noololyako   the base voice of the singer was crooning.  Asking his glamorous lady love, why doesn’t she spin?

“ratiyillelo jaana ”she replies, that she needs a spinners wheel…the dialogue goes on in the nasal twang of the folk singers. Once upon a time these singers would never enter Durbar-e-khaas. But the song is played at the  Mango Meadows, where the “jana samanya” “aam janta ” sip their tea, before heading to the metro or the bus stop to reach home. Basically a nice to place to hang out, it is earthy, earnest and intellectual.

It kind of took me to a familiar conversation of me writing a book.

“You write so well, you should write a book”

“This is a lovely concept why don’t you write about it. Where do you get these ideas from… well… at the Big Bazar sale.”

Well friends, Romans and countrymen, I know the perils of the pen. If I had to address the reason why I do not write, then there monsters lurking in the  quest to publishing your novel.

On my monster hall of naysayers, Mary Kutty the second grade English teacher rules the roost. Even as begin to write they begin to pop up…

“How many spelling mistakes you are making…” the Corrugator Supercilii muscle gets hyperactive., as she continues, “Hemingway has only one m. Now write Hemingway 100 times, the H is capital”

How do you slay a monster like Mary Kutty?

By writing … Hemingway hundred times with a capital H and then moving on with the actual story.

The next monster to pop up was Mater of Mine, “You will hurt people, it will cause strained family relations.” This time it is the drooping Orbucularis Oris, and over worked Lacrimal glands.

But the bitterest blow was from my sibling…”don’t sweat amma,” he reassured my mom, “akka never made it to the Wren and Martin party. Anyway she is too lazy to write.”

How do you slay monster named..whatever…

How do you silence the story that infests your being? Answering that was not difficult, by writing of course.

But how does one get there?

I do agree that all who are wandering are not lost, but it does help to peek into road map. While I was googling trekking your way to publishing a best seller. Pondering over the perils of publishing… Indiblogger pitched a writers retreat.  “The Himalayan Writing Retreat” the line up of the faculty, Kiruba, Manu Joseph are known names, Chetan Mahajan familiar name, Vandita Dubey the unknown factor, not a bad deal. If not anything I got get a legit breaks and go to the Himalayas something that I have been putting off for years. I knew God was a woman!!

Since I am a faithful NaNoWrMn-er I choose November. Believe that night I had amazing dreams of punching my 50yr. old brother with a bestseller.

Like the road to Tipperary the road to Binsar is long way from Goa not to mention convoluted. I turned devout sent the ATM pin to my daughter and my alerted the lawyer as to where the will was. Once I survived the road, I arrived at the Binsar retreat it was amazing.

The day one, we were all, new kids on the block. maybe one or two of them knew each other… I am not sure, I am not a gizmo person everything and everyone was new.

Out session began the day after we reported in.

• After 5mnts of centring our selves we were ready for the next step.
• 20 mnts of free flow. It was quite interesting.

Chetan took us through the methodology of putting a plot together, like the just flow or have a concise plan. Then came the format of writing. Now I am someone who is the same league as Einstein he leads the pack.. I make sure the buck stops at me; you cannot go lower when it comes to your IQ. I was CAR driven all this while, that is context-action-result pattern while now I there was something called projectile (I know only gastric projectiles which is usually due to excess of bile). There is a easier one, ABCDE to figure all these out, take the next train to Kathgodam and trek up to Binsar or simple log on to The Himalayan Writing Retreat.

Then came the issue of character building, for my novel, in my personal space I am quite happy being clueless. Name, age, sex, orientation, occupations, likes, dislikes, motivation etc. etc. it was so overwhelming I had to my idea of the “Mothers On The Move” book, since I did not know the sexual orientation, or what drove the loud Punjabi mother next to me in the train. It meant I looked at plots I had already researched.

This guy really made life tough and easy at the same time.

If you have sorted the CAR and the ABCDE business, check this one out, it’s called the Hemingwayapp, I promise you Mary Kutty will retire from your nightmares. Difficult sentences, diffucultier sentences, passive voice,  past perfect, present continuous and future confused they all fall in place.

The workshop also dealt with trio of editor, publisher and distributor, not so much of distributor and to think I thought that the writing was about story, writer and reader.

Between coffee breaks, chai pakoda , camp fire we also did some home work. Wrote a play and performed it. There was a session on writers block, well let’s just leave it at that.

The most undo-able part of the workshop was creating a schedule, my mind sleeps, my body revolts and my family connives to ensure I do not stick to it.

Now comes the Machiavellian part of it, as I plot, pound and execute my story, every one of you with a story in mind, do check the writers retreat it.  Here is my schedule,

Jan.15th the plot in place with characters adequately assessed…

March 15th the first draft should find me.

Mid April trek to Himalayas to find a publisher. Destination writers retreat spring retreat at Binsar Forest retreat,

steps to complete your books:

Check Out The Himalayan Writing Retreat, select the appropriate days go to route planner choose the appropriate ones. Complete your books.

congratulations your best seller is hatched!!