The Write Wing: Entrepreneurs Who Became Authors
A close second to opening your own restaurant, writing a book is the latest go-to hobby for every other man who fancies himself as a bohemian creative genius. But can you actually put ink to paper or spend hours crackling your knuckles in front of a laptop to string together words people will pay to read? These men did and they did it so well that we just had to get them to spill their literati secrets…
One of my favourite American utopian novelists, Thomas Berger famously said, “Why do writers write? Because it isn’t there.” For most up-and-coming wordsmiths dreaming of that book contract, a place in the bestsellers list or even just some recognition of their hard work, writing is all about blood, sweat and tears and they know that real writers aren’t created, they are born. That calling is exactly what these young male authors chose to answer when they left their day jobs, steady paycheques and normal sleep cycles for the life of a card-carrying write wing member.
Dave Besseling
33, multiple role-juggler turned author,
The Liquid Refuses to Ignite
On first glance, you might think Dave Besseling is just another expat slumming it out in India and musing romantically about the cows, the heat and the roads. But pay close attention and you’ll realise this curly haired, free spirit from Canada knows much more about our country than he lets on. From being employed as a graphic designer to working as a language teacher, from trying his hand at being a visual artist and even a tattoo designer, to becoming a travel writer and a journalist; you don’t get more creatively schizo than Dave. Living off the edge – something he embraced when he ditched his college graduation ceremony in favour of his first flight overseas – Dave’s experiences have made him a self-proclaimed “international jack-of-all trades” with travels through 35 countries in 12 years. Admittedly then, his 20’s were pretty weird as also reflected in his debut non-fiction book, The Liquid Refuses to Ignite, which attempts to make sense of it all.
The book’s genesis is as interesting as its premise. Over the years, Dave maintained sketchbooks and notes from his travels and by 2007 he had put together a poetry book of fifty poems from fifty cities. Those ideas became the field notes for The Liquid… and many of the sketches became finished artworks that he showed in galleries, some of which appear as illustrations throughout the book and on the cover.
But the book as it stands today wasn’t part of the plan until 2009, when a travelogue he wrote on Varanasi for a lifestyle magazine gave him new perspective and a 2500 word article quickly swelled to about 40,000. Recalling his experiences in Varanasi kept bringing up memories of past episodes allowing Dave to pull out a specific narrative from a decade of chaos. That’s when he knew he had stumbled onto something and things began to materialise. He then took a leap of faith and left his last day job, just over a year ago, once he had a draft of the book ready, a bit of money in the bank and ideas for two more books in place. He has no qualms in saying “I decided – in the latest in a long series of very risky, financially ruinous, ultimately idiotic life decisions – to see what would happen and just go for it. Things are beginning to gel, but it’s still not clear whether a return to toilet scrubbing is or isn’t in my future”.
The moments of self-doubt though were rare when he was writing, but that changed as the release date drew closer. Though Dave does add that “self-doubt has been a great motivator to get drafts of my other books finished before a bad review of The Liquid… sends me into a corner to rock back and forth, hugging my knees and weeping”.
That sort of irreverent humour also defines his writing and his book, which he considers as a self-initiated retelling of A Christmas Carol. “Except the impetus is a narcotic drug episode in Varanasi that takes place at St. Patrick’s Day, not Christmas, and I play both Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge. My travel companion Dr. Heagney is the Ghost of Benders Past and of course, there’s also a lot more sex, drugs and swearing involved.”
The highlights of his journey till now though includes designing furniture at Chiang Mai University, displaying his paintings alongside H.R. Giger in Amsterdam, and ratting the perfect photo-op with the Dalai Lama. And he reaffirms our belief that writing is inherent with this, “I’ve never learned how to write or studied literature. Before the journo stint, my only period of dedicated writing was when I was a child. Then teenage life was all about playing music and most of my twenties were about making art. Those two mediums have been my influences. Keep it to yourself though that I’m terribly under-read”.
My advice to aspiring writers…
Go do a Vipassana meditation course. If you can make it through those, you may have the personality type to sit down and grind through the process of writing and releasing your first book.
And if you’re going to be sitting around writing, be sure to balance it out with some kind of physical fitness regimen. All the more important if you’ve acquired the habit of combining all that sitting and writing with drinking and smoking.
Also, if you trust yourself enough to put in the work and deliver, you’ve obviously found ways to get things done, so don’t take writers’ advice on writing all that seriously.
The biggest mistake I’ve made so far…
Nothing comes to mind, but I’ll let you know after the first scathing dismissal of a review points it out.
My writing mantra is…
Hijacked from Dr. Heagney, useful near the end of a long session where the lids begin to sag and you start to get the fear – Not to worry, women love the smell of hard liquor on a man’s breath.
Dave’s debut The Liquid Refuses to Ignite published by Hachette India priced at ₹395 will be releasing in the first week of June 2012.
Amit Goyal & Sudhanshu Gupta
28, MBA’s turned authors,
The Lost Story
In regular circumstances, management whiz kids and engineering geeks don’t exactly paint a picture of a discerning literary lot. Especially not in a world where Chetan Bhagat exists, writes and tweets incessantly about their woes… But then there are always exceptions to the rule and the writing duo of Amit and Sudhanshu are just that. Rechristened as authors whose debut novel, The Lost Story is charting a new path in storytelling, Amit and Sudhanshu come from completely non-writing backgrounds.
Amit has been known to do pretty much whatever he could get his hands on, but packs in a double whammy as an engineer and an MBA by training, while Sudhanshu too did an MBA. Their friendship that formed during college days was also based on their desire to write, which eventually culminated into the collaboration. Both were well aware that since they were going to write the book together, they wanted to experiment a bit and make the fact that there are two authors instead of one count for something more.
Written like the premise, the stories in ther book have each been done in two halves. One part by one author, and the second by the other, never discussing the story in between. And even their process was an interesting one. In their own words, “One of us would start a story, leave it anywhere we felt like, and then mail it to the other. The other person would read it, pick up cues, and then take it to its logical conclusion as he saw fit. We never discussed the story, or the characters, or the plot until its completion.” Of course, the result was that the conclusion of the story was always very different from what the starting author had in mind. “It always used to be a surprise and to be honest, we started enjoying this process so much that it soon became a competition wherein we would write a part with very few possible hooks for the other to exploit!”
But this passion doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned their degrees. Sudhanshu continues to buy and sell IT hardware, while Amit is in media sales by day. The eventual plan is to discard this dual life. As Amit says, “There’s no greater kick than creating a whole world and characters out of nothing. And doing something like that full time is definitely enticing.” Sudhanshu agrees, “Absolutely! I'll put in my papers the day I’m assured of sustenance from writing. It’s not just a passionate hobby, but an ambition.”
Knowing that they were onto a unique story kept them going. The thought of writing a book seemed laughable to them till a few years back, but The Lost Story just happened. So the initial process did bring some hesitancy, but they were always confident about the concept. It was a question of whether they would be able to do justice to it or not. Doubts that were cleared up as they moved forward in the story. Obviously they saw merit in this style of storytelling, which is why they shared the first few stories with friends who said they liked it. That critique and feedback also added a fresh take to each story, which enabled the duo to come up with interesting content across genres. Little successes also unshackled them as writers leading them to experiment more and more with the stories to form an evolution. That maturity is exactly what you notice when you start reading the book.
Then again, just having a great book doesn’t do the job. Serenading publishers is a tough job, or at least that’s what they had heard. “While we had sent our proposals to various publishers, we were lucky enough to receive a call back from Grapevine within 2 weeks. They expressed their interest in publishing our book and that’s when it all began.”
Somewhere along the way, there have also been happy incidents like a tweet Amit sent out about the book to one of his idols, Neil Gaiman. Amit asked him if he’d like to read the book and Gaiman actually reverted back with an address.
Our advice to aspiring writers…
Nothing is more important than a good idea and a good story. While you are writing the book, always have a few friends who you can share your work with and whose feedback and opinions matter to you. It helps. A good network and contacts don't hurt either.
The job is not over when you finish writing your book and sign with a publisher. You have to think about promotion and marketing as well. There are a lot of books out there, and making yours stand out is a task. Think of ideas to promote your book that tap both the conventional channels, as well as go out of the box.
Don’t ever think that what you’ve written is the final book. Even after a publisher comes onboard, your story goes through multiple iterations with suggestions from various editors before going to print.
The biggest mistake we’ve made so far…
It’s still too early to say what mistakes we’ve made as we have been out in the market for less than a month, so we are still waiting for feedback from critics and even readers to a large extent. We’ve worked very hard to make The Lost Story a good read, and while we know that we are hardly perfect, we do hope that we had all our bases covered.
Our writing mantra is…
Write what you’d like to read. Tell your own stories and don’t be influenced by what others would like to read. Feedback is very important and you should always be open to it, but writing is very personal, and it is best when it’s kept that way.
Amit and Sudhanshu’s debut novel The Lost Story published by Grapevine is out now for ₹200. You can also order it from Flipkart.
Ahmed Faiyaz
30, strategist and consultant turned author,
Love, Life & All That Jazz..., Another Chance – Miles Apart and Scammed - Confessions of a Confused Accountant
A book and film addict who is also a voracious writer, Ahmed Faiyaz didn’t just convert his love for prose into three full-length books and several short stories, but is also a founding member of a publishing house. Not exactly what you’d think he wanted to be growing up in Bangalore and training to be a Management Consultant and Strategist. Now based in Dubai, Ahmed also reviews books for various online and print mediums, but it’s writing that comes to him naturally. “I was quite good at making up stories since a young age and have been an avid reader. At a time when most of my friends were reading Tinkle and Archie comics, I had finished reading a number of classics as well as several collections by Roald Dahl and Leo Tolstoy. My becoming an author only became a reality though during the global recession, which was causing a lot of worry across the board. I sat down then to write a story that had been in my head for a while and my first novel, Love, Life & All That jazz... essentially told a story of youngsters who initially were part of the rat race and then charted a course to find happiness.”
That book was conceived out of the emptiness in people’s lives that Ahmed saw around him. His peers were slogging it out for bonuses, and taking loans to buy houses, but feeling lonely and frustrated deep down. So he wanted the book to inspire people. “While growing up, we aspire to do many things and change the world, but when you start working, you forget about all of that. Through the journey of the characters, I attempted to tell the story of the fast paced city life and how it changes people and its aftermath on relationships and careers.”
His next outing, Another Chance was an intense love story. So when it came to penning his latest book, Scammed – Confessions of a Confused Accountant, he chose to write it anonymously. It was Ahmed’s attempt to explore his lighter side and write something around the corporate world, the sleaze and politics behind the scenes and show how youngsters are drawn to it like bees to honey. A witty and racy account of the life of Hitesh Patel, a young frustrated accountant who takes shortcuts to success, which prove to be mistakes later; Ahmed chose to write it anonymously to raise the level of mystery and intrigue about who the author was and what the book was about. Eventually though, everyone did find out it was his work.
But even with so many successes, Ahmed still continues to be a consultant, although a day when he moves to be a full time writer is hopefully around the corner. Wisely so, he adds, “In writing, as in any other creative pursuit, one tends to feel insecure as you are putting yourself out there to be judged. But the support of friends and loved ones, as well as the feedback from readers removes these doubts and motivates you to go on.”
Contrary to his business-like background, his life and all the experiences have influenced his writing in a big way. Subconsciously his characters, their situations and what they go through are all inspired by the people he has met and things he has seen through the years. “You tend to take that and build on it as you develop the plot.”
My advice to aspiring writers…
I feel many people are capable of becoming writers. Everyone has a story to tell, but in my opinion, writing is not for everyone. It takes a lot of dedication, patience and sacrifice. It absorbs you in ways that a regular 9 to 5 job can’t, so know your capabilities.
I also believe that reading is important, one can learn a lot from the works of other writers in terms of how characters are developed, the flow of the narrative, dialogues etc. But everyone develops a style and voice of their own while writing, so find yours.
Lastly, write from the reader’s perspective.
The biggest mistake I’ve made so far…
Honestly, for your book to work it isn’t just about the writing. What’s more important is what your editor brings to the table as ideas for improvement and what your publisher is able to do in terms of designing, marketing, distributing and publicising your book. All of this needs to be in sync for a book to reach its target audience. I didn’t have any of this with my debut novel, but I learned its value. We built it all up from scratch along the way after launching the first book, which in turn gave successive books a better platform.
My writing mantra is…
There’s no mantra as such. It all comes from within. I write only if I truly believe in something and if I feel attached to it and realise that this story needs to be told.
Ahmed’s last release, Scammed – Confessions of a Confused Accountant published by Grey Oak Publishers is available for ₹175.
From the May 2012 issue of FHM India.
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