Imaginings on a door

I have a cracked door. I love it. Its my imagination door. The laminate peels in different places, and in those peelings I see things. Do you see things, people and animals too? Come let me show you.... 

The first one is a village woman carrying a pot on her head. And the other...why that is a stump-footed Russian soldier marching holding a gun on his shoulder  or he can be doing the Polka!

Now this is so obviously and antennaed alien.

There are too many here, so lets me just tell you about the two big ones (I am still deciphering the codes in the others). The first is a rocket taking off and the other, why its a dog sitting with his legs spread out in front.....just turn your neck to the left and you will see it:)

Is it only me? or do you do it too?

The Magic of Stories

Stories and storytellers were once thought to be imbued by magic. They were called during calamitous times to make peace with offended spirits and again in times of prosperity to keep the spirits happy. There is something truly magical about a well-told story that makes you leave your world behind even if for some hours. Its magical to read a line like- ‘it was the best of times. It was the worst of times…..’ or something like ‘it begins, as most things begin, with a song.’*

Stories reigned supreme in times when books were not plentiful. Now, that there are books and the net we have lost touch with stories, but that’s ok, for there will always be enough to keep it going for the next turn when they reign again. It’s a cycle. Just like no one knows what keeps a cycle going no one knows what makes a story magical, though we all have opinions on it.

Dramas, plays, movies are the mediums. The story is king. Yet what is there in a story that makes it so different from the anecdote Uncle Pain used to tell? The anecdote that went so:
“Yesterday I was driving down to my office when I saw an astonishing thing. You know that crossing where the beggars come. Well, they didn’t come yesterday and though I had nicely locked the car and put the windows up for you remember that case in Mumbai Mirror where three beggars kidnapped a person in broad daylight. Well, anyway I looked around and they were all sitting in a group further down the road eating cake!! Can you imagine that! It must be one of theirs birthday, but still cake from that begging money? When they can use that money to send their children to school.”

No matter how hard Uncle Pain tries that is not a story. That will never be magical. Now listen to this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx7ta3k6fY0
PS: Its in Hindi

Many writers and educators have dissected good stories and have come up with a blueprint for a great story. If you check on Google you will find them. Its like good music, starts with a slow hum, builds up expectations, gets you involved, spins the characters around, plays with their emotions and yours and finally lets you off in a dazzling climax. A few more uplifting tones carry on after the climax to make the story seem more believable.

I went to a story writing class and that’s the crux of what was said. What was left unsaid was the understanding of characters, the slow and almost tedious development of a story and the long confusing hours as you develop situations and paths for the characters only to have them walk another way. Yes, there are courses for them and people teach it, but I think someone said this for acting, and I am borrowing it for writing too

It cannot be taught, but it can be learnt.

Its hard work to create magic but it’s the work I like. Then again, maybe I am bewitched by it.

* The quotes are from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

The love of different v(o)ices

Everyone should have a vice. Mine is writing.
"It's not a vice," you say.
"Thank you, I could come up and kiss you for your innocent ignorance. May it last long."
I think every vice started off like this. A harmless foray into a pleasurable activity and then isolated addiction. Writing is my opium, my LSD, my cocaine. If I don't write I become grumpy and slightly asocial, but when I do write I distance myself from reality again. Its a Catch 22. There's nothing that I can do that will make me stay in the present, so let me write.

I love writing. I love writing for a reason(I tell myself. Every addict has a reason). It takes me out of everyday and puts me in situations that I would never have encountered. I think it’s the same reason people act. Yet, I have never managed more than one voice in my writing. Of, course there are other characters who speak, but the style of one is more pronounced than others. For this reason alone, I admire writers who can write whole chapters in different voices and see the same thing differently from different eyes.
Andrea Levy and David Mitchell are two who I think do it beautifully. Just hear the different voices in Andrea's fabulous novel Small Island.

Hortense (From Jamaica. Taking her first steps in London):

It brought it all back to me. Celia Langley. Celia Langley standing in front of me, her hands on her hips and her head in a cloud. And she is saying: 'Oh, Hortense, when I am older' (all her dreaming began with 'when I am older'). "When I am older, Hortense, I will be leaving Jamaica and I will be going to live in England." This is when her voice became high-class and her nose pointed into the air - well, as far as her round flat nose could - and she swayed as she brought the picture to her mind's eye. "Hortense, in England I will have a big house with a bell at the front door and I will ring the bell." And she make the sound, ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling. "I will ring the bell in this house when I am in England. That is what will happen to me when I am older."

Gilbert (Hortense’s husband):

My mirror spoke to me. It said: "Man, women gonna fall at your feet." In my uniform of blue - from the left, from the right, from behind - I looked like a god. And this uniform did not even fit me so well. But what is a little bagging on the waist and tightness under the arm when you are a gallant member of the British Royal Airforce? Put several thousand Jamaican men in uniform, coop them up while, Grand Old Duke of York style, you march them up to the top of the hill and then back down again and they will think of nothing but women. When they are up they will imagine them and when they are down they will dream of them. But not this group I travelled with to America. Not Hubert, not Fulton, not Lenval, not James, not even me. Because every last one of us was too preoccupied with food. The only flesh we conjured was the sort you chewed and swallowed.

This was war. There was hardship I was prepared for - bullet, bomb and casual death - but not for the torture of missing cow-foot stew, not for the persecution of living without curried shrimp or pepper-pot soup. I was not ready, I was not trained to eat food that was prepared in a pan of boiling water, the sole purpose of which was to rid it of taste and texture.

Queenie (their English landlady):

I was christened Victoria Buxton. My mother had wanted me to be christened Queenie but the vicar had said, "No, Mrs Buxton, I'm afraid Queenie is a common name."
"Common!" my mother had replied. "How can it be common? It's a queen's name." The vicar had then given an impromptu sermon which my mother, father and their gathered guests had to listen to as they stood round the stone font in our bleak local church. The vicar went on at length about monarchs having proper names like Edward, George, Elizabeth while everyone, dressed in their pinching church-best shoes began to shift from foot to foot and stifle yawns behind their scrubbed hands. "Take our late queen," the vicar finally explained, "her name, Mrs Buxton, was not queen but Victoria."
So that was how - one thundery August day in a church near Mansfield, dressed in a handed down white-starched christening gown that wouldn't do up at the neck - I, the first born child of Wilfred and Lillie Buxton, came to be christened Victoria yet called forever Queenie.
My mother, Lillie, was an English rose. Flaxen hair, a complexion like milk with a faint pink flush at her cheeks and a nose that tipped up at the end to present the two perfect triangles of her nostrils. She was a farmer's daughter and had hands that could clasp like a vice, arms as strong as a bear's and hips that widened every year until even the old men on the village green agreed they were childbearing.
My father, Wilfred, was a butcher - the son of a butcher, the grandson of a butcher and the great-grandson of a butcher. Father was ten years older than Mother and not very good looking. Some said it was his good luck at courting and winning the hand of a lass who had once won a village country maid contest that left his face with that startled "You don't say" expression.

Tell me, can't you hear each voice singly in your head. Each sounds distinct. This is what I mean by writing. Aiming to reach there and beyond. First there, though. The vice is strong and it makes me weak. But something good can come out of this vice. So will that make it a virtue?

Ghostwriting Specialised Subjects

Ghostwriting especially for books relies as much on word prowess as on an ability to think like your client. Everyone has views and a writer has more for he/she wields the pen that finally writes it! But ghostwriting is different; it demands that the ghost be invisible, so the views, ideas and opinions that need to come across should be the client’s own.
It is not easy to stifle your thoughts and usually you don’t have to go in for extreme measures to do so for by the time you go through the process of deciding whether or not this project is for you, you invariably get a fair idea of what the client wants, thinks and opines. There are still a few things that will help in your transition from writing for yourself to writing on a specialized topic for a client.

1. Respect the client’s view

There is no getting around the fact that the book was and is the client’s idea. It should reflect his/her views and opinions. Of course the best thing about ghostwriting is that both of you get to pool in your thoughts, but don’t try to flavor it your way only. One of the best projects I worked on required me to understand human psychology. I have never read Freud or Jung, but am human enough to understand people. The specialist helped me see the various shades of the personalities and in some time I was able to give inputs, which most times met with approval. When they didn’t I bowed to his superior knowledge and worked on. Thus it is best to learn, modify and refine your views as you fine-tune your project.

2. Choose subjects that you can understand

Writing is a creative process and needs your attention and care. Subjects that don’t interest you one bit will show your lack of joy. I am not saying that you need to have a spiritual connect with the subject but it would be nice if you find it a tad bit interesting and worth thinking about.

3. Be ready to change your writing style

Every person has a way of expressing himself. Your client needs to be reflected to a certain degree in your writing. The best way to zero in on to a specific style is to first sit down and discuss the project with your client and then send a draft of the first two pages. That is more than enough to give the client an idea of your writing style. One client that I worked with liked my style used but thought some of the words were too high-brow for him, so I made a conscious effort to use smaller words. The thesaurus in OfficeWord can help you there. Another way to get the client into the book is to take notes while he/she talks about his subject, you will easily find words and phrases that your client uses to describe various events. These details will help you in flavoring the document in the client’s style.

4. Stop fighting over points

Every situation has the potential of conflict especially when it involves more than one person. Creativity and a sense of language urges a writer in one direction, while a client might think more in the direction of things he/she has read or liked. Put your point forward, discuss its merits and let the client decide. If you feel too strongly you can suggest that the client show the two different versions to people whose judgment he/she trusts but remember to back down if the answer is No and keep the triumphant smile at bay if the answer is Yes.

Ghostwriting is literally walking in another person's shoes (actually his mind). You have to be ready for the personality shocks that await you:)

Ghostwriting basics that work for me

The first question in a ghostwriting deal will always send you back to the grocery store- how much? Quote a well- thought out skimmed figure and the person will invariably blink and then will start an array of bargaining tactics.

· Hmmm…but what is your hourly rate?
· I will give you more work.
· And my all-time favorite- It’s just words…..

Why am I telling you this disgusting fact about writing for others- coz you have to learn to accept it and move on. Don’t get offended. No matter how much you try and cloak it, writing for somebody else is a business transaction. It means- everyone involved wants to minimize the costs and increase the profits. The answers to all of them are quite simple if you just stop pulling your hair and crying out about creative value. Just practice THE SMILE.

Everyone has their own criteria for deciding on a project. Over time I have chiseled out the following points that help me decide whether or not the project is worth my while. I am sure that some years hence I will add or delete some more- but they will do for now.

The content:

The content should be comprehensible to me. Projects which talk profusely of subjects like math’s and physics are the ones I would gladly miss! Plus the content should interest me for I will have to deal with it for hours, days and weeks. I changed tracks in my career to do something I like not something that makes me want to go back into my quilt and forgo my day (my old job was good enough for that). If the content doesn’t excite you, you will never write it well enough and that niggling doubt spoils the feeling of finishing a project.


The availability of the content:
The content generally comes from two sources- the client or research. Many times it’s a combination of both. The research can be within the confines of Google or through a book/books. The time it will take to get those facts and figures is an important consideration. If it comes solely from the client then you should do a test check to see how good that person is at disseminating his/her information and how critical he/ she is when you submit the test draft. A nit-picky one can make your life hell if you have to rely solely on him for the information. Beware! (such a client is better forgotten than mourned over)

The time period:

I am a freelancer for a reason. I love feeling that I own the day and don’t have to rush at someone’s bidding. Of course it is a lie but one that I prefer to believe even when I run to complete my work, send my kid to school and make sure my house runs perfectly. Combining work-from-home-mom with creative writing is a task and takes up a lot of time. Thus the time period is extremely important to me; most of the times I inform my clients of impending school holidays and schedule them in my work life. Kids are prone to illnesses too and so I prefer work that doesn’t scream down my back the minute it starts. A small project that gives me at least 2-3 days breathing time is fine, while I juggle my day around. I am trying out the co-working option too. It is surely better than work-from-home for moms for they can be out of the house but not too far and can schedule their days well.
Check your calendar and only then say yes, for a late delivery will spoil your rapport and sully your image. It can also spoil the trust in the client bond. This brings us to our next point.

The trust factor with the client

I like trusting people and have sometimes trusted beyond their ability to respond. It takes time to build a rapport with a client and some might do it within days while some will still talk like a stranger even after you have gone through a few projects with them. Gauge and understand your clients for they are human too and sometimes a good rapport will decrease stress costs (for me)- for a smile is priceless. Bah!
But seriously, it is better writing for a person who you like/understand than one who makes you grind your coffee into pulp and reach for tranquilizers after every delivery.

The learning offered

This is an important factor for me, in deciding the cost and I have put it last for a reason as many projects don’t offer this opportunity. I have sometimes gone in at cut-rate prices just because the project offered to teach me something new. I am always ready to learn and enhance my writing skills. Any project that offers to take me beyond my known abilities invariably finds me ready to take the plunge. It also gives me a new skill to master and add to my resume.

These are the essential points that I see while deciding on the project and the price. I usually take the market rate and then put in these factors to decide when to stand back and politely let the client take himself and his project out of my door or when to sign on the contract and notch up one more for myself.

Moving back

I keep moving back and forth- this time I have decided. I stay here. So am reposting from different blogs that I wrote in. Its all old stuff, but it still makes sense:)