“What I write, isn’t really literature.” Hearing this in the middle of Mukul Deva’s talk certainly piqued my interest. What I had expected was to hear a man who would speak of his craft in a loving and passionate manner, someone who valued his own work and saw its importance. I was anticipating his talk to be in the style that I had come to expect of these Writer’s Fortnight talks – an insight into his life and how it affected his work as well as how it helped him be the artist he was. As you might have guessed, it was quite jarring to instead be met by a man discounting his own work, even dismissing its artistic importance. Yet, I thought his talk was just as enriching as the others.
Mukul Deva was not here to tell us about the depth of his work, or the meaning to his books, he was here to tell us about the technical and practical aspects of writing and nothing more. Even when prompted to talk about the possible hidden messages to his work, he responded by saying that while he tried to tackle a societal issue with each book, they were in no way an indepth look or analysis of the problem. While the other speakers such as Danny Tan and Marc Nair undoubtedly create art and they should be lauded for doing so, it was refreshing to see someone who just wrote to be entertaining, nothing more and nothing less.
His unique and charismatic nature carried into his method for writing. He didn’t give the advice I have often heard others give when asked how they write, often people answer that they just start writing and then morph it into a story, Mukul Deva instead uses a formula. He thinks about the characters he’s going to feature before hand thinks about where the story is going to go, and the key incidents that are going to take place. While this may seem like an appealing way of writing to some while coming across as bland and repetitive to others, it undeniably makes the world of writing more accessible to the uninitiated writer. To me at least, it give the feeling that I don’t need to have any lofty ideas while writing or try to convey a deep hidden message. To me Deva’s talk was worth listening to just for his ideas on how to write a book even if they may seem boring or unattractive on the surface.
It wasn’t just his writing that has much for us to learn from. Something, I think everyone in the audience could learn from the talk was the way Deva carried himself, regardless of whether they liked his formula for writing. Now I feel that I know my grade quite well and admittedly our attention spans aren’t the greatest (I’m no exception). Deva however had no trouble keeping us listening. He spoke to us in an extremely casual manner and even “forced” some audience interaction in, all of this made him an endearing speaker to whom I made an active effort to listen to. When he began demonstrating his method for writing a book he asked for a volunteer. When no one was brave enough to volunteer themselves He also kept his talk concise and to the point. He was here to tell us how he wrote books and that’s all he was going to do. He did give us a short explanation as to who he is and his life before becoming a writer, however this was far too brief to be considered a key point in his talk. Honestly I find it hard to even recall what he mentioned during this portion only being able to vaguely remember his time in the army and not much else. By skipping the fluff that was irrelevant to his talk Deva kept his discourse concise enough to keep us listening while still teaching us plenty about the writing process.
Mukul Deva’s talk was a deep learning experience in practically every single aspect however undoubtedly the greatest takeaway was his writing formula. It’s clever, efficient, and most importantly simple enough so that even the most inexperienced of authors could follow along. His formula was quite empowering for those who have wanted to write books but are finding the task too intimidating. It demystifies the writing process and makes us feel like any of us could be the next great thriller writer, it also takes some pressure of of us as we realise that we don’t all need to create works of art, sometimes it’s fine to just have something that’s entertaining.
