This workshop was presented by Mukul Deva, a famous author with 16 thriller and mystery books. I felt like this session really deepened my understanding in general creative writing, and helped develop my writing mindset. I felt as if Deva took us on an engaging journey, from sand to shore to ship.
Sand: How has this session clarified what it means to think like a writer – or in your week to week learning?
This session definitely addressed the topic of thinking like a writer directly and Deva provided very helpful tips on the process of writing a novel. Definitely, something that clarified my definition of how to think like a writer was when Deva told us to activate ALL the senses when writing. He said that we should visualise the story playing out, and thereafter, we would be able to manipulate all the emotions and the thought process of the writer. Also, he guided us through the steps of writing:
First is the science of the book:
- Plot (Thriller/romance/Mysery, etc)
- Setting (Time/period, location)
- Characters (Point of view- who’s eyes the story is being told through. Maximum 3)
- Incidents (create tension/risk/danger/desire for the characters)
Then you dive into the art of the book:
- Research (Need to know everything in order to make the book realistic)
- Validate (to ensure correct facts are used, logically makes sense)
- Writing the story
- Editing
This is the fundamental process of writing any book, and the thought process of a writer.
Shoreline: How did this session change or deepen your thinking, whether about the speaker or the story you expected to find?
There is an assumption that behind every bestselling author, there is a valuable story to be told. However, Mukul Deva cleared all misconceptions by providing a simple answer to a simple question. Before going into the interactive workshop, I had researched about Deva and found that multiple of his books had been adapted into Bollywood movies. Being a keen viewer of Bollywood movies, I found this to be a very interesting concept to develop and expand my thinking on. So, when I asked him a simple question- How does it feel to have your books in the movie industry?- I expected him to be proud, and give a very thoughtful answer about how he feels honoured they chose his book, however, his answer changed my thinking about his story. He said, “Well, the movies pay me, so I don’t really care much about the end result.” He then elaborated that he doesn’t particularly like the movies adapted from his book as he spent a long time and effort writing the book, but in a movie, it’s everything under 1 hour 40 minutes. Another thing that changed my thinking about his story was the idea that when writing books, he doesn’t empathise with his readers. He writes what he enjoys and doesn’t care about the feelings about the readers. I found this shocking as I thought this was necessary in order to sell his book and maintain an audience, but I can see the appeal in writing something he believes in rather than what his readers would want.
Ship: What do you think might stay with you from the session? Why?
I always thought that it is required to have your life planned out- have certain goals and challenges planned for yourself. However, Deva showed through his journey that it isn’t necessary to stick to the plan. He’s changed his career and done what made him happy. For example, he went from serving in the army, to setting up multiple corporate companies around the world, and then writing bestselling novels. Therefore, something that is definitely going to stay with me is this one simple thing Deva said:
“Best way to learn how to do something is to just do it.”
