To be honest, I didn’t do that much research on Deva. From the site provided on the Writers’ Fortnight Programme schedule, the “About Mukul” page talked more about his status and achievements as a businessman rather than as an author, so I thought that he would focus more on his life as an entrepreneur. So, I was surprised when he went through his writing process instead of his methods as a businessman. Though, since this is an English class, I should’ve realised that the presentation would be about storytelling rather than enterprise.
I’m not sure if this will relate to the physical process of writing, but if I ever choose to become an author as an official career, I should take Deva’s perspective on things and not care what other people think of my writing and how other people interpret it and care about the money. Something that does help with the actual process is his walkthrough of his own writing process. I think this helps a lot on organization and premeditation of a story, and it helps the writer not get flustered while writing. From my own experience when writing a story, if I hit stumble in the middle of writing, I tend to scrap the entire story and restart. I think if I took Deva’s advice and planned everything out and researched first, I wouldn’t hit so many roadblocks.
Something that deepened my understanding of writing was his inspiration. He said that he would take a real life incident and then put a spin on it to make his stories. It reminded me of Marc Nair’s presentation; he also told us that real life is weirder than anything we can make up. When I was younger, maybe around kindergarten or first grade, my teacher would often praise “creative thinking” during writing time. “Creative thinking” and “imagination” basically boiled down to what was the most unrealistic story. Flying unicorns and frog princes and all that. So, I thought that making a great story meant that you couldn’t use the real world as a basis. Of course, I later learned about realistic fiction but even then, the people around me like fantasy more than that genre. So I took this thinking with me as I grew older. Deva’s presentation told me that I didn’t have to go create up a new world with new rules to get the audience hooked. Sometimes, blurring the line between reality and fiction can be just as unnerving and exciting.
Even if I do forget most of his talk, I think I’ll remember one important thing. Near the end, he answered a question. I forgot what the question asked, but I do remember his answer, which is more important. He said that 1) he liked writing, 2) it pays rent, and 3) he gets a kick out of creating something out of nothing. Why is this so significant? Because I want to be a writer, and his words kind of validate the future that I want. The message I got out of this was that I can pursue what I like to do and still get money out of it; I won’t starve to death on the streets because I wanted to pursue storytelling as a job.
Five Inquiries that I Still Have:
Deva said that he made sure he didn’t copy other author’s writing styles or ideas by not reading the same genres that he was writing. Which is great; good for him. But what if others don’t do that? What should they do? Should they just stop reading? Is there any other method for them to check without having to cut off an entire genre out of their reading plans/options?
Has he ever done the Yoga Murder Writing Exercise himself? What kind of stories did he make? Did he find it helpful?
Deva also said that there shouldn’t be more than three, a maximum of four, POV characters in a story. Is it still alright if there is more than four POV characters? If I remember correctly, Rick Riordan managed to do this for a series in his book. Should people only try to attempt more than four POV characters when they are more skilled?
Does he use beta readers? If so, how does he choose them?
What happens when he doesn’t agree with his editor? Does he still make the changes, or does he ignore it? What about for beta readers (if he has any)?
