Adventures of a Writer

When I read Sudesna Ghosh's novella, Just Me, the Sink and the Pot , I was struck by how poignant the story was. Told from the perspective of an overweight young girl, Pamela, who struggles with negative body image issues, I wondered how much of her story came from the author's own experience. Sudesna shares her story of how Just Me... was born. Over to you, Sue! "You're so pretty. Guys would love you if you'd lose some weight!" I've heard that line ever since my school days and believe me, the words hurt each time. So I grew up knowing I was pretty enough but too big to be loved or appreciated. If it wasn't kids my age, random aunties and uncles and strangers did the job of making me feel terrible about myself. Sometimes people excused their damaging words as 'concern' but that didn't help really. Fast forward to 2010, when I was at my heaviest body weight and hiding myself from people as much as I could, I decided to write Just me, t

Every story idea has its own distinct journey. Each is unique and can never be identical to the path that any of your previous ideas has travelled. Perhaps, that's the most exciting thing about writing. A few months ago a filmmaker friend asked me if I would be interested in writing a short film. He had come across a true incident which he wanted to make a film about. That was the beginning of the journey for "Seven Lives", a short film that I scripted for filmmaker Runjiv J. Kapur. When Runjiv discussed the idea with me, I knew it had the potential to be made into a thought-provoking, dramatic film. The subject was about society's role and how it can impact individual lives. As a writer I was excited about it and I began writing a draft. The first stage of the story's journey had kicked in. The story development process is the second stage of the writing process. The stage when the writer distills the idea and plays with it, trying to give it  shape, sub

My first post in 2017 -- after a long break from blogging -- is ironically enough about my misadventure in digital La La Land. Sometime just before the launch of my latest book I decided to overhaul my Wordpress website and give it a spiffy new look. And like all my "projects", I went on a mega research exercise. I checked out websites of romance authors and believe me there are some REALLY impressive sites out there. After much deliberation I decided on the "look and feel" and got a web developer to design it for me. The site was launched and those who have followed my blogs might agree with me when I say it was one good looking site. Problem was it was too pretty for its own good!  I'm a bit embarrassed to say that it intimidated me. 😂My blogging went downhill and my excuse was: lack of time. When 2016 came to a close I was appalled to see that my blog was languishing in its perfectly pristine state. And I was getting tired of seeing the same images an