Hi I am Utakarsh Jayant and this
is my story on how I ended up writing my first book. The first time it struck
my mind to write the book was when I was 19 years old, second year in college,
bright and charged up, all ready to pen down something. With not much thoughts
in my mind, a vague idea, full of vigour and enthusiasm, I sat on my laptop,
which co-incidentally even after 6 years I am still using, to start writing my
first novel. I wrote and wrote, continuously, for two weeks and then the whole
steam blew off, leaving me battered and bruised but not disillusioned. I couldn’t
think of anything else to write after those two weeks. With time, I stopped working
on it. I had lost all the zeal of the beginning. But the aspiration and passion
wasn’t lost. I made a promise to myself to get published before I turn 25, how
and when will I be able to achieve it, I didn’t know.
As time passed by, gradually the
idea of writing the book went from the front to the back of my mind. It doesn’t
mean that I had given hope to ever write, it was just that I needed the right
time and inspiration to once again start writing. Meanwhile I would always talk
to people to absorb their stories, observe things around me and try to
experience new experience, making a note of various noteworthy incidents which
I thought I could inculcate in my book.
The real chance to write the book
came when I joined my office after graduating college. During the first few
weeks, the honeymoon period, I would have trainings during the morning half and
post lunch, I would sit idle, waste away my time. As a person I cannot sit
idle, do nothing. I need to always, continuously do something productive. If I
don’t do anything, something starts happening in my brain, a voice starts
telling me to do something interesting, productive otherwise you will rot. Me,
sitting idle, doing nothing was pinching me. Suddenly my life-long dream of
writing became the top priority for me. From nowhere the idea of writing about
real estate industry, keeping Dwarka and Gurgaon as inspiration, came in to my
mind. I started writing, again. The whole plot wasn’t clear in mind, just
certain incidents which I needed to highlight. From page 1, I went to the page
2 and so and on, at a frantic pace. Before I knew it, I had ended up writing 40
pages, the whole plot clear in my mind.
Doing any work without homework
is like going to war without having shooting practice. While writing, I would
always research, to bring interesting views and perspectives, add depth to
characters and plot. For example to give a background story to one of my
characters, I spent one whole night reading about 1965 India Pakistan war;
reading blogs and Indian Army and Navy and Pakistan websites, to have a good
understanding of the war. Another night I went through DDA websites to read
about SEZ and the laws concerning it. Writing about Ram Leela and India v/s
Pakistan 2003 cricket world cup final was fun. There is one real life real
estate scam about which I studied thoroughly and have tried to include it in my
book. What's the scam, well, I won't like to talk about it. Let it be a mystery
for you, my dear readers :)
The most important juncture of
during the writing process, which tested my patience level and made me realize
how I determined I was, was when during Feb 2013, I had written 58,325 word,
something about 147 pages. I added a simple yet crucial line, which was very
important from the perspective of the plot. Writing that line didn’t make sense
to the whole story written in previous pages. Unacceptable. Ghor Paap! I
couldn’t do away with that line, an important element. Hence I took the only
option available to me at that time. Re-write. To actually write that line, to
make it justifiable to the previous pages, I re-wrote the whole work, a good 4
months effort.
Two years I have taken to finish
writing the book. It took my 6 months to find me a publisher who agreed to
publish my work and another 3 months to sign the legal document. I feel
immensely proud and happy. And being able to do so before I turn 25 is the
icing on the cake.
Lastly before I finish this
story, let me share another juicy tidbit. Throughout the time I was writing the
book, I couldn’t come up with a name for the book. It was very difficult to put
a name to my work. Finally, after regular pestering of my editor, publisher,
family and friends, I was able to think of a name. How? I prepared a list of 9
possible names, made a Google poll and asked my friends to vote for the name
they find best. Around 50 people voted. Chasing Illusion is the
name of my book which ought to be in market by end of June 2015.
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