My visit to Rishikesh

Guides at Rishikesh will tell you that the place got its name from a sadhu (saint) whose entire body was covered with snow as he sat meditating at the shore of The Ganges. The fact is that Rishikesh is situated at the foothills of the Garhwal hills and it does not receive snowfall. The point is: do not believe everything the guides tell you, but do not disbelieve everything they tell you either. They know …

400+ fiction writing websites on one page

You can find the latest on what is happening on all these blogs at http://blogs.literaryzone.com/. Literaryzone Blogs is an aggregator for writing and writing related blogs (book dealers, literary agents, publishers, editors). It displays an extract of the latest post on the homepage, which you can comment on, like, dislike or/and follow.

Literaryzone Blogs is used by the writing community to discover and interact with each other. It is especially beneficial to writers who want to expand their readership.

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Jan Lokpal: Debunking common myths

Myths about Jan Lokpal and Government’s Lokpal mean misinformation. Some myths are circulated deliberately to fool the people, and some crop up because of irrationality. These are the answers that people demand from the government and from Team Anna.

Naipaul’s rules for aspiring writers

I am reading Patrick French’s biography on V.S. Naipaul titled ‘The world is what it is’. It has a passage which has a numbered list of what an aspiring writer should do.

Organize your novel in three steps

1. Write down major plot points

What are your characters going to do in the novel? All the twists and turns will make up your list of major plot points. Death, marriage, birth, travel, moving to another city/country, change in fortune, adoption, falling in love, major breakthrough in work, life changing realizations is what your major plot points list will have. You do not need to worry about accuracy here because your plot will keep …

Tropes and Schemes

I composed this e-book to help myself and others get acquainted with the nuances of writing. I’ve included as many as 69 tropes and schemes with explanations and examples, so you won’t need to bother to make a list.

Download Tropes and Schemes

Dangers for Fiction Writers

Dangers for Fiction Writers is a free ebook that warns you against possible flaws that might scar your fiction. From boring beginnings, slow pace, unconvincing characters, faulty jumps in time to bad structure, scale, complexity, narration and action; Dangers for Fiction Writers will help you glide through the potholes.

Download Dangers for Fiction Writers

Begin Writing Fiction

How many times have you thought of writing a book? Many, you will say. But you never got down to the actual writing. Begin Writing Fiction is a concise e-book that helps you with building characters, POV, setting, plot, narration, dialogue, style and avoiding clichés so that you can begin writing your book today.

Download Begin Writing Fiction

My visit to Rishikesh

Guides at Rishikesh will tell you that the place got its name from a sadhu (saint) whose entire body was covered with snow as he sat meditating at the shore of The Ganges. The fact is that Rishikesh is situated at the foothills of the Garhwal hills and it does not receive snowfall. The point is: do not believe everything the guides tell you, but do not disbelieve everything they tell you either. They know …

Udaipur: Stepping across cultures

Narrow lanes where only a car can pass through at a time climbed up to hotels and shops in old Udaipur. It made me do two things: fight with claustrophobia and try to get a glimpse of the famous lakes.

The largest lake in Udaipur, Lake Pichola, is blocked from view by hotels, shops and houses; none of them higher than the third story. The only place from where you can get a full view of …

The Inhabitants of Ishica

The Inhabitants of Ishica is a fictional memoir of a woman, who at sixty-three, recalls the episodes of her past life.

The Rise of the Dawn: A novel by Shruti Chandra Gupta

The Rise of the Dawn tells the story of a young man who becomes a social handicap because of his need to avoid his past. His dead sister, tyrannical father and loving mother find a way to reach him; through dreams. After years of living in isolation, it is the love of two women that helps him awaken the strength to confront and accept his past.

The novel explores the trinity of past, present and future; the …

The Window

From the window the hot wind charged into the room, stung Kesha on the cheek and comfortably spread out like an unassuming guest.

‘Close the window!’ Rishi said from behind the newspaper.

‘With so much smoke from the parathas, we will either die of suffocation or get killed by the heat,’ she said, slapping a ball of dough on the kitchen slab.

Rishi didn’t answer. Something tickled her from the inside.

‘I told you …

What’s all this about word count?

Put A Love Story by Eric Segal beside War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and the argument does not stand. But I am not thinking about selling, for a change; I am thinking about determining the volume of your book accurately.

I read somewhere an easy way to do it. If you divide your book into scenes, which is how most writer write (I really don’t know, …

Books I recommend on fiction writing

These are some of the books I recently read. In each book listed below, I learnt something new and invaluable about fiction writing. I borrowed them from the British Council Library so they are not a part of my bookshelf. I did not photograph any of the earlier books so those photos are borrowed from the net. Will make it a habit to click from now on.

The links for all these books direct you to amazon where you can look at the description of the book, its contents, customer reviews and ‘look inside’. I have only included the summary of two books because those are with me right now. Others I have conveniently forgotten (but I do copy the important pages for future reference, which I can’t share with you because of plagiarism).

8 interesting sites on writing fiction

1. Writing Fiction by Crawford Kilian

Crawford Kilian is a published author of many books. As expected, he has excellent advice on every topic he chooses to write on. This site is highly recommended for all fiction writers.

10 Handy Fiction Writing Resources

1. Here to Create

This page has the ‘I-wanted-it’ list of great resources for fiction writers. From character building, POV, dialogue, plot, conflict, story world, structure, ideas to everything writing related under the universal sun.

2. Fiction Factor

On this page, you will find good advice on various topics such as conflict, sub-plot, main plot, narrative, ending etc. A …

8 remarkable book publishing websites

Book Market


This page has a list of 400+ book editors including editors of first novels with full address, phone number, fax, e-mail and website address.

Cader Books

On this page, you will answers to questions ranging from how to find an agent to how to write a good book proposal. The information provided is concise and well articulated….