Hi Rodinhoods,
I am a Enginnering graduate of 2013 Batch and a Social Worker . I am working for Slum area children to provide them good education and good environment. I am planning to write a book on my journey of these 1.5 years in slum areas .
Is It a good idea and age to write a book ??
My plan is to write a book for fundraising purpose because form this academic year We planned to send 50 children from slum area to the private schools ,that needs lot of money .
Whatever money I will earn that will be used for that purpose only . So I want that my book should be effective .
I just started writing , So please help me in writing that book , because I am a novice in this area .
The name of my NGO is PEHAL-Ek Suruaat
All the suggestions and feedback are welcome regarding my question and our Work Also
Karan Ahuja
guys any good books to improve writing skills ?
Neharika Roy
Hi Ashish,
It’s a great idea and a very nice initiative. However, you must polish your writing skills and grammar first. I studied in a school with very strict emphasis on grammatically correct English so I can spot quite a few grammatical errors in this post itself. You’ll need to look into that. Apart from that, I have no idea how one goes about publishing a book.
I know that some people publish their books online as ebooks, give it away for free, and then ask people to donate money for the cause. In your case, since you are planning to use the money for sending under-privileged kids to school, this might work for you, since it’ll help attract a global population. (There are a lot of rich people in Europe and America looking to help poor people in India, but they have no idea how to go about it.)
Neharika Roy
By writing skills, I imagine you’re talking about the language, because coming up with content that people want to read is another challenging aspect altogether. To improve writing skills, the most important thing is to read. Read the kind of books you want to be writing. Read as much as you can, and while reading, pay particular attention to the language. Think about how you would have written the same story and why the author’s version is probably better (This will apply to good books only- the Vikram Seth, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amitava Ghosh kind, not the random-person-aspiring-to-be-Chetan-Bhagat kind). Whenever you come across a word you don’t know, look it up (phone dictionaries are very handy for this).
The other important thing is to write. Write every day. Maybe start a blog. The more you write, the better you’ll get. After you’ve finished writing, spend an extra 15-20 minutes going over every word and trying to get the best combination of words and sentences possible. Also, show your work to people and get feedback.
As for grammar, the only reference you’ll need is the grammar book by Wren and Martin.
Abey John
Check out The Elements of Style by Strunk & White and Stephen King’s book – On Writing. And yes, write daily.
ashish dwivedi
Hi NIharika ,
Thanks For these valuable suggestions , but one more thing i want to share that i asked some people about this idea , but they showed negative approach . and said to me that come with some intresting stories like love stories and all which are viral in market these days. I am little bit confused . Will u please help me ??
Abey John
Ashish, ignore what they are telling you. To be a good writer you need two things:
1. A true story told with honesty. That’s where Chetan Bhagat scores big time. His language skills may not be literary material but his storytelling is marked with honesty. An honest story will cut through any kind of hoity toity intellectual nonsense any day. If everyone is writing love stories you should probably avoid that. A good book never follows trends. What you have is a story first. And then you have pen and paper to get that story out. Or more like ‘vomit’ it out.
To put it in the words of one of our greatest writers Richard Bach:“I do not enjoy writing at all. If I can turn my back on an idea, out there in the dark, if I can avoid opening the door to it, I won’t even reach for a pencil. But once in a while there’s a great dynamite-burst of fling glass and brick and splinters through the front wall and somebody stalks over the rubble, seizes me by the throat and gently says, “I will not let you go until you set me, in words, on paper.” THAT is how I met “Illusions.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29946.Illusions
Note the emphasis I’ve laid on “good”. Its not a good story. Its just a story. What you need to do is become a “good” writer to tell that story.
2. Your grasp on the language should be adequate and yes I would second what Neharika says, your English is still below acceptable standards for writing in English. And your punctuation is atrocious. You really need to work on that before you decide to enter into the writing arena.
I would suggest putting your writing ambition on the shelf for now and focus on honing your language skills. Read and write daily (any old crap that comes into your mind) at least a 1000 words for the next two years and then pick up your manuscript again and look at what you’ve written. In the next two years you should’ve read anywhere between 200 to 400 books.
Then, you will be ready to spin up your magnum opus.
Abey John
Also, trying to fund your NGO by writing a book is what is proverbially called being up shit creek without a paddle. Am not saying it can’t be done. But it is highly unlikely you will be able to pull it off. Keep them separate for now.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Its a good idea to write ANYTHING
My suggestion – start sharing a couple of stories as blogs and see how different people react to different stories
Thats what I did with rodinhoods.
I clearly know that IF i write a book, it will be for anyone interested in starting up, business, entrepreneurs
I write “Rodinhood Monastery” stories – https://rodinhoodmonastery.com/forum/topics/the-bowl-tray-rice-and-chopsticks
Now, these get a lot of responses from women, non entrepreneur folks.
So, when Asha (if) puts them together in a book, the TG will be different.
So, my pointed question:
WHO will read your book
WHY? WHY? WHY (is it fun (Da Vinci code), Erotic (Shobha De), Horror (King), Gyaan or what?)
Then figure out WHAT you will write…
Neharika Roy
Write something that you might want to read. Also, out of curiosity, have you actually sat down and written anything yet? A short story, a poem, a chapter of your book, or even an essay? You should stop thinking about what people are saying and start writing, if you really want to write a book.