No one can deny that WhatsApp has become deeply integrated with our lifestyles. Most of us are in contact with our cousins, colleagues, friends etc through WhatsApp groups. These groups really help us in catching up on whats going on with one another in a jiffy. I too have several groups and one among them is our engineering college friend’s group.
As most of you might know, I enjoy writing (no matter how good or bad it is). I generally write a blog every month and try to at-least write minimum one Quora answer every week. Quite some time back, I attempted to write a Novel (part1 part2) but stopped abruptly. Now, I have been again taking interest to continue writing this Novel but unable to do so. Writing is a very hard and difficult process. The only one who goes through the phase knows it. That's why I really admire those who write well and consistently.
One fine day, in the WhatsApp group which I was mentioning earlier, one of my friend informed us that, he has written a Novel and published it on Amazon’s KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). It is a self-publishing platform for new upcoming authors to put out their novels on Kindle platform. He said, it needs some 2 months for review by Amazon Kindle team (they might reject also if not up to standards or in appropriate content etc) and make it available for the public to download by paying some 99 bucks. We (means remaining friends in the group) were all really excited. After further discussion, we came to know that, if it sells well then he can even earn money (some % is shared with Amazon) and the ownership/copyright will still be held by Amazon.
My friend shared the first page of his book on WhatsApp group which was a synopsis. It was fantastic. The novel was about Indian Politics, where the protagonist trying to get a particular capable leader of a party to become Prime Minister of democratic India. It was all about the journey of this protagonist to witness his dream come true. His dream being this lady becoming PM and what all goes behind the scene in its happening. We were all really looking forward to the release of the book and to further read this promising story which our friend intended to tell.
As I told, even I was re-attempting to continue writing my novel and listening to my friend, new hopes opened up for me. I came to know about this self-publishing platform, a friend who already went through the process who can help/guide and provide tips in writing my novel and making it publish. I got new ambitions for writing the novel and new admiration for my writer friend.
Every day, I started to continue writing my half baked novel with the motivation that one of my friend (whom I know very well) did it. If he can do, I can also do it. I prepared the over all story line for my novel, sketched each character which I am going to introduce, their name, age, habits and what role do they play in the story. I prepared a chart in full enthusiasm. Then I started to write. Sometimes I use to get blocked, couldn’t even write a single word. Based on what my friend wrote about Indian politics and complex storyline of multiple layered characters, I started to think, what a stupid story am I writing. Some silly romantic story which is cliched. There is nothing innovative in this. I am just clubbing all romantic stories I have watched in film/tv series and adding some of my own experience about day-to-day activities of IT industry and cooking up some silly story.
When I was in such blockage stage, I used to pinged him on WhatsApp and ask, did he also face similar blockage while writing his novel, how did he overcome it, etc. He used to give me some tips and it would re-motivate me and I would continue writing whatever crap I was writing. After some time, what I realized is, it doesn’t matter how bad I am writing but what matters is completing the novel which I started. I use to console myself, this is not the only novel I am going to write but this is just beginning. There is no rule that, the first novel to be the best novel. The aim is to complete the story which I am planning to tell. With these kinds of motivation which I got from my friend who wrote a novel, I continued writing my novel whenever I got some time.
Day by day passed and after a month of so, he shared the cover page of his Novel titled “Ten Lives of Attainment”. It was looking very promising. He said he purchased the cover photo so that he won't end up in copyright claim later. I was thinking, how serious is this guy about his novel while I am lazily typing some nonsense every day. When asked, he told, it took around a year to complete this novel and he has plan and story for next 2 novels which he will write only if this first one gets some appreciation and success. I was totally flat and had become a fan of this guy! Such a dedication! Wow !
Another friend in the group of this was counting down the days of the release of this book. He was asking questions like, how do we buy this book, which app to install on mobile to read the novel etc. Finally, the D-Day arrived. The date of release of his novel on Kindle store. There was no response from the author friend. A day or two passed by but no response. I was getting skeptical whether poor fellow’s book got rejected by Amazon's review team due to their high standards and may be that's why he is not replying back? We waited for his response.
Suddenly he responded back mentioning that, after 2 days of release, his book is a big hit and he earned quite a sum of money. After that, he even directly shared the PDF version of his book in WhatsApp group itself. It was unbelievable and we all were happy and eager to read his novel. I was planning to spend the weekend to read this novel in one go and learn how he has written and get some knowledge on writing styles etc.
When I opened the pdf file of his novel, it was only of 4 pages, with 3 pages for build up and on the last page, it was something like “April fool” and its a prank. There is no novel. It was all a lie all along. A perfect real life prank on WhatsApp group. I was totally shocked, unbelievable. My brain was not able to synthesize that it's a prank. I still was believing that there is a real novel written by him which I will read and him telling there is no novel might be a prank. That day, it was really hard for me to digest this news.
After realizing the reality of no novel about Indian politics by my dear friend, I was shattered and lost all motivation which I had gained in past two months for writing my novel. I was feeling so stupid whenever I use to sit for writing my novel. Till date, I couldn’t write a single word on my novel after getting played by prank BUT while in past two months I wrote some three and half chapters of my novel just because I was under some false perception. So what should I make out of it ? Does having a perception really matters ? Doesn’t matter even if its a false perception, but having that perception of a friend completed a novel helped me writing my own novel.
We all will be having such various kind of perceptions in our mind in day to day lives and will be acting under such perceptions. Sometimes having a perception and acting based on it is really good as long it helps you. That doesn’t mean all perceptions are right and do whatever you want. All I am saying is even if its false perception or wrong perception doesn’t matter as long as it helps you. If you try to uncover the perception, perhaps it might be incorrect and you might loose whatever was helping you. So better to be under some imaginative perception and act accordingly as long it is helping you.
Well in my case, I am unable to continue writing my blog after I discovered that my perception was totally wrong. But thats fine, now after writing this blog, I will get back the old perception that indeed my friend is a great author, he wrote an excellent novel. If he can do it, why can’t I ? Let me try continue writing my novel with this perception (which is obviously FALSE) and take its advantage as it certainly helps me in completing my novel. PROBABLY !!! :)
