Dear Readers,
February – the Valentine month and also my birth month passed by faster than I had wanted it to. It was a busy month indeed. Here are some updates from my writing space!
Two Giveaway Contests
We held two giveaway contests last month. One on the amazing SHEROES platform, a women-only social media network and the other one on our Instagram page.
On SHEROES it was a writing contest – A short story of 500 words or less in Hindi or English. Over 30 aspiring woman writers participated and submitted some really good stories. Here are the winning stories.
https://sheroes.com/communities/aspiring-writers/MzEx/MzA0OTE1OQ==
https://sheroes.com/communities/aspiring-writers/MzEx/MzA0OTE2Ng==
On Instagram, it was more of a promotional contest where each winner received a signed copy of the book with limited edition bookmarks.
Feature on Shepherd.com
In December last year, Shepherd.com reached out to me requesting a guest blog post on their website. Their page is simply amazing, full of book recommendations for all kinds of readers around the world. I chose to write about – Books for those seeking a restart in life.
Here’s my article that went live on Shepherd earlier last month.
First Draft of my New Book
No matter how many books you write, starting a new one is always a daunting experience. The first step is to find an idea – a unique one that can slowly be developed into a story. Once you have the idea, many writers dive into the writing process. Being a methodical writer, my second step is creating an outline. The outline involves the occurrences in the story from start to end. Then the time periods and places through which the story evolves, division of the story into parts, chapters and then scenes. Finally, the character development and research about the places in which these characters are set.
Once all this is done, the process of putting words to paper begins. I aim to write at least 500 words a day. It takes about a year to finish the book – from the outline to typing the last word. After that, the painful process of editing begins where you have to mercilessly cut down paragraphs, rewrite some parts and reduce the overall size of the book.
At the end of all this, you have your new book – the best part.
So far, I have the outline of my third novel and I am 5000 words down in the first draft. Trying out something different this time. Fingers crossed!
That is all I had for this post.
Love,
Ashwini
You can connect with me on:
- Instagram: ashwinishenoym
- Facebook: AuthorAshwiniShenoy
You can buy my books here:
- Gift of Life (Paperback)
- Shikhandini – Warrior Princess of the Mahabharata (ebook and paperback)
- Those Girls – A Tale of Perspectives (ebook)
