Sachin Garg (website, Goodreads, fb), known for his bestsellers Never Let Me Go, I am not Twenty Four and recently Come on Inner Peace, is a writer based out of Delhi, India.
Apart from writing, Sachin runs Grapevine India, a publishing house that focusses on giving new authors a platform to find audiences.
Sachin’s answers are…
1. Why do you write? Why would someone else want to be a writer?
Interestingly, I’ve never thought about this question and I believe that’s a part of the answer itself. I think I write because I don’t know not-writing. I’ve always been a writer and this is what I’m happiest doing. Fortunately or unfortunately, ever since I started, I’ve had at least one story completely occupying my head at all times. And more often than not, the joy of telling that story is good enough to keep me going. I wonder if you can choose to be a writer. There are a lot of wrong reasons to want to be a writer. And a lot of these wrong reasons are perfectly right too. But I think a lot of time people want to be writers because they grossly underestimate the effort involved.
2. How do you come up with an idea? Ideas for plots, sequences, scenes, characters and other things? Do you use any tools?
I think my only real tool is to stimulate myself. Talk to a wise/ interesting person, travel to a pretty place, sit & maybe just bore yourself, stimulation can vary. But I believe you have to be entrepreneurial in looking for ideas also. If nothing is coming to you, don’t just sit and wait for it to come to you. I do believe that you can make ideas come to you.
3. Do you keep a rigorous writing schedule? If yes, what is your writing schedule?
My writing maybe rigorous but it is far from being scheduled. I believe my writing culture is still not fully matured and I have some way to go. I envy people who travel to different cities and shun the outer world to finish their books. I wish I can make that happen some day. But as of now, I remain much less organized than I’d like. My word-count-performances can vary from 5000 a day to 0 in 4 months. My personal best is 12000 in a day but I’m sure I would never do half as much ever again.
4. How often do you get interrupted by writer’s block? How do you go about working around your writers’ block?
I actually believe that the more ambitious you plan to go with your writing, the more often you’d hit a block. As I said, I do believe that there are ways to get around it. My favorite one remains talking to people wiser than myself.
5. What is the best advice on writing that you’ve ever received?
DON’T take it easy.
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