Please introduce yourself and your book(s)!
Hi everyone! I’m Arpita from India. I’m a self-published author of two books, Bound by Life and How I Tamed the Dragon Named Fear. The former is a work of fiction and contains ten short stories based in rural and urban India. The latter is a non-fiction self-help book on getting over fear. It contains many examples from my personal struggle with fear of various things including public speaking, snakes etc.!
What is/are the story(ies) behind your book(s)?
When I wrote my first book, Bound by Life, I was few months away from graduating engineering school. I had always written before that and eventually wanted to be a published author, but I was not aware of any self-publishing platform just yet – this was back in 2014-15. And the idea of traditional publishing kind of numbed me down from trying to write a complete book, given the rate of rejections. As soon as I got to know about Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform, I knew I had to publish something! That’s when I started with Bound by Life.
What inspires/inspired your creativity?
I think it’s primarily the joys and sorrows of everyday life which makes me go back to writing. I feel motivated by being able to express in writing what I feel, and trust me those moments when you can exactly get the feeling right on paper is not very often.
How do you deal with creative block?
For me, it’s not important to write everyday or even every month. I write when I feel like there’s some story inside me that needs to come out. If I am not feeling particularly creative, I just let it be – I know from experience that sooner or later I will get back to writing, so I pretty much wait out the dry periods. It helps that I don’t depend on writing as a livelihood, though.
What are the biggest mistakes you can make in a book?
I think in my opinion, it would be not being authentic to the voice of the book, by extension, the characters in the book if it’s a work of fiction. If it’s non-fiction, it’s about being authentic either about the subject at hand or being true to the author’s voice.
How has your creation process improved over time?
I think it has become more expressive over time, such that I am now in better control of writing things as I see them, besides also being able to write about them in a symbolic way.
Do you tend towards personal satisfaction or aim to serve your readers? Do you balance the two and how?
I think I write for myself first – like I said, for me being authentic is what matters the most, and I cannot achieve that if I think about the readers first. But once the draft is well-fleshed out, I make it a point to share the version with some of my trusted friends and that helps me understand how a person entirely removed from my vision will see the book. That’s when the balancing act happens – I will rewrite entire chapters based on the feedback I get.
What are your plans for future books?
Well, there was a point when I wanted to publish a book every year, but I think that’s changed now. Personally, I am in that phase of life when I am kind of living out my life, absorbing content that could potentially become part of future stories. But you can always follow me at arpitaapramanick.wordpress.com to find out about any book updates. See you around!
Book Links:
Bound by Life: https://www.amazon.com/Bound-Life-Short-Stories-India-ebook/dp/B00X6VG3B0/
How I tamed the dragon named fear: https://www.amazon.com/How-Tamed-Dragon-Named-Fear-ebook/dp/B06X15R9DP/
