My warm, lively friend Guilie—who I first “met” on Practice
group at IWW where all good things happen-- well, Guilie tagged me on her
blog.
These are questions re my writing process, and I’m being as
honest as I can. To begin with, the word
“process” makes me squirm…I don’t think I have a process per se. Writing for me
is like whittling away at the words, revision after revision, a chip there,
a bit of sandpapering there…
What are you working
on?
Two things, actually.
Or maybe three. I put writing in two boxes—translation and “own”
Box One currently has the longer term stuff, the translation
of an important memoir, a tome in two parts, where I’ve finished the rough,
handwritten word by word draft of HALF the book. I need to finish this as
quickly as I can, but typing it out, making changes as I go along, is going to
take what it takes. Meticulous, laborious WORK—but it chronicles an important
decade in my country’s history AND I quite enjoy the challenge of a personal
narrative as versus the fiction I’ve translated before. Plus this is a paid
assignment, and cash appeals to the Gujarati in me. I also need to revisit
Bharat Trivedi’s verse and translate the ones left out from the book—Since
that’s the only way we can reach poetry journals.
Box Two, labeled OWN, has three things primarily. One is the
PRACTICE group stubs. This is something
I MUST do, maybe two times a year I allow myself a pass. Most of these are
“inspired” from the newspaper. The second is working and reworking (after
rejections) longer stories built from these practice stubs. The third, which I
should do more of, is writing poems and CNF.
As you can guess, I’m
perpetually trying to balance out Box ONE and Box TWO. That I write Indian English, that I write
sentence fragments and have the attention span of a frisky sparrow, doesn’t
really help.
How does your work
differ from others of its genre?
Box One: Not too many people work on translations from
Gujarati. For translations I prefer to work on one author, one poet … instead
of flitting about from one masterpiece to another. This gives me a certain
comfort with style and nuances, a sixth sense of sorts that lets me go beyond
the printed word.
Box Two is mostly newspaper-inspired and Mumbai-inspired.
Not sure how it is too different, other than the form—mine are short stories,
even the murders are crisp and elegant.
Why do I write what I
do?
Box One: Because I can. Also because the next generation
cannot or will not read Gujarati, perhaps this is the only way to preserve our
heritage. Most of this work has been
gratis—only now bits of it are paying off.
Box Two: I don’t know. Sometimes stories nag you, itch till
they’re out in B&W. Also, because as I invest time in BOX ONE, this tiny
voice prods me—so what did you do for YOU?
How does my writing
process work?
Box One: Translate by hand, word by word. Type out, changing, whittling as you go.
Print and revise. Incorporate Author comments and revise. For a book, send
final version to ALICE, get her comments, revise.
Box Two: Read newspapers, keep a radar scan watch for
anything that seems unusual. Cut pages that seem interesting. Save news from
online city papers. WRITE a PRACTICE stub with suitable story. Extend stub.
Polish, sub, rework, sub… endless cycle.
