Ask the Author: Bhavini K. Desai
Answered Questions (12)
Bhavini K. Desai
The fourth book in The Heaven Series is scheduled before the end of this year. All updates on my Instagram.
Bhavini K. Desai
The fourth book in The Heaven Series is scheduled before the end of this year. All updates on my Instagram.
Bhavini K. Desai
The third book in The Heaven Series -- Beyond this Heaven is scheduled to release on 1st March 2025.
Bhavini K. Desai
Yes, there will be another book in the Indian Royals Series, chronicling the tale of Samarth and Avantika. More updates on my Instagram!
Bhavini K. Desai
For now, a total of 4. But the number can go up to 5 too.
Bhavini K. Desai
Yes, we do. It is coming out in a month. All updates are on my Instagram.
Bhavini K. Desai
Ignorance, as they say, is bliss. So I don't call it a 'block.' Because I believe that writing, like any artform, comes from some higher power. If your tap is not flowing for a few days, it's ok. Do other things -- read, watch movies, while away your time doing nothing (unless you have deadlines. then while away your time freaking out).
Normally though, I don't make writer's block into a big deal or a guilt trip. It's life. Sachin Tendulkar didn't score a century every day, did he?
Normally though, I don't make writer's block into a big deal or a guilt trip. It's life. Sachin Tendulkar didn't score a century every day, did he?
Bhavini K. Desai
That your mind is a beautiful as well as a terrible place. From time to time.
Bhavini K. Desai
If you want to be a writer in this world, don’t chase after creative writing courses or ‘how to write in 30 days’ textbooks. That’s not how writers are born, to the best of my knowledge. If you want to become a writer, then there are 3 things you need to do. Only 3 things.
1. Read. Read whatever you can get your hands on. Leaflets, newspapers, Instagram captions, shampoo bottles, hoardings. It would be better if you slowly venture into the land of novels, but even if you don’t, it’s ok. Just find more stories to read — comic strips, graphic novels, plays, movie screenplays… anything. Because when you read, you slowly open your horizons. To new worlds, to different kinds of people, to ideas.
2. Write everyday. Write 2 words or 20 or 20,000 in a day (though the last one is almost impossible, let me know if you do and I’ll send over cake). Writers are made by writing, as simple as that. Your pieces don’t need to have any set shape. Don’t run after structure either. Short story or novel or novella… don’t bother. I started my journey by writing a random story on my mom’s blackberry phone under the blanket when I was supposed to study for my 12th std chemistry test. You might begin yours by writing two-line plots of books you want to write one day.
3. Do not correct your grammar. Yet. This is one of my original sayings — ‘Write in speed, edit at leisure.’ Maybe one day you will see it splashed across Google Images with my photo on it. Then you can claim you read it first. Any way — so yeah, while you are writing, don’t go back every sentence or paragraph to edit. Let there be grammatical mistakes, let there by spellings underlined in reds and blues. You keep going, because once your mind is firing words and ideas at you, there’s a seamless energy flowing. You never know when it will be on a roll again. It’s like collecting rainwater. Let it all come down into your reservoir. Then you have all the time to divert it. Editing is hence best taken up at least 24 hours after you finish a piece. But I usually go back once I am done writing a scene or a section (who said I follow my own rules all the time?)
But in a nutshell, I do adhere to this. Read-write-don’t correct your grammar-thing. It’s worked for me so far, so try it for a week and let me know if it works for you too.
1. Read. Read whatever you can get your hands on. Leaflets, newspapers, Instagram captions, shampoo bottles, hoardings. It would be better if you slowly venture into the land of novels, but even if you don’t, it’s ok. Just find more stories to read — comic strips, graphic novels, plays, movie screenplays… anything. Because when you read, you slowly open your horizons. To new worlds, to different kinds of people, to ideas.
2. Write everyday. Write 2 words or 20 or 20,000 in a day (though the last one is almost impossible, let me know if you do and I’ll send over cake). Writers are made by writing, as simple as that. Your pieces don’t need to have any set shape. Don’t run after structure either. Short story or novel or novella… don’t bother. I started my journey by writing a random story on my mom’s blackberry phone under the blanket when I was supposed to study for my 12th std chemistry test. You might begin yours by writing two-line plots of books you want to write one day.
3. Do not correct your grammar. Yet. This is one of my original sayings — ‘Write in speed, edit at leisure.’ Maybe one day you will see it splashed across Google Images with my photo on it. Then you can claim you read it first. Any way — so yeah, while you are writing, don’t go back every sentence or paragraph to edit. Let there be grammatical mistakes, let there by spellings underlined in reds and blues. You keep going, because once your mind is firing words and ideas at you, there’s a seamless energy flowing. You never know when it will be on a roll again. It’s like collecting rainwater. Let it all come down into your reservoir. Then you have all the time to divert it. Editing is hence best taken up at least 24 hours after you finish a piece. But I usually go back once I am done writing a scene or a section (who said I follow my own rules all the time?)
But in a nutshell, I do adhere to this. Read-write-don’t correct your grammar-thing. It’s worked for me so far, so try it for a week and let me know if it works for you too.
Bhavini K. Desai
I am working on the sequel of The City of Pillars, which will start where this one left off. It's an even more intense romance, with lots of angst, love and a heavier dose of politics. I am setting it in the spring/summer of Srinagar, which means you can expect the valley's spotless beauty under clear skies.
Also, there are almond blossoms and Mohammad Rafi songs! And finally a shikara date.
Also, there are almond blossoms and Mohammad Rafi songs! And finally a shikara date.
Bhavini K. Desai
My inspiration on a daily basis comes from everywhere and nowhwere. Sometimes an old Bollywood song will suddenly startle me with a scene around Atharva. But then I will be thinking nothing in the shower and pop comes a big break in the current plot!
Bhavini K. Desai
It was my first year in Mass Media. And as is wont for any first-year starry-eyed kid anywhere in the world, I too was on a club-joining spree. One of those clubs, an editorial club, was running a short story writing contest. I was a part of setting it up, and because members are the first scapegoats, I was asked to submit a short story. The best ones would be published in an anthology.
On a rainy August evening in 2013, I finished my short story. It was called Rescuing Heaven. But it exceeded the word limit of 3000 by a hundred or so. Try as I might, it just wouldn’t sound as good when I cut sentences or replaced phrases. So I called my Editorial Head and requested her to consider me. Members were known to get special treatment, and there usually was a buffer for the word limit too. She refused.
So I spent that night frantically editing. Cutting, replacing, removing. Somehow I managed to slip under the word limit. But the final read didn’t give me the feels anymore. So I didn’t submit it. They refused to take the version I wanted to send. And I refused to submit a version that forget readers, didn’t appeal to me first.
That’s how I was left with a 3000+ words short story, which would later expand into a novel named The City of Pillars. That short story became the Prologue of this book, born out of the idea that great rescues are not of cities and countries. One man can seldom save an entire people. But even if he saved one person, it’s a good start.
A young soldier and a teenage orphan girl in the this short story grew up to become a solid political leader and a fierce writer. They grew up to be Atharva Singh Kaul and Iram Haider. And made me grow in the process too.
On a rainy August evening in 2013, I finished my short story. It was called Rescuing Heaven. But it exceeded the word limit of 3000 by a hundred or so. Try as I might, it just wouldn’t sound as good when I cut sentences or replaced phrases. So I called my Editorial Head and requested her to consider me. Members were known to get special treatment, and there usually was a buffer for the word limit too. She refused.
So I spent that night frantically editing. Cutting, replacing, removing. Somehow I managed to slip under the word limit. But the final read didn’t give me the feels anymore. So I didn’t submit it. They refused to take the version I wanted to send. And I refused to submit a version that forget readers, didn’t appeal to me first.
That’s how I was left with a 3000+ words short story, which would later expand into a novel named The City of Pillars. That short story became the Prologue of this book, born out of the idea that great rescues are not of cities and countries. One man can seldom save an entire people. But even if he saved one person, it’s a good start.
A young soldier and a teenage orphan girl in the this short story grew up to become a solid political leader and a fierce writer. They grew up to be Atharva Singh Kaul and Iram Haider. And made me grow in the process too.
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