Author Q&A

Popular Questions Answered

1.  Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Baisakhi:  I never planned to write magicNine. It happened to me. I didn’t even want to publish it as I didn’t want strangers reading my heart and the most intimate, private details of my life. But then I do believe in signs and synchronocities, which guided me to the publishing of magicNine; those symbolic, meaningful happenstances are by themselves a story worth sharing! You may have a glimpse of it in the introduction to my book, how the signs beckoned me… perhaps they were not really signs, just coincidences and the rest my imagination; but what difference does it make really? It’s all in the mind anyways.

2.  How do you get inspired to write?

Baisakhi: Writing just makes me feel so alive, when I spend all this time with myself, playing in my mind, fantasizing, imagining, day-dreaming, juggling with possibilities, that penning down my thouhgts is actually the last step in the process. The beginning is always the dreams, the playful imaginations, the unconscious witticisms, the childlike curiosity that makes me want to create stories and scenarios in my head, most of the time playing with the circumstances and situations of my own life and creating my masterpiece by weaving all those elements into a story.

3.  What are you currently working on?

Baisakhi: Definitely the sequel to my first book magicNine. It’s called amarMilan. It’ll be the most exciting book for me as it’ll redefine a lot of concepts in life that we take for granted and never test their validity. I’m not writing down anything as yet… just noting, observing all the aspects and characters that’ll go into it. That’s how I write best; I almost never sit down to write one page a day or something like that. Whenever something significant occurs, that I know will go into my book, I make a mental note of it… and it may be two weeks/months/years later depending on need, I can still retrieve that piece of info from my memory bank, as long as I had made a good recognition of it in my mind while it happened. So that’s how magicNine was written and that’s how my stories shape…

4.  What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Baisakhi: Don’t judge your thoughts, hints, hunches & snippets of incredible imagination… just write them down, or store them in your memory bank for later in case you’re not in a place or position to pen at that juncture. That’s what I do; this has also strengthened my memory. Inspiration comes in many forms… you may be walking on the road and a thought occurs, you may see a billboard and it can trigger a sensation that lifts you from a stuck chapter, that inspires your next plot or whatever it is, however it comes, just be open… don’t edit in your mind at that moment because you might lose your line of thought as logic sets in and you dismiss what could have been the most creative idea. Remember, later you can always select/copyedit, but at the moment an idea is flowing, don’t let your mind take over and hinder that sequence of inspiration.

5.  What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Baisakhi: Being free in the mind! In our society we are governed by rules everywhere, and free expression is severely inhibited. Even though writing is a lonely hobby it can set our imaginations on fire and bring out the best plots to the story at hand!  The best way to enjoy writing is to be uninhibited in the mind.

6.  How do you deal with writer’s block?

Baisakhi: I don’t write when I have a block… I just go about my ways knowing if I don’t push it the inspiration will come back sooner than expected… that said I day-dream a lot, not because it’s necessary but because I enjoy it so much; so I’m continuously tuned into my imaginations, and it is during those moments I find the urge to pen down my thoughts no matter how silly they may seem on the outside, because it is often those silly thoughts that create the best humor and forward the most interesting stories!

…logic is tragic, because it has no magic!  ~Baisakhi Saha