“I show up at the page every day and just write”: Sharang Sasan on writing his debut book

At what age did you start writing?

I started writing at a young age. Probably when I was 11 or 12, I used to write a lot of short stories. Letting the imagination run wild and writing became a great outlet for my creativity at a pretty young age.

Name a few authors/ books that you personally admire the most (Fiction/Non-Fiction). If you’d ever get to meet these authors, what is the one question that you’d ask them?

Edwin Catmull, Charles R. Cross, and Nina Munk are some of the authors I admire. The books that I personally love are Creativity Inc., Heavier Than Heaven, and Fools Rush In. If I could ask them one question it would be:

How do you decide to write a story about a certain topic? In the sense, is it the characters or the narrative or something else that compels you to dedicate an entire book to a particular story?

One Superpower you wish you had?

The ability to communicate with women.

What would be your one advice to aspiring writers?

The one advice I would give to aspiring authors would be, just show up at the page. Keep writing because the art of writing is rewriting. If aspiring authors keep writing, it’ll only make them better.

Do you have a writing ritual? 

Not particularly, I show up at the page every day and just write. Alternatively, whenever I’m inspired which is usually late at night, I get a lot of writing done then.

How did ” Hey You Rock Buoy, Stop Talks!  “ come to life? What/Who was your muse behind writing this book?

My book was three years in the making. All the unique experience that I was having in Delhi University, I was just noting them down and narrating those incidents to my friends and family. One fine day, my aunt suggested that I should convert all these experiences that I went through into a book. Since the experiences I was having and the people that I was meeting were so bizarre and funny at the same time, my aunt thought that it will make a great read and I feel it is safe to say, she was right!

 If there’s one thing that most of the self-published authors vouch for, it’s the mere fact that self- publishing teaches you all aspects of publishing? Is it true? What are your thoughts about the same?

I would have to agree that self-publishing does teach you about all aspects of publishing. Authors learn to edit, rewrite, and learn about publishing guidelines among other things. It is a very enlightening experience.

What was your journey of writing your first book like? How did you feel when your book was released?

The journey of writing my first book was fun, exciting and frustrating at times. It was a confluence of emotions one experiences while writing. When my book was finally released, I was ecstatic! It was a dream come true for me. I’ve been writing since I was 12, so to have that book release and have it in my hands was a special moment for me.

If you look back now, how has the whole experience of self-publishing been?

Looking back, the whole experience of self-publishing has been challenging and equally rewarding.

Your epitaph would read?

I laugh at my own epitaph, I change, but I cannot die.

 

To order a copy of  ‘Hey You Rock Buoy, Stop Talks!’, click here.