Guest Writing by Uma Chandrasekar

First of all, I would like to thank Tanni from the bottom of my heart for giving me this wonderful opportunity to share my writing journey. I am glad I came to discover her amazing blog through Instagram. I am very delighted to be a part of her blog.

My Writing Story

Now without beating around the bush, let me get straight to my course of writing. Not bragging, but I was always good at developing myself, myself. Yes. That’s true. I learnt many things by being my own teacher. One of those things which also happens to be a major endeavour of my life is writing. Yes, I read a lot of books, (mainly classics) before developing my flow of words with pen.

I am glad that I wasn’t influenced with anyone’s writing when I started writing my own pieces. I used to read a lot of newspapers earlier and as a practice, I would start writing on one piece of news a day. It would be in first person and my writing would be full of cribbing. The next day when I would read the same write-up again, I would feel like tearing it apart. So this way, I was being a critic of my own work that helped me a lot in honing up my skill.

It was one fine day that I gave a piece of my news write-up to my dad, who always used to check, give feedbacks and encourage me to write more. Before even reading it, he gave this suggestion why shouldn’t I try writing a novel!

Yes. Talk about big ambitions :-D. He directly asked me to try writing a novel and without wasting another second, I was on the table scribbling on my book. I was always building up stories in my mind and so words just flew out of my pen smoothly.

My First Novel

Within four months, I finished my first “Novel” which was based on my favourite genre, “Horror”. But it had to be typed on the computer. Yes. Again writing the same 700 page novel on the computer was a challenge as writing with a pen and typing on the computer were both totally different. I had no patience to sit in front of the computer for so long and type.

Yet, I patiently started rewriting and modifying my manuscript as I moved ahead. All the while new ideas for stories kept on cropping up in my mind. I had other stuffs to do as well and concentrating on my manuscript became a challenge.

Then one day, just like a flash I got this idea to write a crime thriller story. Scenes were unfolding in my mind and I wasn’t able to control my urge to write this new story instead of finishing that novel. I wasn’t thinking about my work, my manuscript, or any other household chore. At that time, my only goal was to finish this story. I didn’t know how it would turn out. A short story of 10 pages? A novel of around 300 pages? Or simply a script of around 4-5 pages?

Me and my crime thrillers

I love crime thriller and horror in general. So weaving up this story came naturally to me. I always have this habit of finishing my story first and then giving it an appropriate title. So once I finished it, it occurred to me that the perfect title for this story should be, “Vindictive Umbrage”. Finally after finishing it, I realized that I had written a decent novelette.

My family and friends were in love with that story and asked me to seriously think about publishing it. My husband helped me a lot in that department. He hunted far and wide for good deals in publishing and finally put my efforts and hardwork in print.

When I received my author copies for “Vindictive Umbrage”, I looked back at the 17 year old me who used to create news out of news articles. Her dream wasn’t big enough to see her work published. At that time, her dream was only to have time to write and keep on writing.

My First Book : Vindictive Umbrage

It’s of course every author’s dream to see their work published. And I am glad that I was able to fulfil my ambition. I am thankful to the almighty and everyone who encouraged me to see that I become a published author.

Now, a little synopsis about my book. The story of “Vindictive Umbrage” mainly questions the very urge of the human mind to seek revenge. What one gets after successfully avenging a tragedy? Can they live with the guilt? When rights become wrong and wrongs become right, what becomes of the justice that’s served in this ephemeral phase of life?

To find out the answers, grab a copy of my book which is available on both Kindle and as Paperback on Amazon.

P. S : I am still typing that first novel of mine 😀

About the Lovely Author