I had thought my novel would be ready for release on our 75th Independence day, when I started it in 2020. It is our 77th today, and the novel isn’t yet done.
BUT! A significant update - I’m done with the first draft of India House, and am a quarter of the way through the second draft.
TL;DR: Brief overview of my progress, some notes on my writing process, and Most Importantly, A POLL about the future of this Substack (all the way below). Please answer!
I’ve somehow managed to write 100-odd chapters totaling 186k words based on a series of events that might constitute 20 pages at best in the accounts of most historians. I am honestly amazed it’s become such a wide-spanning novel covering events in Bombay, London, Paris, Calcutta, and Pondicherry.
I think it’s a good time to update all of you subscribers on where things are at.
What’s taking so long?
First of all, I had a pesky pregnancy in the way when I was getting somewhere in it, and then parenting, which hasn’t been easy in the least. But that’s only part of the delay.
This is just an ambitious novel and probably not the best project for a first novel. Whenever I’d feel that way about it, I’d dismiss the thought. But recently, I was in a historical fiction workshop with a Q&A with the kind and amazing Karen Joy Fowler, the author of the exciting book Booth, about the assassination of Lincoln, as told by the siblings of John Wilkes Booth. When I mentioned my novel’s theme to her, she said “That’s an ambitious idea”. All doubt removed.
I’m writing a novel based on well-documented facts. So what would the holdup be, I wondered. Turns out, I’ve to zero in on how each person is feeling and what they are wearing and eating in every scene. I can’t just say “Tatyarao is studying law”. I had to understand what the program he was in was like and structure my novel accordingly. If he had an exam in May, I have to add that to a scene set in May. Why this attention to detail? So it flows and feels real. Why not make shit up? Reader, I try. But then I read another book and uncover facts, and… the facts are way more amazing than anything my imagination can come up with. Imagine this - I think “Oh, Aurobindo Ghosh just figures out explosives through an exciting montage”. Then I read the confessions in the Alipore Bomb Case and turns out they learned it in JC Bose’s lab, and they got access to his lab because his mentor was Sister Nivedita. Can you make up something better than that?
But these are technicalities. The biggest obstacle has been my mental health. I could pop pills and be focused, but I decided to take the long route of figuring out fundamental issues and training my focus. I’ve been quite successful, if I may say so myself. I’ve gone from having to depend on dopamine or adrenaline to write in feverish bursts after which I’d be burned out to sitting down consistently daily and pounding out 1000-2000 words. It’s a work in progress, but I am amazed at my progress.
I’m now 40,000 words into my second draft. That’s about a quarter of the way in. I’m working on the second quarter now, which might not need major editing and can go quickly. But the third quarter is what I’m dreading, as it’s going to need some major rewriting. The final quarter is kinda close to its final form.
And then it’ll need a third draft where I add descriptions, inter-chapter glue, and other color that makes it feel warm. Then it’ll need to be professionally edited. And then… let’s see.
It might take another year.
Things I’m learning from editing
The first draft is really you telling yourself the story. I’ve said this a lot previously, but it really hit me when I decided I was done with the first draft, because I knew finally who my characters were, where they began, and where they were at the end. This clarity helps me do the second draft.
The first draft has been full of red herrings in a way - I’d think a character or scene would be significant and write it in great detail. The story goes on, and none of that ends up mattering. This made it hard for me to write because I’d be paralyzed wondering what would matter in the end and what wouldn’t. Now, I finally know.
I am actually questioning the wisdom of posting chapters on here as I go. It was useful for a bit, but I realized my latest work is restructuring a lot of the stuff I’ve posted here. Resharing that is probably annoying for you as readers. It feels like novel chapters in progress are probably the wrong thing to structure a substack around, because things undergo such a sea-change, and yet not very much. There’s a lot about this process that doesn’t work for a weekly update… unless I’ve finished the whole book and am just posting the finished product here. I suppose anyone could have told me that back then, but I thought I could be like Armistead Maupin and write a wonderful heartfelt series by posting a chapter a week. That would work if it was just an arresting cast of characters for whom nothing changes day after day, I realize now. I have a lot of thinking to do about what promises are reasonable to make on a substack to readers.
The Story Genius Method Of Drafting (Interesting mostly to writers)
What’s made this 186,000-word draft so annoying has been this - I had a lot of interesting scenes people did like to read, but I had no STORY. There was no reason to root for my character. He didn’t seem to grow very much.
I had initially just written the novel freely, before hitting this roadblock. Then I replotted using Save The Cat! story beats. These provided me a structure for a beginning, middle, and end, so I knew what scenes went where and why. But the ‘internal story’ just didn’t seem to exist. If I did come up with an idea, there was no way to track it across the scenes and ensure it reach a meaningful conclusion.
I knew the second draft would be all about finding the Internal Story, or just Story.
My friend
wrote about the book Story Genius by Lisa Cron, and how it helped him think about his own work-in-progress. I decided to start thinking about my second draft using this book.It turned out to be exactly what I needed.
The book made this compelling argument - Fifty Shades Of Grey wasn’t a book with the greatest writing or characters, and yet it sells so well. Because it is very strong in terms of making you care about the protagonist’s emotional journey. And why do you care about the protagonist’s journey? Because you feel it’s going to help you navigate the world better somehow.
I was sold. I did the exercises in the book. Beyond the 7th chapter, I didn’t find it particularly useful, so I stopped there. But what I got out of it was this flash card template.
This helps me keep track of the emotional journey of the protagonists and makes sure that every scene means something emotionally. The “And so?” is extremely helpful in ensuring each scene leads to another. If it doesn’t, the scene can be comfortably discarded and the events in it can be just mentioned off-camera.
I call this the ‘SILSILA’. Every novel needs a Silsila to keep you engaged. If there’s no Silsila, you might put the book down, and I do not want you to.
Figuring out the Story was a whole exercise, and involved a lot of thinking and writing. I sort of figured out a kind of transformation that my protagonist, Vinayak Savarkar, undergoes - from a leader of boys to a leader of men.
But… the more I read about him, it almost feels like Savarkar emerged from the womb fully formed as a leader. It isn’t that I’m reading hagiographies; I’m not. But imagine someone at 21 years of age, who has already grown an organization from one to several hundred, and routinely spends time with Lokmanya Tilak and Gopalkrishna Gokhale, two extremely different, but extremely powerful leaders of the Indian National Congress. The head of the Secret Police in London already has him on watch from the moment he enters England, and he’s been watched by the police since he was sixteen.
What difference does that make to the plot?
It becomes a different kind of story. It turns into a story like Bhakta Prahalada, or Dhruva, or even Jane Austen’s Persuasion, where the protagonist doesn’t change, but tries to hold on to their beliefs through tough times that test their principles, and in the process, they change the world. Prahalada with his steadfast belief in Narayana makes him come down to earth and punish Hiranyakashipu. Dhruva, performing austerities to ask the Gods for his place in the world, is given the position of the Pole Star, which won’t change come what may. And Anne Elliot maintains her calm and steadfast nature despite facing much flak for it, and finally, her suitor Captain Wentworth sees the value in it.
When you approach it that way, Savarkar continues to be steadfast in his belief that armed revolution is the only way India will inch closer to freedom, and others get inspired by his passion, and help him get closer to his goals. There are obstacles in his path, but at every step, he is proven right.
So these two views of my protagonist are what drive my drafts right now.
A request
You subscribed for a reason, and I want to make sure I give you what you came here for.
Do you want to read this novel serially when I finally finish it, like one chapter a day/week?
Do you only want occasional updates for when something major is up with this novel?
Would you prefer a short weekly post with historical factoids like I used to send? Or would you like short pieces on topics relevant to the Indian freedom struggle?
Is there something else you’d like to see, like maybe more writing-related posts, or longer dives into historical topics?
Let me know in the poll below.
Thanks for keeping us updated. Your mental health and motherhood are the most important and you need not explain/apologize for attending to them. Besides, those things not being in a good place won't result in your best work anyway. Looking forward to reading the book. The teaser chapters have already been so nice!