BENGALURU: Milan Vohra is an advertising professional who is also Mills & Boon’s first Indian romance author. Her books include The Love Asana and Tick-tock we’re 30, while her latest is titled Our Song. Edited excerpts from an interview:
What was your trigger for writing the book Our Song?
In 2009 when I won the Harlequin short story contest to become the first Indian Mills & Boon author, it didn’t come with an automatic book contract. It had to be commissioned by the UK editors. I detailed out a couple of ideas when I shared my first book The Love Asana with them. One of the other books I had proposed to them at that time was Our Song (with another title).
I am also an advertising professional. In 2009, I had just been commissioned to write a corporate song for a pharmaceuticals company. When I used to go to their campus for the meetings, I was struck by what a different world it was compared to the colourful, loud world of ad agencies. One day driving down elevated road to Electronics City in Bangalore, I thought what if someone had a vehicle breaking down here. What if a young woman, a spirited and slightly lost music composer was then thrown into that world and then ran into a man who was different from her.
Around this time, The Love Asana was commissioned by the Harlequin U.K editors and I decided to hold this book with me. At that time I was still trying to figure out a lot of things, including whether I even wanted to write more romance or try writing other kinds of stories; even if I was going to write romance, where did my comfort level lie in terms of how saucy I wanted that book to get. It was my first book, a book that I realised would be visible. The gentleman who was heading the India operation tried to convince me that my voice lay in writing bolder.
I wasn’t entirely convinced. His name was Andrew. At that time I joked with him that if he tried to persuade me one more time, I’d be sure to write a book with a hero called Andrew. He did. And so I did. What was actually serendipitous was the way music became such an important part of Our Song. I’ve had a few musician friends in my life. Through them I’d had insights into the inner worlds of music (especially classical music), the power cliques, and the struggles that you’d go through. Music becoming a key thread in this book was also the most natural thing for me, because I’m a music junkie. I am trained in Hindustani classical music and most nights, I explore music across genres.
The plot of any book is often a result of a specific new stimulus. Then a whole lot of things you may subconsciously have stored away come into play.One of the songs that I wrote as an option for that corporate song assignment I was doing, was a song I loved. When it fell through the cracks with the client, it made its way into this book. This song has come to represent what I think of as the overarching theme of the book. That is, the power of music to cut through every kind of emotional wall, to create hope, to heal and make you believe in love.
Do you go back to your old writings?
Once I start flipping through anything I’ve written, I usually find two recurring emotions. I feel surprised and grateful that the words/ thoughts/ emotions / humour whatever ... came to me. The other thing the re-reading with the distance of time brings is always a sense of high critique. I always think what I wrote earlier could be tighter.
Oddly enough my critical glasses don’t seem to be as harsh towards my short stories. The short stories are always like those smug people you have coming out of an appraisal room. The novels are those good guys who’ve been slogging for the most part but possibly goofed off on the occasional long weekend! So they always go into the review a little anxious.
Have you always seen yourself as a writer?
In college I was writing for the college literary magazine and then became the editor. I used to debate at inter college festivals to earn pocket money and then too, for me the pleasure was in writing out the full debate. When I began a career in advertising as a writer, writing fiction was nowhere as accessible an option as it is today. So I wrote scripts and radio spots that I’d try to tell stories with. Once I started writing fiction I took to it like Bridget Jones to junk food.
What is your writing process?
I begin writing close to 11 pm. I need to bathe and change into tracks before I sit down to write. I write in bursts. With a deadline some months away, I will write six to seven hours at night. Whenever I’ve tried writing without pressure I’ve made no progress other than critiquing what little I might have written and rewriting it again.
I don’t have a problem like writer’s block but there have been long periods when I have been quite swamped, juggling a lot of other responsibilities. So then I gave myself constant grief about how long I hadn’t written for. I agonised over why it was important at all to me to write. When all I should have been doing was give myself a sharp rap on the knuckles and just do the writing. Because the answer has been clear for a long time. If life was to end suddenly, not having written the books I want to will be a regret.
How easy is it to get published?
Younger and younger people have debut novels being commissioned by big publishers. And yet there are people who are good writers who’ve not been able to get a break with the better names. Even established authors sometimes struggle with getting a good publisher for a specific book because it may be different from what they are known for. It’s also why options like digital only platforms seem to have become a good starting point or why self publishing has become attractive even to prolific authors.
Again, I’ve been fortunate to be published by some of the most respected publishers there are. But it would be really tunnel visioned of me if I said it’s easy to be published.
Who’s your first reader? And who are your biggest critics?
My first readers are two of my closest girl friends. Both can be extremely good with the instant macro perspective. Both also sit me down individually, over a long feedback session to tell me why they love or hate what they do.
Critics who are not readers of the genre I’m writing in (romance in the case of Our Song) don’t matter. If a person who reads the romance genre regularly was to critique what I wrote, I’d take it very seriously. I may or may not change it but I’ll think through why a character is doing something. And then take a call. As I did with some of the scenes in Our Song especially one instance where the protagonists are in an accident. I had written them having sex later much later into that night. I believed strongly in the need for life affirming sex. My beta reader didn’t agree. But it’s okay. Better to think through and know if your characters are doing something you believe in or they’re just having you eating out of their hands!
Do you think marketing plays a role in the success of books?
I believe so. The number of new books that come out every month is just so large that it’s tough for anyone to remember a book long enough to order it. Do I market my own books? I’m afraid I don’t. I’ve been blessed. The momentum that my past books have gained has always been through genuine media reviews and by word of mouth. One reader recommending it to the other.
I do however make myself available and will go to any LitFest or event I’m invited for because it’s an opportunity and a reward for an author to be able to meet with your readers.