CHENNAI: I used to hate writing before I knew I had the skill in me!” says Ganga Bharani Vasudevan, a Chennai-based author, who is writing her first script for a feature film with director Prashanth G Sekar. He was the assistant director for the Suriya-starrer, Singam 2.
From writing columns in newspapers and notes on Facebook to blogs, this younger writer has authored three books - Just you, me and a secret, A Minute to Death and A Sip of Love and A Sip of Coffee. She has written scripts for two short films — Tiny steps and Candles, which have won awards at the WE CARE International film festival.
“There was point when I realised that I had nothing in me that made me stand out in a crowd. That’s when I started writing blogs and got reviews from people all around the world who encouraged me to pursue writing seriously,” she adds.
This engineering graduate is also a full-time IT developer in Chennai. How does she manage? “I work for 9 hours at office, and when I am at office I am entirely focused on that. I make sure I don’t take my work home, and when I am at home, I give all my attention to writing,” she shares.
Ganga has no designed pattern for writing; all she does is manage her creativity. “Both my writing and my job needs creativity,” she laughs. “When I use my creativity at work, I get back home and do research for my scripts. When I have a mundane day at work, I pour all my creativity into scripting.”
She is almost finished with her script for director Prashanth’s movie, and they are in talks with the producer. “It’s a rom-com, and can be expected to release any time next year,” says an excited Ganga, who is also planning to get movie rights for all her books that have been published so far.
A few words of wisdom to aspiring writers? “Analyse the market and the writing style. Some are good in language while others have excellent narrative skills. But a combination of both is hard to find. A writer must first figure out what he or she is good at and work towards the skill they are not good at. It would really help the writer grow in this field,” she says.
Ganga also suggests aspiring writers not to pay a publisher to publish their books. “Self-publishing is a better option, or wait for someone to publish your book,” she adds.