The process is instinctive rather than methodical. “I don’t follow any of the advice in self-help books — writing character summary, making a flowchart, minimum word target per day. I just write the way it comes to me. I am an instinctive writer,” he explains. Even his sprawling series came together without blueprints.
But storytelling today, he believes, is bigger than books. “I think the storytelling world itself is changing… modern authors are not just competing with other authors. They are also competing with movies, your Instagram feed, even a date with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Because the biggest bottleneck right now is not so much money… the biggest bottleneck is time,” he says.
His advice: “See yourself more as a storyteller than an author. The story can be conveyed through a book, can also be conveyed through a movie… an audiobook. Become platform agnostic. Be more of a storyteller than an author. That’s the world I’m seeing emerging.”
His advice to aspiring writers is blunt. “One is, do not aim to be a best seller. If your aim is to make money or be famous, there are other much easier routes. You should want to write a book because there is something inside you. It’s a voice of your soul, and you are writing it for yourself. That should be the main aim,” he says. But passion alone won’t do. “A good book alone is not enough. Marketing is important. It’s a bit of both—marketing and good product. You need both… Just one of them is not good enough, especially not in today’s day, when there is so much noise.”
Balancing purity with pragmatism is essential. “When I write my book, I do not care about readers, critics, publishers, anybody. I write what feels right to me. Then, in the marketing phase, I figure out, now, how do I sell this? I am not going to change the book to appeal to anyone. I will write how it works for me. It’s a voice of my soul. But marketing should be practical, pragmatic. Figure out how to position this so that it can sell and earn money,” he says.
And while many writers ignore the subject, he insists financial literacy is part of creative survival. “It’s a big mistake that artists make… Some say, ‘I don’t understand it, I’ll leave it to someone else.’
But learning the basics of finances is actually not that difficult. If you are financially secure, you have the freedom to do whatever you want with your art. A shortage of money forces you to do things that you don’t want to do. So, it is a route to keeping your art pure.”
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