Writing, for the sheer joy of it

What is it about writing that excites me? It starts with being excited about reading. I imbibed that spirit at a very young age from my parents and my elder sister, who were all voracious readers of pop fiction. Give us some munchies to snack on and a paperback to read, and we were content for hours. I took my cues from those around me and gorged on Wodehouse, Christie, and Asimov (in whose collective names I have sponsored the WAC Award for short-story writing at IIT Madras). Many were added to the list later on, but my prime interest remained in humour, crime, science fiction and horror.

Romance fiction is a genre I’ve avoided, like a true representative of my gender. Swooning heroines and dashing heroes were best left to consumption by the female species. My impression was that these stories lacked a lighter touch and were way too serious in projecting their romantic agenda. So, when Mills & Boon India announced a short-story competition in this genre, I took it up as a challenge to inject levity into it. I’ve tried to write “Arranged Love” in such a way as to encourage the reader to smile through it, from start to end. I actually like watching rom-coms mainly for this reason—they do not take themselves too seriously. I’d rather watch (and read) “Friends with Benefits” than “Romeo & Juliet”. Here's the link to the story.

My advice to writers, in general, is to write what they’d like to read. It’s like investing in stocks of companies whose products you are likely to buy. If you find tear-jerkers unbearable to read, why invest your time and energy in writing them? Also, to paraphrase the “KISS” advice given to corporate honchos, “Keep It Short, Stupid”. No sentence should ramble on, no paragraph should stretch more than a quarter of a page, no chapter should try the reader’s patience by its length, and no story should be longer than its minimum effective version. If a story can be told on a page, do it. If it must be told in 300 pages—say, the Ramayana or Mahabharata—do it but don’t let it dawdle into 301.

Also, base your characters and milieu on familiar grounds. Situations and dialogue flow when you are in your comfort zone, where you belong. Stepping out of it will only make you long for it.

Finally, consider writing as the end, not the journey to one. Write for the sake of stringing words together to make sweet music on the page. It doesn't really matter what genre you take up as long as you can enjoy the process of contributing your mite to it. Take pleasure in the progress you make from word to word, sentence to sentence, para to para, and chapter to chapter. Keep the reader in mind as a co-passenger in this journey. Would he/ she revel in it as much as you do? If you think so, you have done your job as a writer.

Fluency in writing is an asset. The stream-of-consciousness mode, if you can achieve it, is ideal. You should be able to write whole pages without ever going back to revise a single word. The reader can sense whether the writing is laborious or free-flowing. The latter leads to an equally joyous reading.

A piece of writing can change the destiny of society or give moments of pleasure to an individual reader. You can choose to be the author of either, and derive equal satisfaction. Just do it.

Dr. Nagarajan is an Alumni Community Chair Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras, having previously served as the Department Head from October 2018- November 2021 and, prior to that, for two terms as the Institute’s first-ever Dean of Alumni & International Relations He obtained his B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering in 1981 from IIT Madras and a Ph.D. in the same field from Yale University (New Haven, CT, USA) in 1986. From 1986 - 1988, he served as Research Faculty in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV; during this tenure, he served as coordinator for research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Navy. From 1988 – 2003, Dr. Nagarajan was a Senior Technical Staff Member with IBM Storage Systems’ Development Laboratory in San Jose, CA, where he oversaw elimination of ozone-depleting chemicals from IBM’s manufacturing operations and directed many ground-breaking efforts in the areas of chemical integration & micro-contamination control for hard disk drives.

Dr. Nagarajan returned to Chennai in 2003 and served as G.S. Laddha Visiting Professor at A.C. College of Technology for one semester prior to taking up his position as Professor at IIT Madras in February 2004. His teaching and research endeavours are focused on cleanroom processes, nano-technology and ultrasonic process-intensification. From 2009-2012, he served as Advisor, Office of Alumni Affairs at IIT Madras, and from October 2012 - September 2018, as Dean of International & Alumni Relations. During his tenure, fund-raising from alumni and corporates was increased 150X from Rs. 50 lakhs ($ 100K) per annum to Rs.75 crores ($ 15M), and 20 Joint Doctorate Programs were established with highly-ranked international Universities. In April 2018, Dr. Nagarajan was named as an “Institute Chair Professor” by IIT Madras. From January to July 2022, he was on sabbatical at Purdue University as Robert T. Henson Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering.

Website: http://www.che.iitm.ac.in/~nag/