Author Jaishree Mishra who was in Bangalore recently spoke about the new trends in writing today.
What are the new trends in writing today that you find in the market today?
The trend appears to be towards a more linear and simpler style of writing, both in India and abroad. The success of writers like Amish Tripathi and Chetan Bhagat indicate that, while readers still demand good stories and convincing characters, the style preferred is one less literary and showy than before.The success of E L James in the west appears to mirror this in a curious way. Erotica is perhaps one of the least demanding genres and maybe that is what people want in such rough economic times.
A lot of Indian writers writing crime fiction is on the rise. What would you say about this trend?
Indian writers have been slow to come to all the commercial genres because literary fiction was for long seen as the only way to write. Such a relief that there is now the confidence to take on a much bigger range of works, eg crime and thrillers and romances.
The Indian market is full of books by unknown authors, many of which are not very well written. What would you say about this?
Publishers are probably trying to ape the success of Bhagat and Amish but doing this in stylistic terms alone isn’t enough. Readers would be willing to give up on elegant writing only if they get some other pleasures in exchange, especially a good yarn.
What do you see happening in the world of books in the near future.
I think it’s undergoing a real upheaval with the traditional forms being thrown out in favour of surprising new ways of communication. Rather than bemoaning this, writers need to be more pragmatic and reassess their own expectations of readers. Younger readers in particular are far too accustomed to getting their entertainment in small, bite-sized portions. It’s all about instant gratification. Set against the pleasures of Twitter and Facebook and other ‘easy’ digital forms of entertainment, the novel is starting to look like an archaic little curiosity. Maybe it’s time to think of the serialisation of novels in the way it was done in Dickens’s time!
What are you working on nowadays?
I’ve just finished editing an anthology on motherhood. The book’s gone into production now and should be published in time for International Women’s Day in March 2013. Thoughts have now turned to my own unfinished work of fiction now – a part-historical and part-contemporary story about a young girl who loses her sister in a tragic case of Stockholm Syndrome.
What are the new trends in writing today that you find in the market today?
The trend appears to be towards a more linear and simpler style of writing, both in India and abroad. The success of writers like Amish Tripathi and Chetan Bhagat indicate that, while readers still demand good stories and convincing characters, the style preferred is one less literary and showy than before.The success of E L James in the west appears to mirror this in a curious way. Erotica is perhaps one of the least demanding genres and maybe that is what people want in such rough economic times.
A lot of Indian writers writing crime fiction is on the rise. What would you say about this trend?
Indian writers have been slow to come to all the commercial genres because literary fiction was for long seen as the only way to write. Such a relief that there is now the confidence to take on a much bigger range of works, eg crime and thrillers and romances.
The Indian market is full of books by unknown authors, many of which are not very well written. What would you say about this?
Publishers are probably trying to ape the success of Bhagat and Amish but doing this in stylistic terms alone isn’t enough. Readers would be willing to give up on elegant writing only if they get some other pleasures in exchange, especially a good yarn.
What do you see happening in the world of books in the near future.
I think it’s undergoing a real upheaval with the traditional forms being thrown out in favour of surprising new ways of communication. Rather than bemoaning this, writers need to be more pragmatic and reassess their own expectations of readers. Younger readers in particular are far too accustomed to getting their entertainment in small, bite-sized portions. It’s all about instant gratification. Set against the pleasures of Twitter and Facebook and other ‘easy’ digital forms of entertainment, the novel is starting to look like an archaic little curiosity. Maybe it’s time to think of the serialisation of novels in the way it was done in Dickens’s time!
What are you working on nowadays?
I’ve just finished editing an anthology on motherhood. The book’s gone into production now and should be published in time for International Women’s Day in March 2013. Thoughts have now turned to my own unfinished work of fiction now – a part-historical and part-contemporary story about a young girl who loses her sister in a tragic case of Stockholm Syndrome.
