It Only Happens In India:
A Writer Outsources His Fiction Writing to India

chillibreeze writer — Richa Wahi

The Present

Peter wakes up one morning. And he is excited. He’s had this dream that’s unlocked a treasure chest of ideas buried in his mind. He sits up in bed, grabs a notebook and begins scribbling his thoughts. He must write it all down before the monotony of daily life invades his morning. As he scribbles, his hand moves from one end of the page to another, and soon the white background has an army of ants marching across it. Peter urges his brain to think, closing his eyes to visualize his dream. He must get it all down. What had he seen last night? Why was the old woman weeping? Where was her son? Why hadn’t he answered her letters? And the woman with the red scarf, the one who stood behind the door, raising her lowered eyes occasionally, what was she hiding? The postman’s arrival, the excitement, the parcel, the horror, Peter jots it all down. One idea leads to another. The old woman’s son who is working with an oil company in Kazakhstan has disappeared. At first she thinks he is too busy to write. But then the parcel arrives. It contains a few valuable things that the company wants to return – a passport, driver’s license, a gold nib pen and rosary beads. There’s also a letter that says the son has been missing for over two months. All efforts to trace him have failed. No one knows if he is dead or alive. What has happened to him? The lady in the red scarf does not cry. Instead she watches the mother weep for a son she thinks she has lost. Peter shuts his eyes and images flash in his mind. He sees the man, robed in purple seated in front of snow-capped hills. In the background there is a flute playing. Peter concentrates. The flute turns to chanting, in a foreign language. The man’s lips are moving. He knows this language. Peter taps the pen against his head and thinks till the alarm clock goes off. He has to do something about this.

The Past

Peter’s notebook lay where he’s kept it – on his bedside table. At a fiction writing class he once attended, a wise professor advised him to keep a book to record his dreams. He said that most writers got their best ideas while they were asleep, when the conscious mind was at rest and the subconscious mind ruled. Peter took this advice seriously. He bought a black hardbound diary and called it his book of dreams. On many occasions Peter wrote in it. There was one dream he’d had about a little girl who spoke to no one except a bird. Another one about a man who regained consciousness after an accident only to find himself in a different country surrounded by people who knew him and called him by his name. And one about a child who grew up believing his father was dead, only to learn that his dad was a movie star who was at the peak of his career. Once Peter got an idea and wrote it down, further ideas cascaded into his mind. With a little more thought the ideas germinated into plots. And each time Peter believed he was in the process of nurturing a bestseller.

However, dreams and reality differed. Peter had a real job to do, bills to pay, commitments to keep. In other words he had a life. And he couldn’t afford the luxury of breaking free, taking six months off to complete the first draft of his novel. As a result, the black book of dreams kept getting filled with ideas and plots, but never with a story.

The Future

In a place not very far away from where Peter lives, especially now due to technology, and in a time not very far into the future, Peter will meet a girl called Richa. She will be a qualified writer from India, trained by professionals in United Kingdom, apart from having a writer’s genes (her grandfather being a writer). All Peter will need to do is share his story idea with her and discuss the plot as much in detail as possible. Then Richa will suggest to him how she thinks the book should be written – in the first person or third, and in the appropriate tense. Characters will be discussed and evolved through certain exercises, and the necessary research will be done. At all times there will be constant interaction, exchange of ideas and appropriate exercises to ensure that both the parties concerned will be in sync with each other. Richa will also suggest that Peter to do certain writing assignments that might help him build on his idea. If Peter has a sample chapter ready or even a skeletal structure, he will be able to send it to Richa and she will use it as a guideline. Then all Peter will have to do is sit back and watch his idea take shape. Richa will draft a chapter, edit and re-write it, and send it to Peter to see if it matches with his vision. Based on his feedback, she will make the required amendments, proceed with the remaining chapters and work towards completing the novel and fulfilling Peter’s dream.

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Back to the present

Peter starts drafting a mail to chillibreeze asking for the services of a fiction writer. Chillibreeze assigns this project to someone called Richa, one of its talented writers.

You already know the rest.

 

Out of 5 “chilies”, our editorial team gave this article...

 

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—About our writer: Richa says, A dreamer by nature, a wanderer by choice, a perfectionist by instinct, a storyteller by passion, a writer by profession- that's me. Greetings from Calcutta.

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