Skip to main content

A primer for fiction writers



Book review with a difference

Title: The Story of Story: Why People Read Stories

Author: Ravish Mani

Foramt: PDF E-book

I want to get personal with this review precisely because this is a book with a difference. First of all, this book was written in a period of two days on a mobile phone. The author was getting another book ready for submission to the Blogchatter E-Book Carnival. But two days before the submission deadline, a lightning struck his house damaging his laptop along with other appliances. The lockdown aggravated the problem. Ravish Mani is not one to give up, however. He has a clear vision and sheer grit. Picking up his smartphone, he started: I wanted to talk about how to make your readers forget the sense of time, even the state of their being, & have blissful satisfaction when they get absorbed in your story.

The first thing I admire about Ravish is that unassailable spirit. The next is his idealism which is reflected in what he calls “Uncopyright” according to which anyone can “copy, distribute, or exploit any content of this book”. Ravish goes on to say that “morality cannot be forced. It comes from within. For being moral, introspection is needed. No law can make you morally right. It can only instil fear of punishment in you.” He asserts his faith in magnanimity which will beget the same virtue. [I reviewed Ravish Mani’s book published last year in this same Carnival which had a similar copyright statement.]

This book is about story writing. It is a good guidebook for those who wish to understand the nitty-gritty of fiction writing. It initiates you into the fundamental elements of a story: conflict (plot), characters, meaning (theme), and denouement (resolution of conflict arousing empathy). Ravish looks at each of these very systematically within the little space he is wielding. For example, how do you show the real character of a person? Character is not revealed by the day-to-day activities of anyone. Character is revealed in times of crises. How one responds to a crisis reveals one’s character. Ravish takes examples from popular movies to illustrate the point.

I have no doubt that the book would have been a great resource for budding writers if only the lightning had not struck down Ravish’s original manuscript. Even as it is, the book is a significant beacon for beginners, a quick manual. It is much needed too, if you ask me. Platforms such as blogs have made almost everyone a writer today. Even those who haven’t read a single classical work turn out bestsellers nowadays. Aspirations are great. Writing is a noble profession. But standards do matter for every serious reader. People like Ravish help to sustain standards.

It should also be mentioned that Ravish is a story consultant and manuscript analyst who provides his services to writers who need them. Those who wish to avail of his services may contact him. A lot of books published these days will do much better with some professional editing.


Ravish Mani’s book can be downloaded here.

PS. My contribution to the same book carnival is LIFE: 24 Essays. It can be downloaded here.

Comments

  1. ArtiMay 27, 2021 at 11:11 AM

    I've downloaded his book and after reading about the lightning episode here, I'm even more keen to read it soon-ish.
    Haven't dabbled in fiction yet, but one never knows.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 27, 2021 at 11:19 AM

      You are a great story teller, Arti. I'd love to read your first story soon. And Ravish may inspire you to write it.

      Delete
  2. Yamini MacLeanMay 27, 2021 at 12:03 PM

    Hari OM
    Yes, that's another added to my 'pile'... really need to work on creating the space for reading now! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. magiceyeMay 27, 2021 at 6:16 PM

    Bravo to Ravish's determination!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rajeev MoothedathMay 28, 2021 at 11:15 AM

    I have known Ravish as a good writer. Your post has revealed a lot more of his human side too.Looking forward to read this book.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ashish KumarMay 28, 2021 at 1:35 PM

    So nice to know about the Ravishji's book... will read it... Thanks for the wonderful book review...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Chinmayee Gayatree SahuMay 30, 2021 at 1:12 PM

    The writing of the book is a story of resilience and your review is wonderful. I am already reading this book.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

Florentino’s Many Loves

Florentino Ariza has had 622 serious relationships (combo pack with sex) apart from numerous fleeting liaisons before he is able to embrace the only woman whom he loved with all his heart and soul. And that embrace happens “after a long and troubled love affair” that lasted 51 years, 9 months, and 4 days. Florentino is in his late 70s when he is able to behold, and hold as well, the very body of his beloved Fermina, who is just a few years younger than him. She now stands before him with her wrinkled shoulders, sagged breasts, and flabby skin that is as pale and cold as a frog’s. It is the culmination of a long, very long, wait as far as Florentino is concerned, the end of his passionate quest for his holy grail. “I’ve remained a virgin for you,” he says. All those 622 and more women whose details filled the 25 diaries that he kept writing with meticulous devotion have now vanished into thin air. They mean nothing now that he has reached where he longed to reach all his life. The
62 comments
Read more

Unromantic Men

Romance is a tenderness of the heart. That is disappearing even from the movies. Tenderness of heart is not a virtue anymore; it is a weakness. Who is an ideal man in today’s world? Shakespeare’s Romeo and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas would be considered as fools in today’s world in which the wealthiest individuals appear on elite lists, ‘strong’ leaders are hailed as nationalist heroes, and success is equated with anything other than traditional virtues. The protagonist of Colleen McCullough’s 1977 novel, The Thorn Birds [which sold more than 33 million copies], is torn between his idealism and his natural weaknesses as a human being. Ralph de Bricassart is a young Catholic priest who is sent on a kind of punishment-appointment to a remote rural area of Australia where the Cleary family arrives from New Zealand in 1921 to take care of the enormous estate of Mary Carson who is Paddy Cleary’s own sister. Meggy Cleary is the only daughter of Paddy and Fiona who have eight so
39 comments
Read more

Yesterday

With students of Carmel Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving…? It was one of my first days in the eleventh class of Carmel Public School in Kerala, the last school of my teaching career. One girl, whose name was not Margaret, was in the class looking extremely melancholy. I had noticed her for a few days. I didn’t know how to put the matter over to her. I had already told the students that a smiling face was a rule in the English class. Since Margaret didn’t comply, I chose to drag Hopkins in. I replaced the name of Margaret with the girl’s actual name, however, when I quoted the lines. Margaret is a little girl in the Hopkins poem. Looking at autumn’s falling leaves, Margaret is saddened by the fact of life’s inevitable degeneration. The leaves have to turn yellow and eventually fall. And decay. The poet tells her that she has no choice but accept certain inevitabilities of life. Sorrow is our legacy, Margaret , I said to Margaret’s alter ego in my class. Let
36 comments
Read more

Octlantis

I was reading an essay on octopuses when friend John walked in. When he is bored of his usual activities – babysitting and gardening – he would come over. Politics was the favourite concern of our conversations. We discussed politics so earnestly that any observer might think that we were running the world through the politicians quite like the gods running it through their devotees. “Octopuses are quite queer creatures,” I said. The essay I was reading had got all my attention. Moreover, I was getting bored of politics which is irredeemable anyway. “They have too many brains and a lot of hearts.” “That’s queer indeed,” John agreed. “Each arm has a mind of its own. Two-thirds of an octopus’s neurons are found in their arms. The arms can taste, touch, feel and act on their own without any input from the brain.” “They are quite like our politicians,” John observed. Everything is linked to politics in John’s mind. I was impressed with his analogy, however. “Perhaps, you’re r
34 comments
Read more