MANDIRA PATTNAIK

GUEST BLOGPOST BY HARSHITA NANDA, AUTHOR OF Love Awaits, A Tale of Unbroken Promises

MAY 18 2025

Most people have no idea what being a writer truly entails. Thus, I decided to pen down a few words and dispel some of the myths about being a writer and their writing process.

Have you seen movies where a well-dressed writer is sitting in a cafe, and the moment their fingers touch the keyboard, the words flow?

Well, writing in real life looks nothing like this.

In reality, you will find writers in their writing caves, usually in their chai-stained pjs, hunched over laptops, praying for the muse not to desert them.

Writing involves discipline. It means showing up at the writing desk/cave even when there is no clear idea of what to write and the words coming out of your pen are crap. This doesn’t mean that the muse will be kind. You know her. She is notoriously fickle. But showing up each day develops a writing habit, which means the good, productive days soon outnumber the bad. Most writers have a set time/place where they prefer to write. Plus, even though quite a few writers work from home, it doesn’t mean they are free and can goof off. They have deadlines for submissions. Even more important, they are accountable to themselves. So the next time you call your writer friend, expecting them to go out with you for an impromptu lunch, be prepared to hear a no. Nothing can come between a writer and their writing goals.

Writers are not magicians who can produce words on demand. They are humans, not AI. Since they cannot produce words on demand, it also means that their words can fail. The culprit could be writer’s block, preventing the words from flowing despite their best attempts. Or they might be too exhausted. One cannot sit and write/edit the whole day. For instance, the maximum I can work at a stretch is an hour and a half. By the time I get up, my brain is in serious need of R&R. Most of the time, I am too tired to even write my social media posts, and I end up skipping half the hashtags or writing something very generic. Thus, when people ask me to write something nice, my brain freezes, making me doubt my abilities as a writer.

Another pet peeve is when people ask me when my next book is coming out. I usually politely smile and deflect the question, but what I want to reply is that a book will come out when it is ready. I know the person meant well, but what most people don’t get is the pressure a question like this puts on the writer. Writing a book is a mammoth project which most people don’t know or appreciate. Once again, I repeat, we are humans. We take time to flesh out the idea, edit multiple drafts, send it to beta readers, edit some more, suffer existential crisis when publishing houses reject our manuscripts, cry out our feelings between mouthfuls of cake as we edit some more, and then brave the big-bad world of social media trying to market the two-hundred odd pages we have poured our blood, sweat and tears in.

A myth about writers is that they are rich. Unfortunately, writers with million-dollar advances are far and few between. Quite a few have day jobs and struggle to balance creativity with practicality, because writing hardly pays the bills.

The hustle of writing, putting out work, marketing books, and gaining visibility is never-ending and exhausting. I just wish more people were aware of this and kinder to the writers and their work.

Harshita Nanda is an author, blogger and book reviewer based in Dubai, UAE. An engineer by qualification, she changed tracks to become a full-time writer. One of the shortlisted candidates for the Rama Mehta Writing Grant, 2023, her short stories have found a home in many anthologies. Her words have appeared on websites like Kitaab, Porch Lit Mag and Roi Faineant Literary Press. She is also the author of four books. Love Awaits, A Tale of Unbroken Promises, is her latest book. You can find all her books on her Amazon page. She shares her views on books and other writerly activities on her blog UndecidedinDubai. She can also be found in the virtual world on X @ashnhash and Instagram at @author_harshita.

Hey everyone! Thanks for reading this far. Harshita’s essay is very relatable and spontaneous–I’m so glad she sent it across to me. Don’t forget to comment–it greatly matters–the writer needs to know your thoughts. This is all for May. I hope you enjoyed the first edition of A Newsletter with a View of One’s Own, my writing short stories/fiction craft essay “WINNER OF 2025 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction BUSTS SOME WRITING MYTHS”, and Harshita’s writing life essay. Do join me again in June–we have lots of new developments in lit world to share, alongside opportunities and craft tips. Thank you!