The making of ‘A City Full of Stories’ — Part 2

The first blog of Making of ‘ A City Full of Stories’ is here. In this blog, I share the creative elements that we worked on to give the manuscript a shape.

Standing on my shoulders:

I have written long form before. My first book, in which I was a contributing writer, ‘The Maritime Heritage of India’, gave me the experience of research, collaboration, sequencing content and editing as part of a large team.

My self publishing and promotion experience came from my first published book ‘Poetarrati Volume 1 & 2’. I went for a zero-budget and solo effort for the book. It was a humbling experience with lot of lessons.

If I sum up the above two experiences, I realized that my next book had to stand on the shoulders of these experiences. Both experiences, I may note, were when I went through some troubles on my personal front. The scars of my life during these periods and the experiences that turned out as catharsis will remain etched in my memory forever.

The Tangles and Loose Ends:

Most of the original manuscript was written between 2011 and 2015. I had one incomplete story which was originally written in parts and as part of a longer story series. The story itself was a complex one with layers and loops that I had created when I had started. I had to read through the story almost 10 times to reconnect before I could make sense of the tangles and loose ends I had created.

First I wrote a small piece, then another. In a matter of few sittings, the story unraveled itself. For the first time I showed a piece to Shwetahitesh, my creative partner and advisor. She she said and I quote;

‘[10:30 PM, 6/21/2020] Beautiful

[10:30 PM, 6/21/2020] Poised language

[10:31 PM, 6/21/2020] Not OTT ( over the top)

[10:31 PM, 6/21/2020] Yet communicated what was intended

[10:31 PM, 6/21/2020] Almost like a movie playing in front of my eyes

I remember these comments vividly. That pushed me back on the roof, from the edge of the ledge, to move towards the completing the story.

A New Story

The second piece I wrote was about a healthcare volunteer who was part of some recent events related to COVID19 in my life. I was not sure if I could write a story like I had done earlier. I will cover the style of writing in my subsequent blogs.

Finally, I started work on this story in August and September, as the last of the events that triggered the story happened in August. I circled around this outline a few times. I decided to write what I saw. Then I started connecting the dots.

My story begins with the last scene. I had visualized the climax itself. The challenge was to reach the beginning of the climax. As I wrote small pieces in multiple sittings, the story evolved. I will not adjectivize my efforts here, it is for the reader to infer.

Three or One?

The most important decision I had to make was if I had to break the collection into three small books or one book containing three volumes. I could not decide. If we considered the collection as three separate books, each would be in the size of a booklet. We did not like the idea.

I referred my problems to Shwetahitesh. She made the decision. The moot point was that it all fell under short fiction, and are connected by a common thread. So making it as a single book would make sense. Now the book contains three volumes: a) Short stories b) Novelettes and c) a Novella.

To drop or not?

Another problem we grappled with was the genre and quality of the stories. There are a few catchy ones, and there are a few that we considered as ‘new attempts’.

One such story involved an event of my own life. To drop this story or not was an easy decision to make. Shwetahitesh was of the opinion that it brought authenticity and personal touch to the book, but I was in two minds. We mulled over it the longest than any other problem.

I felt that it was a red herring, so we decided to drop it. That piece might be part of some future work, I noted in my mind.

The Sequence

How will the reader read? Smaller stories first or longer ones? Shwetahitesh had a contrasting input. The best story was the Novella — it carried all of me as a fiction writer. Should the reader not read that first?

Then I researched. Somewhere I read that smaller stories should appear first. Shweta suggested that it would be the best way to bait and keep the reader on. The logic of that sequencing was to give the reader a step-by-step but wholesome experience. Smaller stories would be followed by the longer ones.

The Title

Our original title was modelled based on various anthologies. Either the best or the most favorite story of the anthology would be the name and then add ‘ and other stories’.

We decided to name it ‘Title of the Novella and Other Stories’. We went around adding and sequencing, while the title remained a niggle.

One day, it hit me. A bulb glowed. An Eureka moment inside me. The name popped out, just like that — magic. ‘A CITY FULL OF STORIES’. It captured the essence of the book — the multiple characters, events and lives connected by one common thread — the CITY OF MUMBAI. When I ran to Shweta, she said she liked the title. So that was that.

[8:53 AM, 10/25/2020] Ashok Subramanian: Good morning.

[10:35 AM, 10/25/2020] Ashok Subramanian: ‘ A CITY FULL OF STORIES’ is the book name.

[7:44 PM, 10/25/2020] Ashok Subramanian: Any reactions

[7:44 PM, 10/25/2020] Shweta Joshi: We will discuss….i liked the name of the book

That is how the title was born, on Navami day of this Dussehra season.

PS: The book is currently in the editing stage. More in the next blog.

~Ashok Subramanian