Ananya Padwal is an enthusiastic writer with a penchant for creating surreal worlds. Writing is her passion and she writes for hours at a stretch. A professionally trained classical dancer and singer, she also learns piano and violin from Trinity College London of Music. With over three years of continuous effort and hard work, Ananya has created a unique world in her electrifying upcoming series. She plans to start her sequel to the debut novel soon, as she cannot wait to pick up the pen and mess up the pages with her innovative ideas. Enter Ananya’s dream world and be prepared to be doused in enigma and enchantment.
In our Q&A session with the author, let’s talk about her inspiration and book-writing journey…
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
Contrary to popular author opinion, I think both. Most of the time, writing equals my food and it can put me in a mood, set the atmosphere, and help me to pen down my overwhelming emotions since I have a huge issue with that, and I feel the most delighted and elated after late-night writing sessions.
On the other hand, it can be exhausting if I’m on a time limit, that is, when I have to complete a specific amount of writing in a specified time. And I experienced this during my latest Nanowrimo, which was a crazy hectic period for me. But nothing matters more than the experience and enjoying the process!
Describe your experience of writing for the first time and seeing your work in print.
This emotion can’t be expressed in mere words. This journey started three years ago when I did not even understand English much. The transition from simple, broken sentences to forming complex, rephrased, and appealing sentences have a lot hidden within. Now, when I’m seeing this dream convert into reality, it’s a cloud-nine feeling!
Do you think a big ego helps or hurts writers?
Hurts. Totally. No doubt. The hand authors have in making a book a success, I believe that the readers have an equal credit. Just like the emotions we pour into our books are felt by the readers, the same way somewhere in the writing, the big ego reflects itself through the pages, which can in turn affect the author’s reputation. And as it is said, a mistake that makes you humble is always better than an achievement that makes you arrogant.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
It’s a pretty long list actually… and the major one would be perfectionism. I have an awful issue with making my writing perfect, as in from sentence to sentence and word to word. Another one would be self-doubt, which most of the authors have to deal with…
Have you ever gotten a reader’s block? And how did you get over it?
Surprisingly, I did. It was when I was reading the fourth book of Heroes of Olympus also known as House of Hades by Rick Riordan, a huge inspiration, when I felt that the book was a bit too long.
Are you working on another book? Has publishing your first book changed the way you write?
Yes, I’m currently working on the sequel to the debut novel as well as a compiler for an anthology! And, yes, there has been a major change in my writing style since I wrote my first book.
So, usually, it happens that whichever book we’re reading alongside writing, for example, if you’re reading Rick Riordan, you might add or might want to add something mythological in your book, and if you’re reading Collen Hoover, you might add romance subconsciously, and so forth. So, a benefit that this thing provides is that you understand the writing styles of different authors and incorporate the likable parts in their writing and create your new writing style which is varied and vibrant.
What does literary success look like to you?
A fan base that would love my characters more than myself, stay with the books from start to end, and the tears of happiness from their eyes after reading the book would be my literary success, as simple as that!
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
Let’s be honest here… for the debut novel, I didn’t research. And that is a major factor why the book got delayed by two years. It is very important to research before you start writing. At least some of it. You will figure out major things while writing, but it is necessary to research to an extent. Answering the second question… for the sequel, I spent around a month or two researching.
How many hours a day do you write?
I don’t. I mean, just kidding! In the present scenario, it depends because yet I haven’t set a due date for the completion of the sequel, so I am pretty much relaxed. But when I was at the peak period of my debut novel, I usually set it to 4 hours per day, which honestly can be a crazy hectic thing to accomplish.
What made you write this book?
Loneliness, FOMO, fake friends…all of that. If I could mention all of them in my acknowledgments, the list would go longer than the book itself! All of this helped me create the characters which I love and know about more than myself… and I believe that my characters aren’t fictional, they’re just as real as you and me… it’s just a question of mindset!
Do you Google yourself?
Interesting. I’ve never tried it though. But now I’m really curious about what Google has to say about me.
What is your favorite book/author and why?
I don’t have a favorite book or a favorite author. As surprising as it may sound, it is true. I love specific scenes and instances in the book! And I get inspired by reading a variety of authors, so I like a few things about their writing style and try to incorporate that in mine, but, after it goes through remixing and transition.
What category or genre do you think your book fits into?
Action, adventure, fantasy fiction, thrillers, and mystery would be some of the major ones!
Do you like eBooks or physical books? Why?
Physical books. What can compensate for the smell of the freshly printed parchment as you hold it between your fingers, rubbing over them with the utmost care?
If you could live anywhere in the world and spend a year writing a new book, where would you go?
My room is in complete darkness with a small night lamp as the only source of light. Not to mention my personalized playlist.
If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Automated editing of my writings to that extreme supremacy level!
When you’re in writing mode, are you a moody person or a cheerful person?
Depends on the situation. I might be the life of a party as well as a dormant volcano that just got active, both at the same time! That is to say, if I’m disturbed during my writing sessions, beware.
List three adjectives that best describe you
Ambitious, affable, emotional.
What’s your favorite line from a book/movie?
“Just because someone hurts you doesn’t mean you can simply stop loving them.” We all know – It Ends with Us by Collen Hoover.
Another one – “After all this time? Always.” The marvellous ending book of the Harry Potter series by J K Rowling.
Order Book: https://www.16leaves.com/book/isbn/9789395986908
