At Entrepreneur Stories, our main focus is to share stories of young and ambitious people. As part of this endeavor, we invited yet another passionate authorpreneur Pratibha Malav for an exclusive interview with us.
Pratibha Malav is the author of 2 books and uncountable poems which are yet to be published. Her first book ‘A Kind Of Commitment’ received an international award in 2018 and her second book was the #1 bestseller on Amazon for straight 3 days. Let’s learn more about her journey and her advice for budding writers.
1. Did you always dream of becoming a writer?
Ans: No, to become a storyteller was nowhere in my conscious mind. But what do they say, good things happen unexpectedly. Writing gave my life new directions.
2. What inspired you to become a writer?
Ans: As far as I can recall, there was never an external inspiration for it. I always loved reading. I was like 16 when this quote “If you’re in the mood of reading a book, write one!” motivated me to write my own book. I started doing poetry and scribbling short stories. My head was always full of ideas and plots, so I decided to put them all in my first full-length novel.
3. How long do you take to complete one book?
Ans: I answered this question in one more interview last week. It totally depends on my mood and circumstances. It took me 4-6 months to write A Kind Of Commitment. It roughly took me one and a half months to finish writing the sequel If Tomorrow Comes. I’m working on the third book now, I’m not sure how long it’s going to take. Most of the work is done though.
4. You write romance fiction. Do you want to continue the same genre or do you want to experiment with new concepts?
Ans: I never planned on writing romance novels. In fact, if you go through my first book, the first few chapters talk about zombies, but later it turned out to be unexpectedly different. The second book is the continuation of the first one, so it had to follow the same genre. Now I want to create something that will challenge society.
5. What struggles did you face as a writer?
Ans: Patience is the key to overcome any struggle. From not having a single author friend to being a published author, I faced many challenges. I wouldn’t call them struggles because they taught me a lot in the way. Every author’s journey is different and thus are the struggles.
6. What it takes to be a writer?
Ans: I can’t speak of others, but it took me lots of reading and good observational skills.
7. Don’t you wish to be a full-time writer?
Ans: The thought of taking up writing as a single career is scary. When I’ll gain more confidence and have more readers on my side, maybe then I can think about it, or maybe not. I need to work a lot on myself before turning into a full-time writer. At this moment, I don’t think about it.
8. How do you define a best seller author?
Ans: Well, to me, it only means more people are reading my work! This should be the goal of every existing or debut author.
9. What are your writing steps?
Ans: I don’t call it steps. I call it chaos! I portray main and sub-characters, and I develop their hobbies, whereabouts, families, career choices, love interests, etc. I create a plot in my head. Then I divide the entire plot into small units and write them one by one. It takes a lot of subconscious note-making. I write, I erase, I rewrite, I take long breaks and I write again. I don’t pick the laptop until and unless I’m absolutely sure, YES this is it!.
10. Who is the target audience for your books?
Ans: Since I write romance fiction, my target audience is 18 to 30. But there are people of each age group who have read my books and liked them. My goal is to reach a larger audience, so now I’m working towards it.
11. Reading-wise and writing-wise; what are your favorite genres?
Ans: Umm… reading-wise, it’s a suspense thriller. And writing-wise, umm… I just end up writing romance novels.
12. How much truth do you write in your books?
Ans: Well, it doesn’t matter how truthful my books are. What matters is how I can make my readers believe how this event would have happened with someone even if it’s a work of fiction.
13. Don’t you wish your novels to be screened on TV?
Ans: Both my books are more suitable for Netflix/Prime. In the near future, I might plan it.
14. How do you deal with writer’s block?
Ans: I don’t think I ever experienced writer’s block. Sometimes I don’t feel like writing anything or I face problems continuing the story. In such cases, I talk to different people, hear their stories and I involve in reading. These activities give me a clearing. I’m not sure if it’ll work for every other writer.
15. A tip for the one who is dating a writer?
Ans: Writers prefer to stay in their cocoons most of the time. Be patient with them.
16. A quality a guy must have to date you?
Ans: I never made a list, but HONESTY, I guess.
17. You’re young, beautiful, and you have got a huge following on social media. How come you’re still single?
Ans: When did I say I’m single? 😀
18. Do you think anybody can write?
Ans: Well, I’m nobody to comment on it, but you can’t force yourself to write a book or a poem or even a short para. Everyone is writing something these days; everyone wants to be a published writer… but what I learned so far is writing isn’t a cakewalk. It demands lots of mental exercises and subconscious note-making. You can’t just sit in a cafe with your laptop, sip on your coffee, and run your fingers on the keyboard.
19. What is your message to new writers?
Ans: I receive lots of messages from beginners asking for tips. The only advice I got for them is- Keep an open mind, read as much as you can, observe, visualize and plant.
20. How people can get in touch with you?
Email- pratibhamalav871@gmail.com
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/justpratibha/?hl=en
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/justpratibha/
LinkedIn- https://in.linkedin.com/in/justpratibha
