Now I know why novelists say writing a novel is nothing but rewriting

Muntazir Imam, senior journalist, Sharjah (UAE)

As a debut author, I wish to thank all those who have stood by me and inspired me to pen my novel ‘Jaihind made the Cobbler a Novelist’, which has been published recently.

As someone hailing from the rural hinterland of Bihar, the picture was clear in my head. I was born and brought up in Bihar and had been working in my state until I moved to the UAE. So, all of this was in the background of the picture.

In the early 1980s, I saw some prejudiced minds distorting the names of the members of the lowest strata of society. I felt hurt, even more hurt than those boys whose names were distorted by upper-strata boys. All of us played together. Sometimes, we would eat in the same plate together. There was no ‘untouchability’ in practice at all.

A few years ago, I had discussed this book with Mr Nalin Verma, a veteran journalist from Bihar. He told me that no writer had ever written a book on it. At present, he himself is a famous author. He did not touch the issue as he knew I was writing a novel on it. One day, I emailed the entire book to him. “It’s going to be a bestseller,” he told me.

If I had no connection with the villages of Bihar, this book would have never materialized.

Eking out time to write this book while working as a full-time journalist has been very tough. But this is not unique with me. Journalists who have written books have faced the same predicament. That struggle becomes tougher, when, the book is bulky – like, it’s more than 300,000 words in ‘Jaihind made the Cobbler a Novelist’.

One key experience I have gained in the process of writing this book is that most of the words of a novel come on the way to deliver a story by sacrificing themselves. Though I was pacing ahead with the outline of the story that I had in my mind, not all words I was writing were final. But I wrote all and sundry that appeared in my thoughts.

The thoughts captured on the pages gave birth to new thoughts. What I learnt during the process was the art of cutting the unwanted thoughts. That is to say, no novel can come into being without unwanted thoughts.

Around 80% of the words that I cut out went on to shape the story of my novel. In fact, those were not unwanted words at all. They are there in the book that only I can see.

I know some big writers don’t cut out much. But most of the novelists say that writing a novel is nothing but rewriting. I experienced this truth.

Three things are necessary if someone wants to write a novel. These three things that I followed. This is my own formula: The outline of the story should be in your head. When you have at least three hours at your disposal, you will be able to immerse yourself fully in writing. Pen down all your thoughts and rewrite them to milk the cream.

I only sat to write when I had at least three hours in my possession. I must admit though that I hardly got three hours daily for this purpose.

I used to consider myself lucky when I was able to finalize 150 words during these three hours. This happened on rare occasions.

My book is out now. It’s for the readers to judge it.

It took me around 1,200 hours to write this book. Roughly, each page took six hours. These six hours I was able to manage in one week or more.

I made the submission of the book in June 2020 through the website of Leadstart Publishing, Mumbai, the publishers. In January 2021, its editor sought the entire manuscript. Another email came around a month later. Then I signed the contract. And in January 2022, my novel is in front of me, and for all of you.