It began, traditionally, with a diary entry. Rashika Ravikumar, then in class X, showed the entries to her mother, who said they were good.
“And then,” the 16-year-old says, “a series of plots bombarded my mind and I began to write.”
Now the author of one book with another on the way, Rashika is also one of the winners of a ‘social short story contest’ held in January by Notion Press, a self-publishing platform.
Budding author, Selva Ganapathy, on the other hand, had ‘poor communication skills’. A technical superintendent at IIT-Madras, the 30-year-old first felt the need to improve his writing because, as a volunteer for AID India, he needed to file reports.
“I began with stories,” he said, “but they were so bad that my friends told me not to write. But I took this as a challenge.” He then began a blog, writing about social issues. Slowly, stories developed. And then in three days, Mr. Ganapathy wrote 136 pages.
“My friend’s parents read the manuscript and encouraged me to publish it,” he said. Notion Press took it up, and Mr. Ganapathy now has ‘Emotional Fool’ to his credit.
Rashika and Mr. Ganapathy were among 21 authors, whose works were voted best by readers during the contest. The book, ‘21 Tales to Tell’, was launched by author and historian, S. Muthiah, on Saturday. Writers from across the country, from schoolchildren to working professionals, are among the 21.
Mr. Muthiah urged the young writers to “put down 1,000 words a day.”
“Every one of us has a story to tell — how we grew up and what our social and political circumstances were. We need to record the stories of our time; by doing this, we are doing a great deal of service to our children and grandchildren, as well as to archival libraries,” he said.
He also told the writers to start using libraries. “Google is not your answer,” he said.
Naveen V., one of the executive directors of Notion Press, said the firm was also launching a social short story publishing platform. “On this, authors can publish their stories and get feedback from readers, who can rate or review a story. The platform is built for social connectivity, to help popularise stories,” he said.
The platform will have an ‘always on’ contest, and writers that are highly rated will be rewarded, he said.
“The aim is to draw in the younger generation — the school and college-going crowd,” Mr. Naveen said.
Next month, Notion Press will launch a mobile app so users can read and rate stories online from their phones, he said.
