Author Reading + Q&A with Damyanti Biswas

Bustling behind screens, the energy of the audience could be felt even before Damyanti joined the call. I know I certainly was “bustling”! Logging in from various countries and time zones, students and professors from the University of Nottingham Malaysia all gathered with excited anticipation for the event organised by UNM’s Writers’ Society and Particle.

Damyanti dove in immediately with her first reading: an excerpt from her novel You Beneath Your Skin. Precise and specific, the excerpt was heavily influenced by India, and the text triggered all five senses. Damyanti definitely doesn’t shy away from bold visual images!

Unconventionally, Damyanti chose to start on the seventh chapter instead of the first chapter, wanting to highlight the contrast of settings in novels as opposed to settings in flash fiction or short stories.

Moving on to her next piece, Damyanti read to us her flash fiction piece titled “Picasso Dreams.” Short and sweet, “Picasso Dreams” centers around a girl, Jezebel, and her blue betta fish, Moby Dick. Damyanti also later reveals in the Q&A that she once had a male betta fish.

She told us the story of how her piece was “rejected everywhere”, but suddenly, out of 1,500 pieces it won the Inaugural Award from the Bath Flash Fiction Award—an International Rolling Flash Fiction Competition—inspiring us to never give up hope.

From flash fiction, Damyanti began her journey in short stories. “Flash fiction helped me gain the confidence I needed to write… it really taught me to make every word count and it sharpened my prose.”

Flash fiction is her backbone as a writer. In fact, her novel actually came from flash fiction pieces: “You’ll see Anjali and Jatin pop up in a few of my published flash fiction pieces.”

Damyanti chose to finish her readings with an excerpt from her short story “Of Durians and Vipers”. Set in Penang, the story smacks you with the strong scent of Malaysia—the nutmeg, the “damp rain”, the “durian corpses”—and certainly unpacks a lot in just three paragraphs. Damyanti believes that characters are the most important part of the story, but interestingly, she told us how this short story was influenced by the setting more than the characters: “I liked Malaysian setting so much... everybody was so warm to me, wherever I went everybody was so nice to me.”

“Outside of Malaysia I really don’t write [from a] setting… there hasn’t been another place that spoke to me like the Malaysian setting did.”

Moving on to the Q&A section of the event, the audience asked questions ranging from first drafts and the specifics of editing novels to publishing.

Concerning the types of publishing (traditional vs self publishing), Damyanti summarises that it depended on the genre of your work and your goals as a writer. In general, she recommends that literary novelists stick with traditional publishing with a company rather than self publishing, as that is where that particular audience is. However, for writers of romance, fantasy, crime, or thrillers, “right now is the time for going into self publishing, absolutely. Straight away.”

Many questions about first and final drafts arose as well. What should our first drafts look like? How do we know we’ve reached our final draft?

Damyanti shares that the first drafts are like clay. Being the “clay of your artwork”, she advises that writers write out everything that comes naturally to them—without worrying about the word count or specific chapters yet—, so they can uncover the story they want to tell. This clay is then what you will use to artistically mold your piece and your characters.

Final drafts are more challenging to pinpoint; her suggestions are to “ensure that on every page there is at least one sentence which I [you] feel good about,” and “to keep writing until you can come to the point where you can say here is the end.”

Damyanti also discusses the concept of having “talent” in the writing industry, and her personal belief that having talent is not a distinguishing factor for great writers.

“In the beginning when I was starting out, I used to think that it’s talent that separates a good writer from a bad one, but over the years, I’ve seen a lot of people who are very talented fall by the wayside because they do not pursue it. They feel that their talent should work for them, and they come up with a brilliant piece of writing for a start to something, but they do not finish.”

“If you finish, you have to kind of fulfill that promise of your talent, so [since] you are very good, your finished product has to be very good and your finished product needs to start winning all these awards.” It’s the pressure of their talent that leads to their own downfall.

On the topic of writers being satisfied with their work, Damyanti says that she’s suspicious of writers who love their work.

“I would advise you to really hold on to that dissatisfaction because that dissatisfaction is the rocket fuel to your growth. If you are very satisfied with everything you write, you’re not going to go very far. The only way to go further and further is to be dissatisfied.”

She also introduced a fresh approach on networking for writers.

“You need to have a community of people who understand you, who support you, who can be there for you… and you need to have someone in the writing world who you can go to when you have a question. You should have some people whose opinions you trust.”

“For me, the whole idea is to have relationships, and the only way to have relationships is through generosity, tremendous generosity of self where you give to people without expecting anything in return.”

Even without opening their video cameras, I could tell that everyone melted a little bit. It’s true, nobody understands writers like writers.

“If you are going to do something because you want something in return, you’re going to be a very bitter person. But if you're doing something because you know how hard it is and if you can make it easier for another person, then why not, because you would’ve appreciated it if someone had done that for you. So do it for others, and let people see that because it kind of creates a ripple effect within the community.”

Finally, she closed with her most memorable moment as a writer; it was when a young girl approached Damyanti and shared how inspired she was by the novel. “After I read your book, it made me feel like I can say no, and I can stand up and protest… [I] told my parents, no, I’m doing this. It doesn’t matter if you think I’m a girl and you think I can’t do it, I’m going to do it.” Damyanti recalled that it was “the best moment of her writing life… that a 17 year old girl was empowered to do something after reading my book.”

With those lovely words resonating, this entirely wholesome and informative event with honoured guest author, blogger, and activist Damyanti Biswas concluded.