“I had the idea, I had the characters and the plot was dancing before my eyes. What could possibly go wrong?”
When Trisha Sakhlecha was hit with a fantastic novel idea halfway through writing her debut, she learned a valuable lesson in tuning out the noise.
I remember the exact moment I had the idea for my second novel. I was halfway through editing my first novel, Your Truth or Mine?, wading through what had become an extremely muddled middle when a piece on the news caught my attention: a brutal rape in Delhi. I had been thinking about an incident at my high school for some years and as I watched the coverage of the assault and its subsequent politicizing, the two ideas came together.
This new idea…it was shiny. It felt relevant. The characters, though blurry, had charisma and gravitas. They had something to say.
I had something to say.
But I also had another, very real novel to finish. I decided to bank the idea for later and ploughed on with my work-in-progress.
It worked. Six months later, I had an agent, a two-book publishing deal and permission to stop treating my shiny new idea like a dirty secret.
My publishers gave me a year to write my second novel. I’d written my first novel in half of that and I was certain that this new novel was going to be so much easier to write. I had the idea, I had the characters and the plot was dancing before my eyes. What could possibly go wrong?
Turns out, quite a lot.
I wrote the first ten thousand words at speed, but the character I created felt one-dimensional. I went back to the beginning. This time the character worked, but the voice wasn’t quite right. I hit delete again. And again. And again.
You see, the book in my head was amazing – but as soon as I started writing it, it felt as though it was falling apart.
I spent the next six months writing and deleting. Another shiny new idea appeared and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was time to abandon my impossible to write work-in-progress.
But by this time, I had an inkling of what was wrong and it didn’t have to do with the characters or the voice or any of the other things that had made me hit delete. It had to do with me.
With my first novel, the act of writing was a compulsion. I didn’t worry about my readers because I assumed there wouldn’t be many. I didn’t think about agents or publishers. I only thought about what I needed to write.
But even with that first novel, the writing wasn’t always easy and there was a seductive new idea demanding my attention.
In the end, I did exactly what I did with my first novel. I tuned out all the noise – shiny new idea included – sat down with my laptop and I just got on with it.
Can You See Me Now? is the end result. It’s a psychological thriller about an intense, claustrophobic teenage friendship, a scandal that tears it apart and a fifteen-year-old secret that refuses to stay buried. My protagonist, Alia, has charisma. And as a young minister trying to make her mark in the patriarchal world of Indian politics, she has gravitas. She has something to say.
It’s not exactly the book I set out to write but it deals with all the themes that first attracted me to the idea – power, privilege, patriachy and female ambition.
I’m incredibly proud of it.
I’m now muddling through the second draft of my next novel and as expected, a shiny new idea is trying to lure me away. But this time, I know exactly what to do. Keep my head down, tune out the noise and just write.
Trisha Sakhlecha grew up in New Delhi and now lives in London. She works in fashion and is a graduate of the Faber Academy writing course. In the past, Trisha has worked as a designer, trend forecaster, and lecturer. She is the acclaimed author of Your Truth or Mine? and Can You See Me Now?
Find her at @TrishaSakhlecha and on her website trishasakhlecha.com
About CAN YOU SEE ME NOW:
Fifteen years ago, three sixteen-year-old girls meet at Wescott, an exclusive private school in India. Two, Sabah and Noor, are the most popular girls in their year. One, Alia, is a new arrival from England, who feels her happiness depends on their acceptance. Before she knows it, Sabah and Noor’s intoxicating world of privilege and intimacy opens up to Alia and, for the first time, after years of neglect from her parents, she feels she is exactly where, and with whom, she belongs. But with intimacy comes jealousy, and with privilege, resentment, and Alia finds that it only takes one night for her bright new world to shatter around her. Now Alia, a cabinet minister in the Indian government, is about to find her secrets have no intention of staying buried . . .
How to ignore the shiny new idea and finish your novel!