Jaishree Misra

Published August 18, 2011 | By Laura

Jaishree Misra is the author of Ancient Promises, Secrets and Lies, Secrets and Sins and her most recent novel, A Scandalous Secret. Novel Kicks had a chat with Jaishree and asked her about her route to publication and who’d she’d have to dinner…

What was your route to publication?

I’d had to give up my radio journalist’s job at the BBC because of childcare commitments (my daughter has special needs) and I found myself sitting at home at a loose end, feeling terribly downcast. We’d bought a new computer at the time and I’d promised my husband I’d write four pages of text so he could teach me Word functions. It sounds a bit crazy but, once I started writing, I couldn’t stop and, very soon, my planned four pages had grown into a 300 page memoir! That went on to become my first novel, ‘Ancient Promises’ (and, yes, by then I had learnt to use Word to do all that nifty spell-check stuff). I was one of those lucky few who didn’t have to search too hard for an agent, even though I did get my share of rejections at first. It seemed to make sense to look for an agent who had already had success with a book set in India so I located David Godwin, Arundhati Roy’s agent, and sent three sample chapters to him. You can imagine how chuffed I was to get a call from him a few weeks later asking to see the rest.

Where do you find inspiration for your novels?

From all over the place – chance conversations, overheard remarks, a story in the newspaper. The latter was the genesis of my most recent book, actually – ‘A Scandalous Secret’ – which sort of emerged from a picture I once saw in the newspapers of Claire Short with the long-lost son she’d given away at birth. Sometimes ideas implant themselves and quietly germinate away and then quite suddenly spring to life when you’re least expecting it. Essentially a novelist has to be deeply interested in life and in people and enjoy a bit of amateur psychology to figure out what makes them do the things they do.

For someone new to your novels, can you briefly describe your writing style.

It’s light, conversational, hopefully warm and empathetic. I don’t particularly like verbal pyrotechniques and magic realism, basically anything too far removed from real life.

What’s your typical writing day like?

It’s been transformed immeasurably by my move from England to India. Back in England, it was all mad-panic-grab-a-chapter-here-dash-off-a-chapter-there, mostly because I was juggling the writing alongside a full-time job and childcare and house work. Here in India, I have the sudden luxury of writing full-time with no bread ‘n’ butter job to worry about. I even have the nicest couple who help with the cooking and cleaning. The curious thing is that it’s proving much harder that I thought to discipline myself and make sure the same work I used to do before doesn’t merely expand to fill time. Equally difficult to discipline family and friends – who seem to think that by being at home I’m never doing anything important enough to take precedence over them!

Do you plan/research much before beginning a writing project?

My first experience of proper research came when I wrote a historical novel called ‘Rani’ and, suddenly, history – my worst subject back at school – became this treasure trove of stories. In terms of planning, you’re sometimes forced to come up with a pre-manuscript synopsis by publishers but I often find that I end up departing from this as I go along. I think it’s useful to have a plan of sorts before starting a book but it’s important to leave enough mental wiggle-room for when the characters of a book develop and start making their own decisions. That might sound a bit mystical and weird but I’ve often found that I might have planned a certain path for a character to take but, by the time, we’ve got to that ‘fork in the road’, the character has developed certain traits that make it impossible for him/her to follow my original plan. It’s best to stay truer to character rather than plot in such instances.

How do you approach editing?

Early on in my writing career, I used to edit haphazardly and seemingly all the time but, increasingly, I’ve grown to rely on Stephen King’s formula of two drafts and a polish. It’s best to get all the ‘wordage’ done in the first instance and spend Draft 2 shaping it, something like a sculptor and his lump of clay.

Best/Worst thing about being a writer?

Best thing has to be that it’s one of the few jobs you can do in your pyjamas.

Worst – that no one believes staring into space IS a part of the job.

Is there an author you particularly admire?

David Nicholls at the moment – brilliant dialogue, wonderful characterization and how does he manage to be funny and so incredibly moving all at once??

Is there a character from fiction you’d like to meet?

Oh, Lizzie Bennett, without a doubt. Or that altar-ego of hers, Bridget Jones. An evening in with one (or both) of them would be a riot!

Which three books would you say have made the biggest impression on you?

‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, ‘The God of Small Things’.

What three things would you take with you to a desert island?

My laptop (please, please let there be electricity on my desert island).

A trunk full of books for when I get bored of my own writing.

A teeny-weeny make-up bag for when that rescue ship finally appears on the horizon (yes, I think I would want to get rescued, all said and done)

Who would your ideal dinner guests be?

Joan Rivers, Josie Lawrence, Frank Skinner and the Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan. Am I allowed Jamie Oliver in the kitchen?

Any advice for new writers?

Persist, if you believe in what you do, but try not to ignore the feedback you get with those horrible rejection letters. Tempting as it is to want to hurl them out of the window, it’s worth remembering that this is one of those areas where it’s genuinely difficult to judge your own work and there’s often room for improvement.

To find out more about Jaishree, visit her website.