Siddhartha was born Guwahati in Assam and he lived for the first 18 years of his life on the campus of Gauhati University. He started writing for publication when he was seven – first in school magazines and then for newspapers. “Before that, I used to write small stories for myself, or tell them to whoever was interested. I started reading chapter books around the same time. So I really can’t tell if reading stories got me to start writing, or I liked reading because I responded to stories and to telling them,” says the writer.
Writing the Siddhartha Sarma
Siddhartha insists there is no single way to being a writer, and what works for one kind of person might not work for another. However, he has put down what he has learnt over these years. According to him, there are three things a good writer needs.
Read: “First, you need to read. At this stage in your life, when your mind is fresh and memory sharp, you need to read as much as possible. I remember almost everything that I read till I was 18. You can afford to be indiscriminate. You can read across genres. You can read good writing and bad, because it is only when you have read enough bad writing will you know what to avoid. Afterwards, when you are older and have less time, you can specialize in genres or writers. For how, just read every single printed word you can find. Don’t count the number of books you have read. It’s being rude to your mind. Don’t set targets. Don’t read for other people. Just read.”
Write: “Good writing is also about craft. All the books you read will not help you become a good writer unless you have done a lot of practice and discovered what your strengths and weaknesses are. Before writing about the world, you should explore every corner of your mind, and writing practice helps you do that. There is no fixed ration of reading to writing that I can recommend but at this stage in your life, give some time to writing just for yourself. Publication can wait.
Live: “This one is super important and very difficult. Go out, explore the world, study humans, animals, systems, structures, ideas. Experience the complexities of the human condition. The best writers always write about things that matter to humans even when they are writing about dragons and aliens and robots. The best writers have a profound understanding of what it means to be human. And the best way to discover it is to live, make mistakes. Learn. Watch other humans (that gives you templates for your characters).”
Siddhartha Sarma’s books
- Year of the Weeds
- 103 Historical Mysteries, Puzzles, Conundrums and Stuff
- 103 Journeys, Voyages, Trip and Stuff
- The Grasshopper’s Run
Inspiration from the real world is of essence to him, “When I write, I go into a small place in my head, which is very precious for me. The place where I grew up was beautiful, wooded, full of ponds and small creatures. The small place in my head is my personal copy of this real place. I go there because it gives me a sense of peace, quiet and focus. So you could say that I am inspired by the world, and by my childhood.”
The writer’s routine
He says he tries to write in a simple manner and lets the characters drive the story. “I don’t like using big words or long sentences, adverbs or exclamation marks, he says. “My favourite time is at night, preferably between midnight and four in the morning. That’s when I write. I think about what I am going to write during the rest of the day, I have no standard process. But sometimes, while writing a novel, I write scenes from different points in the story, and then put things together later, like shooting a film.” He confesses he doesn’t usually make a storyboard but he might just begin to.
Bet you did not know that Siddhartha is a trained swordmaker and marksman. That he thinks he is rather boring, in spite of his hobby of collecting comic books, classic die-cast car models and swords. “These aren’t really uncommon things to do,” he says.
Picture Credit : Google