Abhilash Chandrashekar
My Writing Journey
My Personal Relationship With Writing
I think to have a relationship with writing, one must first have a relationship with reading. So, I’ll start from there.
Before Junior KG, Mom taught me the English alphabet. Even though I had learnt a couple of Indian languages orally, this was the first language I wrote.
This created a special bond with English. When in Junior KG, Mom rented comics in the local language. She planned to read it to me, but never had the time.
I pestered her to get me the comics in English. Using the few words I was taught in school, I tried to make sense of the stories.
I don’t know if I succeeded, but staring at all those words made me good at spelling.
In Senior KG in a different school, we had dictation once a week, and I never spelled any word wrong.
The Head Mistress was impressed and summoned my parents to compliment me.
This boost in confidence and positivity cemented English’s special place in my heart.
When in first grade, I was the only kid in class, in yet another school, who could read the English textbook fast, fluently and without mistakes.
That was a source of pride and made English all the more dear. In second grade, I read all the comics in my small local library.
I was then forced to read Famous Five and Secret Seven and finished them too. Then, I moved on to Hardy Boys, even though I didn’t understand everything in them.
After finishing them, there was nothing left to read in the library. I then turned to my grandfather’s book collection when in third grade.
All this reading made me understand the rules of grammar intuitively to the extent that I filled up my grammar workbook correctly without listening to the teacher’s instructions.
I was content to be a voracious reader until I got laid off and had to look for a new career. I decided to find one that suited my strengths and turned to writing.
I went through all the writing masterclasses on masterclass.com that I found interesting while at the same time starting my writing career.
My Writing Experience Until Now
I have published a collection of romance short stories, a poetry chapbook and a kid’s storybook.
I also write on Substack, Medium, and X.
I’m in the line editing stage of my first romance novel.
What I Love To Write About
I love to write about anything that I find myself thinking about. This helps me get these thoughts out of my system.
That makes me efficient because I stop pondering about things that I have already published instead of repeatedly thinking about them.
That allows me to focus on new ideas. I also like to present unique ideas that I don’t come across anywhere else.
Of course, I can’t claim all the credit for the unique ideas as I build on and combine ideas from others.
What Brought Me To Medium
The potential to monetize is what brought me to Medium. However, monetization is not yet available in my country.
I still keep writing on Medium as I think it’s a very positive and attractive place to write and interact with others.
Something Else I Want To Share To Inspire Others
My decision to take up writing was validated when I read ‘Think Big’ by Donald Trump.
I would recommend everyone to read it, even if you hate Trump, because the ideas in the book are great.
If I hadn’t read this book, I might not have started writing. The things in the book that inspired me are his views on thinking big in our areas of expertise and passion.
My take on this is that expertise alone will not help if passion is missing. Passion alone won’t lead to success if there’s no expertise.
Trump also says that it isn’t enough that the idea is big. It must also have the maximum impact on the maximum number of people.
Since I’m good at English, I have the expertise for writing. I’m also passionate about it.
I also try to choose topics that would interest the most people and benefit them as much as possible.
This has been my writing journey so far. I hope it helps others take up writing or anything else that speaks to them.
