DurriyaKapasi.com

Official website of the author Durriya Kapasi

Durriya Kapasi is an author of Neverfound Land, her second novel that is also a sequel of her first bestselling book Once Upon A Genie. She’s a Creative Writing teacher, foodie and traveler. Durriya is a cancer survivor and contributes in motivating and encouraging cancer patients through support groups.

Copyright 2017

How To Deal With Writer’s Block

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Writer’s block is often caused by clashing of our feelings, where the author experiences a creative slowdown. We know what we have to say but we are afraid that it won’t measure up to our expectations or to our readers’ expectations. But hey, writer’s block is better than to give up completely, right?

It happens to every writer and at various stages.  For me, it’s like a common cold and cough. It comes and goes. Sometimes it takes up to 3 months, but I don’t take it hard on myself because I know I will pick up from where I left. I tell myself, when we have caught cold, we do relax right?

Here are some tips to do while you are on writer’s block:

  1. Enjoy reading books with a cup of coffee, tea or your favorite drink.
  2. Watch a lot of movies, get yourself wrapped up and cosy, turn on some inspirational movies.
  3. Write anything, even something that doesn’t make sense, don’t stop writing.
  4. Watch movie/ book trailers that are somehow similar to your story concept. Those little trailers will give you new ideas. And you will also get to know if there’s something similar out there.
  5. Share your story ideas with someone close to you, they’ll give you a lot advices, now it’s upto you if you want to work on it or not, or get a new idea from it.
  6. Keep a notebook handy at all times so you can jot down all of your brilliant ideas. I usually save my ideas in drafts of my email.
  7. Closely observe around you. The people and activities that surround you will provide you with great inspiration for characters, plots and scenes.
  8. Let go of your inner editor. Sometimes we are just stuck because we are not going with the flow, but we need a rough draft.
  9. Most of the times we come up with new ideas while writing and we assume it disturbs our plot, but let it be, see if it fits in at all? Don’t stop there. It might be your angel, making your plot better.
  10. Never be afraid of failure. Writing a paragraph is an achievement in itself.
  11. Say it aloud whenever you feel low, “I’m a writer. And one day I will hit the best selling list.”
  12. Close your eyes and imagine your characters, just like when you are day dreaming.

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Special Launch of Once Upon a Genie

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Once Upon a Genie (OUAG) became more special and close to my heart after its Launch Party which made special with the presence of 20 underprivileged Children.

5th July was the day when we organized this grand and touching launch in association with Robinhood Army (an NGO working for underprivileged children), R Kay Mall and Udaipurwale.com

The kids sang, danced and cut the cake of OUAG before hitting the OMG game zone followed by lunch.

The event was attended by volunteers of Robinhood Army under their leader Chahat Arora and Surabhi Khatri Panwar, Deepesh Kothari, owner of R Kay Mall and Zaheer Abbas founder of Udaipurwale Group.

How to deal with Book Reviewers and Promoters? – For debut authors

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While attempt to promote my book Once Upon A Genie in last few months, I have met many reviewers, marketers/ promoters and people who claimed to get the book on the trending or best selling list.  Here I have summed up some points from my experience that will surely help the debut authors like me on how to market their book best and effectively.

 

1) Learn to negotiate with the overpriced book promoters/ reviewers.  They might even drop to half of the price of their promotion package — the business is hot.

 

2) Analyze yourself, are they worth it? Will their promotion sell even 2 of your books? Then go ahead. You don’t want to put your money into something that won’t give you back.

 

3) Learn from critics but never pay for it. Ask them buy the book and rip it off bad. Keep a thick skin for that.

 

4) Most of the time ask for reviews in exchange for the book (your book is not for free), and ask the reviewers to spread some words about your book.

 

5) Don’t entertain so called chicks or hunks to promote your book. It won’t be sold. They flash their body, not your book.

 

6) Debut authors are like baby birds learning how to fly, watch out for the vultures from the literary world. Do not fall for traps/ scams.

 

7) Check if the reviewers/promoters have active blogs, and good SEO on Search Engines. Their links should come on the first page of search for specific keywords.

 

8) Try to go out of the circle of reviewers. If their friends are mutual, the promotion of your book will be within the same network all the time.

 

9) Before you start with a promotional service, go for a lower price (beginners) package. See the response and the reach first, if it’s good, go for the higher ones.

 

10) There are plenty of book reviewers. So don’t rush to give your book for review to everyone and anyone. Do some research on the reviewer, if they have quality content, go for it.

 

11) Give, or ask them a deadline to do your review if you have paid them.

 

12) Make sure you list down and save all the details of a reviewer/ promoter you’ve had words with- from day 1. You will have to approach many reviewers, so it’s good to keep track and count.

 

13) Don’t go for the ones who promise you ’10, 5 star reviews for 500rs’ or whatever. It’s unethical. This may mislead the readers and give you no honest feedback.

 

14) Do more and more contests to promote your book effectively. Do it on writers groups, try promoting your book outside your network.

 

15) Honest Reviews are the best!

 

Join my Creative Writing Workshop on 27th May

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Half Baked Beans, the publisher of Once Upon a Genie is organizing a Creative Writing Workshop in Udaipur and invited me to facilitate it.

The workshop will focus on honing your creative writing skills, understanding the need for proper syntax and imagery, and also some writing tips by me.

The event will be hosted by Mic & Munch cafe, Udaipur, the workshop promises to be an enriching one.

Date & Time: 27th May, 12-2pm

Venue: Mic n Munch Café near Court Circle, Udaipur

Registration Fee – 150 INR

Registration link-

http://www.greenrockstore.com/…/hbb-writing-workshop-udaip…/

You can also PAYTM the fee  @7838590233

OUAG now in The Chocolate Room

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Once Upon A Genie (OUAG) got another interesting Home with lots of Chocolates around, yes! it is well settled at one of the most interesting cafes around Udaipur ” The Chocolate Room”

Owner of Chocolate Room, Mr. Nitin  Hiran is too kind to accept the book in his beautiful cafe always full of youngsters and family.

So now visitors to Chocolate Room can have a look at few pages while sipping Chocolate Shakes.