Get your plot together

If you are haunted by dreams of literary stardom and Booker fantasies, shun exotica and think big. For a start, avoid the Arundhati Roy trap, says British publisher and literary critic Jane Lawson in an interview to Manish Chand

There is a fatigue about Indian novels post-Arundhati Roy, specially of the exotic and lyrical kind symbolised by Roy’s Booker Prize-wining novel The God of Small Things, says UK publisher Jane Lawson.

The lyrical flourishes of Arundhati Roy’s style of writing are no more in demand
The lyrical flourishes of Arundhati Roy’s style of writing are no more in demand

Lawson, a senior editor at Transworld Publishers, a division of the US leading publishing conglomerate Random House group, was in Delhi to promote the diplomat-turned-author Vikas Swarup’s debut novel Q and A, a poignant story of a penniless waiter who wins a billion-dollar quiz contest.

It was Lawson who discovered Swarup’s novel and snapped it up for Doubleday, the prestigious British imprint she represents, for a fabulous six-figure advance.

Going by what Lawson says, exotica is passe and multi-culturalism is the new prima donna of the British literary world.

"Quasi-poetic flourishes of the Arundhati Roy variety have become a shade too cloying. There is more interest in novels with multi-cultural settings," adds Lawson, who scans at least 1,000 manuscripts every week as part of her job.

Lawson’s brutally candid critiques of Indian writing in English shouldn’t, however, force a misreading of her position.

"Although the Indian novel written by Indians living in India is slightly out of fashion, Indian writing in English is becoming a full-blown genre in itself," says the polyglot publisher who studied modern languages at Durham University.

Dos and don’ts for writers

For all of you who write and are besotted with millionaire dreams, here are some tips from literary guru Jane Lawson.

  • Think big.
  • Make sure you have something interesting to say in what your write.
  • You should be able to convey the plot in a sentence to your publisher and agent.
  • Avoid the excesses of narcissism.
  • Sex sells, but ultimately the quality of writing counts.
  • Vision and imagination should be given importance as they are central to any writing project.

The market for British Asian writing is, however, growing, says Lawson, who also discovered Monica Ali’s Brick Lane — a Booker-short-listed novel in 2003.

"I am inclined to look at Indian novels more than anything else. India is a very fertile land. Indians are very good with family histories and big themes," says Lawson, who points at the relative insularity of British writers by way of contrast.

Pitching in for more works celebrating the multi-cultural ethos, she adds, "There is a danger to be parochial with British writers. The works of diasporic writers settled in Britain like Monica Ali, Zadie Smith and Hanif Qureishi straddle various worlds and are more interesting." Finally, how does she see the new literary climate and the changing canons of taste? Big themes, for one thing, are prime time once again.

"We are looking for big, resonant books. Allan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty was a classic novel in that respect. There is a pressure for writers to use big themes, the eternal themes of life-as-journey and self-discovery," says Lawson.

— IANS

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