From Writing to Publishing

Reading and writing have been my hobbies since a very young age. It is maintaining a diary that helped me develop the habit of writing. I also used to write about the trips I went for, about what I learnt, and about so much more.

I feel very content when I use colours to express my feeling and I feel the same when I paint a picture with words. When I start writing, I can’t stop! At some point, I also picked the habit of noting down even the smallest of ideas I got and I used to try to develop them.

One fine day, I got an idea and I noted it down as usual but unlike the other ones, this one just kept buzzing in my mind. Initially, I kept the idea to myself but when I had a few stories ready, I showed them to my parents. They read the first two extracts and encouraged me to write more which meant a lot to me.

The journey of writing a book demands a lot of hard work and can get tiring. But for me, it was more of an enjoyable activity: something I could not stop doing! I think it was such a great experience for me because I am passionate about writing and when you do something you are passionate about, you don’t feel tired or like giving up.

For advice regarding any ideas I’d get, I would rush to my mother. And if I needed help with my language, the first and last person I thought of was Mahua ma’am. She has been my teacher since I was a child, and she is the person I have dedicated my book to.

It had always been my dream to get my own book published and it finally came true. Honestly, I hadn’t imagined that my parents would get my book published, but when they read my stories and told me that they would, it felt like it was their dream more than mine!

I only wrote the book and edited it with my editor, but my parents worked day and night to make a book out of a few short stories. My parents made it possible to get this book published while I was occupied by my tenth grade exams.

They prioritised making my dream a reality while working as hard as they do. I would only come into the scene when something like the cover page was to be approved, or if something like the ‘About the Book’ section was to be written.

And this is how my first book ‘Home in the Hill’ became a reality. The book is about a young girl’s misadventures during her visits to her grandma’s home. From grandma’s love to humorous incidents, my book has it all. It will remind you of your own childhood days spent with your grandparents, cousins, and friends, with each story ending with a nugget of wisdom.

Writing a book of course, required hard work and determination. A few things that helped me were my habit of reading, the IGCSE English curriculum, and my constant attempts to improve. This is my first flight towards the world of literature and I hope to continue this journey to many more realms.

Written by Muskaan Shah