Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

"We are built like this only, to see apparitions, to construct a vision of the world inside this lonely palace of bones, to live in this dream and be terrified of dying out of it, to suffer this nightmare made from impressions as if it were real."

That's a passage from Vikram Chandra's new novel, Sacred Games, blending Hindi mysticism, hardboiled ethics, and spy-novel plots. You can't learn this kind of storytelling in school--it took Chandra seven years to build this book.

This week Chandra is our special guest, sharing his writing wisdom in my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions.  In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.

Jason Boog:
What advice do you give to your creative writing students at the University of California, Berkeley? 

Vikram Chandra: 
When I went to my MFA program, I already knew I was writing a book, [Red Earth and Pouring Rain]. I was on a mission. Continue reading...

Looking back, a few years in between graduate and undergraduate school gave me more time to prepare.

I have some very practical advice.

I mostly teach undergraduates, most of the time seniors are thinking about MFAs. One of the things I would say is there’s no reason to rush it. Going too early to an MFA program might be a mistake—you might not know what you’re there for.

I was on a mission. Every class I took and every book I read, in some way became research for that mission. It gives you some necessary armor for the process; you won’t be distracted by everything around you.