Muse Of The Month August 2016: Inspiration From Tanushree Podder

Each month this year, we host a writing theme - the Muse Of The Month, with a ‘writing cue’ from a contemporary female author of Indian origin. The 5 best entries get published here!

Each month this year, we host a writing theme – the Muse Of The Month, with a ‘writing cue’ from a contemporary female author of Indian origin. The 5 best entries get published here!

What you need to do for August 2016

Step 1. Read the writing cue (which is either a direct quote from the featured author, or a quote from one of their works, mentioned down below) and get inspired.

Step 2. Write your own story/poem/narrative/essay/piece based on the cue. You could use it as the opening line, the closing sentence, or somewhere in between! You could even choose not to use it anywhere in your story – just write a story using the cue as a prompt. (And the ‘story’ can be fictional – or not – as you wish).

Step 3. Send your work to us. Please email it to [email protected] with ‘Muse of the month – August 2016’ in the subject line, and your story as a word/txt attachment. Do include the name we should use if we publish it, and a brief introduction of yourself (2-3 lines) in the mail.

Please note: Given the number of entries received, we won’t be able to respond to each, but every single entry is being read through very carefully and is much appreciated.

Deadlines

Please send in your stories by Wednesday, 17th August 2016, 3 p.m. IST. The 5 best stories will be published on Women’s Web between the 22nd and 26th August, one on each day.

Rules

The material should be previously unpublished elsewhere. (Copyright stays with you and you’re free to subsequently publish it elsewhere).

Keep it between 250 and 2000 words. (Please keep this in mind; in past editions, we have had to disqualify some good entries purely due to word count issues).

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Please avoid typing the story as inline text. Send it as an attachment only.

Prizes

The 5 best entries will each win a Flipkart voucher worth Rs 250. Plus, there will be 10 overall winners at the end of 2016 from among these winners!

Muse of the month August 2016

Tanushree Podder is a freelance travel writer and an author. Inspired by her mother, a science graduate with a degree in management. and a voracious reader, Tanushree was exposed to literary works of great masters of craft much early in childhood. She was encouraged to put pen to paper since childhood even if the story seemed ‘outright silly’.

Initially with her management background, she worked with Larsen and Toubro but after eight years found the work monotonous. She quit her corporate job to plunge into full time writing and dabbled with a variety of ideas from political satire and interviews to book reviews and serious articles to travel writing and fiction stories.

Author of many non-fiction titles, travel stories and novels, she says, she feels most satisfied “when a total stranger walks up and tells you that he enjoyed reading your book.”

Her first novel Nurjahan’s Daughter was published in 2005. Her other notable works include Boots Belts Berets, Escape From Harem, On The Double and her latest with HarperCollins, Solo in Singapore. She believes there are no shortcuts in writing and one should be prepared to work very hard and not disheartened by setbacks.

Tanushree has settled down in Pune with her two daughters and husband who is in the Indian Army.

Cue for Month 2016

“For the first time she realized that nothing was permanent in life – friends, circumstances, riches or parental love.” — Tanushree Podder, Nurjahan’s Daughter.

Do not forget to send in your entries by Wednesday, 17th August 2016, 3 p.m. IST.

Image source: deccanchronicle

 

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