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I’ll be honest. I am in a bit of a conundrum here about the story which I wrote two afternoons ago, whether or not to publish it coz of legal issues. But before we get into that, I’m gonna give you a little background here.
It happened last month, if my memory isn’t betraying me. I signed up for a story writing competition for an NGO that works for the rehabilitation of sex workers. It had a pretty novel fundraising strategy- invite people from three top colleges of Mumbai to write a fictional piece after a personal interaction with the sex workers, dole out generous prizes to the best pieces and publish those in the form of a book. Writers happy, NGO happy- both conveniently make money, or at least stand a chance to.
I signed up for it and went on to have this extremely interesting two hour chat with this lady. After coming home, for the first time, I jotted down all the inputs, drew a layout and decided on the style and tone of execution. Next day I realized there’s a word limit- 2500.
Fuck.
The style I wanted to opt for was very elaborate and to squeeze it in 2500 meant compromising the effect. I decided to chuck it and then Riya came to the rescue.
If you remember, Riya has been my unfinished dream project since ages. It has bothered me so much that I've always wanted to bring a closure to it by any goddamn way. Shockingly, then it dawned on me how many blatant similarities lay in the tale she told me and the tale I wrote, mostly in the introduction of Riya’s character. And hoo-ha-bang, thus ‘A Bedtime Story’ emerged.
This one has borrowed a large chunk from the original, edited it, refined it, and twisted it to fit into a brand new tale. It’s not completely original as I've plagiarized from my own work. But then, that shouldn’t really bother you- I’m willing to bet nobody has read Riya, going by the length (2 parts with more than 10 pages each) and the number of comments (none). That having said, check the slim version out. You might just like it. Just a little bit of warning though-
It’s rated- A.
Cheers!
Acknowledgements:
Neil Alex: As usual. For his valuable comments, feedback and proofreading. Damn dude, I owe you tons.
5 comments:
Please post it here. I've read Riya already so I am hugely curious on this one! Update us soon pls!
Hehe, then you'll have to pray that I lose coz then it won't really make a difference whether or not I post it here. But hey, I can promise you this- if I don't figure in the first three, I will publish it here.
Why wouldn't you publish it here if it wins?
It's obvious, isn't it? If I get selected and they want to publish it as a book , it won't be ethical, and possibly even illegal, that I publish it on a free reading platform that is blogger.
Darn it!!!! Then how could i get to read it if it gets publishd?
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