Guest Post by Laxmi Hariharan
What is the biggest challenge and joy in writing dystopian fiction?
I prefer to call it a magic realist fantastical future, but yes my themes do often involve exploring a time and space when society as we know it has tipped over the edge, when everything has come to an end and we have the chance to start over. When we have to deal with the excesses of the past, the wastage of humanity today, the selfishness and corruption that is systemic and when time itself is speeding up and we are heading towards something a collision of some kind, don’t you think? At the same time many of us, and especially the millennials are much more in tune with themselves. They want to do something for the greater good, they want things to be more ethical, they don’t accept blind capitalist sales talk promising the moon, they don’t trust the media, or those in power. They question their teachers, their parents, and they can see through that which is not real. So I like the freedom to enjoy these themes in my fiction. Challenge is to always ground what I write in a feeling of reality, in the today so it’s easy for people to identify with it. Challenge is to yet focus in on human relationships and human emotions. To portray our need to understand ourselves better, to belong to a tribe, to a society, to a country, our search to find where we belong. To be able to yet bring this out in nuanced ways while all the time the world outside the window is exploding with uncertainty. And then the freedom to explore all this through a layered plot line; through suspense, mystery, conflict and twists and turns. Yes, that the challenge and the joy.
While writing, I always draw on intense emotions I have experienced ... which are caused by real life experiences of myself or of people I have met. But then I build on that, dramataise it. So often the characters are a mix of many people I know...
The challenge for me is to get so absorbed in the story and in the characters of the book, that real life became an intrusion. I resented having to live my own boring life and go to work and do the things one does to live. I wanted to live in the world I was creating which felt infinitely more awesome! It was like living in two different worlds and very disorienting.
I prefer to call it a magic realist fantastical future, but yes my themes do often involve exploring a time and space when society as we know it has tipped over the edge, when everything has come to an end and we have the chance to start over. When we have to deal with the excesses of the past, the wastage of humanity today, the selfishness and corruption that is systemic and when time itself is speeding up and we are heading towards something a collision of some kind, don’t you think? At the same time many of us, and especially the millennials are much more in tune with themselves. They want to do something for the greater good, they want things to be more ethical, they don’t accept blind capitalist sales talk promising the moon, they don’t trust the media, or those in power. They question their teachers, their parents, and they can see through that which is not real. So I like the freedom to enjoy these themes in my fiction. Challenge is to always ground what I write in a feeling of reality, in the today so it’s easy for people to identify with it. Challenge is to yet focus in on human relationships and human emotions. To portray our need to understand ourselves better, to belong to a tribe, to a society, to a country, our search to find where we belong. To be able to yet bring this out in nuanced ways while all the time the world outside the window is exploding with uncertainty. And then the freedom to explore all this through a layered plot line; through suspense, mystery, conflict and twists and turns. Yes, that the challenge and the joy.
While writing, I always draw on intense emotions I have experienced ... which are caused by real life experiences of myself or of people I have met. But then I build on that, dramataise it. So often the characters are a mix of many people I know...
The challenge for me is to get so absorbed in the story and in the characters of the book, that real life became an intrusion. I resented having to live my own boring life and go to work and do the things one does to live. I wanted to live in the world I was creating which felt infinitely more awesome! It was like living in two different worlds and very disorienting.
About the Author
She had an awesome time launching TV channels for MTV and NBCUniveral (Syfy) around the world, when a near death experience convinced Laxmi Hariharan that she had to get writing. NOW. A one time journalist with The Independent, she is now the author of the multi award winning fantasy adventure, The Ruby Iyer Series.
She also blogs for the Huffington post, has written for The Guardian and has been featured in publications including The Economic Times, The Times of India and Verve.
Married to a filmmaker and fellow author, her life often resembles a dramedy of errors film script. Born in Bombay she now lives in London, where she writes while listening to electronica and is an avid street art photographer. She is also the proud owner of a mononym Twitter handle @laxmi
Receive a free copy of THE RUBY IYER DIARIES when you sign up to her newsletter http://bit.ly/NewsletterLH
Reach Laxmi, on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/laxmihariharanauthor
on Twitter https://twitter.com/laxmi
on Instagram http://www.instagram/com/laxmiwrites
Suggested reading order in The Ruby Iyer Series (Each is a standalone book)
The Ruby Iyer Diaries : http://bit.ly/RubyIyerDiariesAmazon
Many Lives (of Ruby Iyer) : http://bit.ly/ManyLivesofRubyIyer
First Life (of Vikram Roy) : http://bit.ly/VikRoy
Inside Dark (The Elusive Life of Kay Braganza), coming soon
Second Lives, coming soon
Secret Life, coming soon
Stories set in the Ruby Iyer universe
UnTamed : Leana the Wolf Girl (Part of the UnCommon Bodies Anthology)
She also blogs for the Huffington post, has written for The Guardian and has been featured in publications including The Economic Times, The Times of India and Verve.
Married to a filmmaker and fellow author, her life often resembles a dramedy of errors film script. Born in Bombay she now lives in London, where she writes while listening to electronica and is an avid street art photographer. She is also the proud owner of a mononym Twitter handle @laxmi
Receive a free copy of THE RUBY IYER DIARIES when you sign up to her newsletter http://bit.ly/NewsletterLH
Reach Laxmi, on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/laxmihariharanauthor
on Twitter https://twitter.com/laxmi
on Instagram http://www.instagram/com/laxmiwrites
Suggested reading order in The Ruby Iyer Series (Each is a standalone book)
The Ruby Iyer Diaries : http://bit.ly/RubyIyerDiariesAmazon
Many Lives (of Ruby Iyer) : http://bit.ly/ManyLivesofRubyIyer
First Life (of Vikram Roy) : http://bit.ly/VikRoy
Inside Dark (The Elusive Life of Kay Braganza), coming soon
Second Lives, coming soon
Secret Life, coming soon
Stories set in the Ruby Iyer universe
UnTamed : Leana the Wolf Girl (Part of the UnCommon Bodies Anthology)
Enter a $10 festive giveaway HERE > http://www.laxmihariharan.com/p/ruby-iyer-giveaway.html
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