arramiah1
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- Joined
- Nov 5, 2012
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- 13
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Hi Everyone! I am a writer in Chennai. I have been writing in Tamil, a couple of short stories in magazines, a couple online and so on. Unfortunately, the Tamil commercial market for short stories or novels disappeared with the advent of cable television. Magazines, which used to support commercial writing now provide half a page for a "story". The literary magazines publish "serious" stories, but they cater to a different market. So the entire popular fiction area in Tamil disappeared. Big publishers do not even publish fiction. It would be a miracle if a book sold 500 copies.
Last year, therefore, I decided to write one of my ideas as a screenplay. I completed it in 8 months. It was set in the 500 AD and I immediately realized that was a problem.
But there were much bigger issues. In Tamil movies, there are no agents; and directors write their own scripts. Therefore there is no "scriptwriter" separately. If you wrote a script, you have to try to become a director. The production houses like UTV won't even touch your script unless you are an assistant director.
I had no intention of directing movies.
So, the commercial story market does not exist. And no scriptwriters. Which means that my role as a Tamil writer does not even exist. I have decided to publish straight to my blog, since more people read it that way. I get about 2000 visitors per month for one of my short stories; which is a relief.
This year, I decided to try my hand at an English novel. I did not like the decision, but tried it anyway. Completed a 55,000 word novel in 4 months and sent off the synopsis and first three chapters to a big publisher here. After 5 weeks, they asked for a full manuscript, which was great! It has been 6 weeks today after that, I am praying for good news.
I have not gone completely crazy in these weeks because I started writing a small Tamil novella - even though nobody is going to publish it. That has been progressing well till now.
I really, really wish Tamil commercial writing market can get back to the glory days from 50s to 80s. It does not bode well for writers if it does not - A language needs popular fiction to maintain its relevance, I think.
Last year, therefore, I decided to write one of my ideas as a screenplay. I completed it in 8 months. It was set in the 500 AD and I immediately realized that was a problem.
But there were much bigger issues. In Tamil movies, there are no agents; and directors write their own scripts. Therefore there is no "scriptwriter" separately. If you wrote a script, you have to try to become a director. The production houses like UTV won't even touch your script unless you are an assistant director.
I had no intention of directing movies.
So, the commercial story market does not exist. And no scriptwriters. Which means that my role as a Tamil writer does not even exist. I have decided to publish straight to my blog, since more people read it that way. I get about 2000 visitors per month for one of my short stories; which is a relief.
This year, I decided to try my hand at an English novel. I did not like the decision, but tried it anyway. Completed a 55,000 word novel in 4 months and sent off the synopsis and first three chapters to a big publisher here. After 5 weeks, they asked for a full manuscript, which was great! It has been 6 weeks today after that, I am praying for good news.
I have not gone completely crazy in these weeks because I started writing a small Tamil novella - even though nobody is going to publish it. That has been progressing well till now.
I really, really wish Tamil commercial writing market can get back to the glory days from 50s to 80s. It does not bode well for writers if it does not - A language needs popular fiction to maintain its relevance, I think.