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A few days ago, I was assigned to write an article on how to write articles. The internet is spilling over with instant tips on every subject under the sun, and not surprisingly, I found millions of hits on tips +”how to write” on google, Yahoo, MSN and each of the fancy search engines I tried. My head buzzing, I decided to take a break and brew myself some green tea….does green tea flush out toxins from the brain as well as from the body, I wonder? There was a sense of mushy nostalgia as I remembered the first article I had written on a laptop with broken keys for “i” and “y”, and how I had to copy paste these letters on most of the words I wrote. It was painstaking, frustrating, and endlessly discouraging. But I hung in there: and got a measly 20 quid for one whole day of sweat and tears! Needless to say, I was delirious, ecstatic. I called everyone far and near to tell them about how I had made my first money as a writer! So when I sat down again to write my article, I realized that a writer’s biggest quality, if he or she is to write something at all and get paid for it (and maybe someday become famous) is to remember the two words: Persistence pays. You might be a goldmine of talent, imagination and capability, but it will not do you any good unless you have started writing. So stick to it, and write, write, write. That is what I have to say to myself and to everyone anywhere who wants to become a writer.
Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

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