iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Hamnet sat on my bookshelf for months, but for some reason I couldn't get into it. I exchanged it at a second-hand bookstore, and instantly everyone started talking about it. Not saying one thing is connected to the other, but it isn't the first time this has happened! #booksky #reading #books

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Beginning a new round of querying. I like to think of every rejection as, what we call, an 'answer paper leak'. It tells me clearly, what is not working with the current query. Cry hope, and let loose the new queries! #amquerying #writesky

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Ha ha... I like this. "...towers of guilt but also excitement." So true.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

The issue is: The speed at which I read books is slower than the speed at which I discover new books. #booksky #reading #books

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

My writing resolution for the year: Get out of my own way and let the writing happen. Also: From the heart, not the head. #writing #writesky

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

From my lit fic MS, The Violet Heel. Claire views an old photograph... #writesky #WIPSnips #amquerying #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Craft bridges the distance between how you see it in your head and how it turns out on paper. #writesky #Writingcommunity #writerswisdom

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Ruby is desperate to leave her home; she craves escape, a new life. Excerpt from my MS: The Violet Heel #iamquerying #WIPSnips #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Claire reflects on the letters her father wrote to her—letters full of banal recollections and fragmented statements, that had very little substance. #WIPSnips #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Claire resolves to escape the tortures of the ‘Farmhouse’ by sending out a coded S.O.S to her half-sister, Ruby. Excerpt from my Lit Fic manuscript, The Violet Heel. #WIPSnips #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Claire's deception has been discovered by her brother, Gerald. He is furious and confronts her at her apartment. #WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writesky

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

That's awesome! Calls for a celebration indeed. Very happy for you, and it's a big big deal. My women's fiction MS is lounging in agent inboxes... fingers crossed!

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Ruby embarrasses her boyfriend Lucas in front of his church. The consequences for Ruby will be terrible. The sense of abandonment will trigger a past she's been running away from. #WIPSnips #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Thank you! Your message brought a smile to my face. Writing is such a lonely endeavour... but in some aspects it doesn't have to be. It is quite liberating to say: this is so hard; I don't know what to do next! :)

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Going over the first draft. I know I will get a very well-written, good story, I'm wondering what will pique an agent's interest. Am getting into my head as usual; it's an old problem. Apparently good and nice is not enough. Agents want unforgettable! I'm so stuck. Sigh #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Ruby had hoped her boyfriend in another country would be her ticket out of her old life and into a different, better future. All she wants is freedom, at any cost.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Perhaps one day I will share it with them :)

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Thanks... I'm glad you liked it, and stopped by. Really, every little bit of support and encouragement matters so much!

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Thank you, Hope. This is very encouraging. And god knows, we writers need a lot of that.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Thank you! Yes it does, and to be honest I have often wondered if it was too much. But that's how I wanted to write it, and so I did. Have to stay true. :)

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Claire reminisces about her father's faith, especially how it transformed after her mother passed away. #WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writesky

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Cynical Sarcastic The image is of this bitter man, sitting with a drink, angry at the world.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Claire reminisces about the time when she and Xavier decided to get married. The ordinariness of it, the matter-of-fact way it happened. #WIPSnips #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Claire recounts what she's heard about the affair between her father and Agnes, when they were in their twenties. #writesky #WIPSnips #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Thank you! I so enjoyed writing this.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

As the fire rages, Claire uses the distraction to escape the 'Farmhouse'. #WIPSnips #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Taking advantage of the fire, Claire escapes from the 'Farmhouse' #WIPSnips #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

It's a strange thing... the way a name appears on the screen (or paper), with the lines, curves... it subtly influences my approach to them. I write differently when the name is Harry and when it is say, Paul.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

I usually fix character names before the first draft. But this time, the OG name didn't 'feel right'. So I had to change the name of the protagonist. Now everything feels different; he is a different person, and he wants to do and say things differently! Happened to you? #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Some days I cannot read another line from a book on writing, I cannot watch another video about plotting, structure, or writing great sentences; and although I have learnt so much from others, some days I simply cannot bear another person's voice in my head. Some days... #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

I said, because this is the one that stuck in my head and refused to leave... I want to explore those moral greys. I don't want to write a safe story. Why bother, why the effort and pain to write safe stories? I like it. It's a nice writing philosophy: No safe stories #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Was talking to a friend about what I'm currently writing: a deep, emotional story, exploring many moral greys. And, yet, I'm not making it weepy, sad, heavy, but rather, hopeful. He said, that's going to be tough, how will you manage it? Of all the stories, why this? #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

I remember the first novella MS I wrote, was titled Easy.doc because the first line had the word 'easy' in it. Writing that story was anything but easy! :)

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Working on draft 2 of the manuscript. The file is called "real working" even though I know the title. I can't put the title as the doc name until the very very end, when I know it's all revised, checked, and done. And ready to go to the first readers. What about you? #writesky #writingcommunity

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Now the editing starts. There is no burst of joy. There is relief. There is urgency. And some desperation to not let this moment and momentum slip by. I don't ever want to be in that place where I hadn't produced anything for years. God... I'm so so happy. #writingcommunity #writesky #iamwriting

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

In the middle of all this, I also signed up for a Masters Program in Literature and English, and I'm trying to balance that as well. Plus the hundred other minor writing projects I have. Plus a course on Byzantine Aesthetics, Art and Culture. My plate is full, just the way I like it.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Finally, I told myself, I simply have to finish the first draft by Aug 1... I promised those closest to me, and asked them to hold me accountable. I finished the draft on Aug 3. For 2 weeks I woke up at 5 (sometimes 4) and wrote before I got sucked into the day. I managed one more sprint at night.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Last October I took the necessary and terribly frightening step of giving up on the project; I had put 5 years in. And started working on a new story. But it was so so freaking hard to have a discipline and a steady work ethic... the struggles continued.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I worked on something for 5 years, and it went nowhere... I studied structure, learnt all the thousand structures, steps, outlines, methodologies out there.... Yet I couldn't make anything work and the story stalled, I spiralled into gloom, was plagued with self doubt.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Back here after a while, and with a nice update. I've finished the first draft of my novella. Finally! This is a huge deal for me for various reasons. I managed to write 3 manuscripts of 50k, 110k, and 80k words over a period of 7 years. But from 2019, I absolutely struggled.

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Barely made a dent in the word count of my WIP. But managed to overhaul my submission package for my previous MS. Researched a bunch of agents and sent a new set of queries. I like it when my MS is out there, working for me, trying to impress agents. #writesky #writingcommunity #amquerying

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Started sending a new batch of query letters. There is always a lot of hope and optimism, when I start this process. I have reworked the query letter, the synopsis, even changed the title of the novel. And I think this set of queries is much stronger and sharper. Send me luck! #Iamquerying #writesky

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Arun Shankar @dispatch48.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

The initial energy to post regularly waned and I reverted to my old self of not talking about my writing. Just WIPsnips posts felt adequate. Ha ha... damn this is tough. Also, progress on the novel has been sporadic. Am somewhat at the halfway mark of the 50k novella. #writesky #writingcommunity

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