Today on Newbie Corner, we have
Diwakar Pokhriyal, a young poet who shows immense potential if we go by the
various awards and recognition his works have already garnered.
Welcome to Newbie Corner Diwakar!
Tell us a little about
yourself. How did you begin writing?
Well, I am an
enthusiastic writer, but not the trained one, I guess. I have completed my
B.Tech and MBA in Energy. Currently pursuing PhD in Energy field. If that
doesn’t go well with my writing experience then I must say that I have written
my first Hindi short story when I was 14 years young and first poem at 15. I have written 12 books as of now and I am a
part of 74 poetry anthologies with poets around the world. My writings are
available in various websites. I have
won various competitions, including ‘Poesies’ award for Literature – 2014’, and
have given few interviews as an author. A book in which my poem is there is a
part of Limca Book of Records-2015.
When did I start writing? Two points will
connect the answer of this question. The first point is when I have written my
first short story during the age of 14, that was not so awakening because I
wasn’t aware of the creativity and second is when I held my first published
book and realized that dreams do come true. So during my school period of
history and other boring subjects (from my perspective), I wrote 12 pages of a
small notebook, but I didn’t take it as a serious thing. During my MBA after
listening to the lecture about passion, my writing journey took another level
and finally I went ahead with my first poetry book for publishing.
What is your favorite genre in
writing?
Poetry is my
favorite and will always be, I guess. Writing poetry is so fun. With my recent
books Poetry for Everyone 1 & 2, it had become more fun. In those books I
have written about 50 different forms of poetry. Mostly the poetry gets covered
up with rhyme and free verse. Few people here and there will talk about Haiku
and tanka, but nobody discusses about different forms of poetry. As a poet, who
knows which form will appeal a certain individual? It happened with me
too. Initially I loved rhyming, but now
I like Acrostic, Alliterative, Enclosed rhyme, Glossa etc.
Who inspires you most and to
whom would you dedicate your creative growth?
Inspiration is
from within. I enjoy other’s creativity and their expressions, but my
creativity comes from within and maybe that’s why I was being able to write on
50 forms of poetry creating a few of my own. If I would have been falling in
the trap of favoritism with regards to poetry forms in my early time, I
wouldn’t have been able to learn these amazing forms and let me remind you
there are still more to learn. My English teacher during my 9th
class, the dean of my college during my master’s and an established writer as
of today has the pivotal role in my creative growth. Their encouragement and
critical eye give me insight about my work and help me to grow stronger with
time.
What kind of a writer are you?
Do you plot the entire novel/story or make it up as you write.
I am still in
search of my type. I believe right now I am in a learning mode. Learning
different forms of poetry, illustrated different writing styles, then reading
different writers also takes you towards different writing styles. So I am
learning as of now, it’s too early for me to say that I am in a specific
writing zone.
A rough idea is
always there about the work, but I give myself freedom to change between. It
happens at times that you don’t believe in your abilities, but when you reach
the middle of the project, you realize the possible turning points. I keep
space for the changes too.
Do you have a favorite place
to write or a scheduled time to write every day?
Definitely not a
specific time or place. I mostly write on my laptop and hence in that sense I
might say that I have a fixed place (my laptop), but at times I write on my
notebook or pages available or even on my mobile at times. An idea can strike
you anywhere and hence the place is not fixed, the territory of idea could be.
One thing is for sure, I write every day. I know that good writing or best
writing is a misnomer for a writer. More you will write, more ideas will pop
up, more depth will emerge in your thinking and hence you’ll refine yourself.
So I write every day.
Who are your favorite authors and
what is the genre that you like reading most?
Sir Ken Robinson
is my favorite writer as well as a thinker. His thoughts on creativity in
children or adults and his books Out of our minds and The Element are just out
of this world. How accurately, he points out the creative element in everyone
is astonishing. The second one is Bhagwat Geeta. This book isn’t easy to
understand in the first read, it takes a lot of introspection and understanding
to relate to the subject matter. It makes you think much deeper than we can
even think about. Coming to fiction Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi is another
amazing set of books.
Where do you see yourself in the
next 10 years?
On this planet
earth, hovering around with freedom! On a serious note, I would like to see
myself as a very well known personality in writing field. May be I don’t have
to tell people my name or even if I have to, then their next question should be
– ‘So what are you writing now?’ or in short, I would like to see me as
thinking of another idea of writing a new book.
Is there one subject you would
never write about as an author? What is it?
I haven’t thought about this as of now.
With frequent mood swings and different things happening around me, I might
cover all pleasant and unpleasant subjects.
How much important do you
think marketing is to the success of a book?
As per sales
it’s the backbone and as per quality readers it is oxygen. Marketing has become
an integral part of the computer age. We see countless ads taking toll on our
pockets. For the publishing industry, it is same. Readers will come to know
about you only when you get marketed. There are numerous publishers around who
publish your books, but their market penetration is extremely low. The advent
of paid publishing is also because of this aspect. Without marketing, readers
will not come to know about your book and hence your dream will come to a halt.
Even a new enthusiastic reader reads a book which makes waves in twitter or Facebook
or news nowadays and if that book is making waves without any marketing help
then I think I need to take a break.
What is the message that you
want to convey to the readers through your writing?
Keep writing and
have perseverance. Write because you love to write and not because you have to
gain anything from it. Once you accept poetry as your passion, as your integral
part of life, poetry will nurture the depth and fineness of your thoughts and
you will become a better human being as well as a better writer. So keep on
writing, enjoy different forms of writings to understand its depth. That’s how
I came up with ‘Poetry for Everyone-1 & 2’ containing 50 forms of English
poetry. Enjoy life to the fullest, but keep your feet on the ground. You may
want independence, but with it come responsibilities. If you want to enjoy the
freedom, be responsible for the quality of it.
Contact me on my Facebook Page - Diwakar Pokhriyal
Purchase links of my books:
My Books in Amazon.in :
My Website link : Diwakar Pokhriyal website
Wonderful!