Kissing the Demon : The Creative Writers Handbook

Do you have a great story to tell but don't know where to begin or how to give it shape? Whether you're an aspiring writer or a seasoned one, a writer of fiction or narrative non-fiction, Kissing the Demon will help you navigate the maze of plot construction, narrative viewpoint, character development, dialogue creation and description even while allowing your imagination to flow.

Written by an editor and publisher who has for over four decades nurtured some of India's finest writers, it also tackles the insular world of publishers, agents, contracts and editors. It tells you how to find a publisher or agent, what gets a publisher's attention and what turns it off - all the stuff writers take years to learn.

Finally, it offers solutions to the vexing issue of balancing everyday life with writing, a problem every writer faces and the reason why so many books remain unwritten. George Orwell once described writing as a horrible, exhausting experience, and that he wouldn't have written a single book were he not driven by some demon he could neither resist nor understand.

Kissing the Demon will make your journey as a writer a little less painful, make you look upon that demon with a little more love.

Amrita Kumar is an anthologist, novelist, writing-mentor and creative writing teacher. She began her career in the godowns of Daryaganj to select books for a chain of bookshops, moving on as research writer for the Department of Culture, Government of India, then on to publishing as associate editor, Penguin India; editor-in-chief, Roli Books; managing editor, Encyclopedia Britannica; editor, Indian Design & Interiors magazine; and vice-president, Osian's Literary Agency. In addition, she has freelanced for Rupa & Co., HarperCollins India and Oxford University Press. She lives in New Delhi.