Hi. My name is Abhinav Kumar. I am a 30-year old lawyer and writer from Delhi, India. To those who have met me before - hello again; to those who haven’t - nice to meet you; and to both - thank you for having me.
Me
I have been a reader and, to a lesser degree, a writer all my life (if we count, as we often do, school-time articles and other scribbles). But I venture that I became a more serious writer in law school - first, with academic writing, which segued into some non-legal - if not the most creative - essays, and finally, fortuitously, into fiction. I had my first short story published in 2015 in a litmag called Indian Literature. Several short stories and a few poems followed, some of which were published, but many of which were not. Some of the works I am particularly proud of (and which are available online) are: Gone; Skin; Bravado; and Mangoes. I published Razor-Sharp, a collection of my short stories, in 2017.
I have since continued to write, albeit with less regularity, coming up with more short stories, some more poetry, and a couple of pieces of creative non-fiction. Unsurprisingly, living, working, and the pandemic have intervened, and I have had spectacularly long periods of no output in recent years. Writing, though, has always been on my mind, and attempting to figure out how to keep it going alongside everything else has become almost an obsession. I read about it. Chant to myself each tenet of the theoretical knowledge about writing that I know that I know - to write what I know, to write something / anything, to write for pleasure, to ignore the stifling lure of recognition and reward - and then fail to practice them. I ponder, plan and organize for it. I am unwilling to let it go. Yet, there are phases where, despite myself, I am lazy, inconsistent, undisciplined, and / or overwhelmed, producing next to nothing and discarding ideas faster than I can come up with them. And yes, of course, it is okay - after all, unlike work, art can hardly be brought to heel at the artist’s whim, and particularly not by an exhausted would-be artist with oft-frazzled nerves at the end of a 16-hour workday.
In 2023, though, things are looking up, aided primarily by a much-needed break from work. During this period, I find (at the risk of sounding a tad kooky) that as space clears up in my mind, I have begun to hear my inner ‘writer’s voice’ again. Ideas are once more finding their way to me, unbidden, and more often than not, accompanied by the will to realize them. These days, when I occasionally spot the extraordinary in the banal, I suspect I am regaining the ‘innocence of eye’ that Dorothea Brande spoke of in her seminal work, Becoming a Writer, which I cannot recommend enough. I am hopeful that I have finally found an enduring place for writing in my life, and one from which it shall not easily be ousted by other clamouring demands on my time.
For Writing’s Sake is one timely project that I - with all my writerly experience and wisdom, but with the optimism and enthusiasm (and trepidation) of a new writer - now launch with the stated objective of keeping me honest about my dedication to writing. It will, hopefully, enable me to write with more freedom than before, about any manner of things that catch my eye or thoughts, and in any medium of my choosing. But I am particularly excited about its potential to attract new readership and reconnect with old; for there is no feeling quite like the warm glow that touches your soul when someone (the more distant from you, the better) tells you that you wrote something that moved, tickled, or otherwise stayed with them.
FWS
What it is
Writings on: (a) culture - such as reviews of, or thoughts brought on by, books, movies, shows and the like; (b) cricket, and sometimes other sport (but mostly cricket); (c) travel; and (d) sundry - which could be anything I fancy writing (such as short stories, poetry, flash fiction), or writing about (such as essays on things I am fascinated by or on which I feel I have something useful to say).
When to expect it
I will post on the 1st, or the 15th, or both, of each month: a minimum of one and maximum of two posts each month.
While I will make every endeavour to abide by the above, if I haven’t posted all month, suffice it to say that it must have been a particularly dreadful month. Should this ever occur though, I will make up through a compensatory post in a subsequent month. And just because this section doesn’t say it enough - month, month, month.
What you can expect
Pieces typically 1000-2000 words long, but occasionally much longer or much shorter.
Some chuckles, a raised eyebrow or two. At times, a nod of approval or affirmation. Sometimes, things you didn’t know, or a different perspective on something you did. Unremarkable aesthetics to begin with - this is not my strong suit and will remain a work-in-progress until I become far more Substack-savvy.
But above all, quality writing and well-crafted pieces which will go through a rigorous process of review and revision (can’t let all that legal training and writing experience go to waste, can we) before finding their way to you.
Why I’ve kept a pledge (read about this Substack feature here)
Purely for motivation’s sake. I recognize that I have the privilege of not having to rely on income from writing to sustain myself (and well, given that the rarity of publication success so lucrative that it can sustain a household, I’d better keep it that way). FWS is free and will remain so for the foreseeable future. But it always feels good to know that you are writing well enough for someone to want to pay for it, and the pledge feature is a great way to address that need.
A Parting Word
On its best of days, life today is mercurial, chaotic, frantic. I have had days on which, despite my best intentions voiced perhaps just the previous day, or even the same morning, sitting down in silence to read three pages of a book proves an impossible task. I am certain you have too, and so I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to read my work.
With this project, my intention is to come up with writing which is thoroughly divorced from the rather dreary and unromantic worlds of submissions, rejections, reviews, edits, and publication / monetization, and to write with the freedom and joy of my 22-year old self, who - needless to say - was blissfully ignorant of the existence of those worlds. In short, to write FWS. Thank you for coming along for this ride.