Interviewer - Kritika2502
Interviewee - shruthiravi13

1. Pls share your good name with us .

➡️ Meera is my real name and I write with pen name shruthi

Both name are cute

2. Share something interesting to your readers which they wouldn't know about you.

➡️ I would say I was working in one of India's top IT companies before quitting it 3 years back to pursue my passion. First one writing and second one social service. In Fact I am currently doing my post graduation in MSW

Ohhh really IT companies ....yrr you are too much bigger than me

Yes I am older than you. If u see my profile it's mentioned that I was in IT and currently enjoying motherhood ....... See this is my second innings

So I am happy to meet younger people who are into it from an early age

Ohh that's great

And the talent amazes me

Ohh yeah

Ok so here comes your next question

3. How did you start your journey as a writer or What inspired you to start writing?

➡️See it all started with my first article getting published in Hindu Open page in 2010 ...... Followed by me joining a review site called mouthshut.com

To write product reviews as well as blogs

Many of my blogs were selected blogs of the week and that inspired me.

Ohh really I am not believing that I am taking your interview 😅

But the real journey started when I joined India Forums to review tv shows and I came across the concept of fan fiction

I wrote a fanfiction for the show Diya aur Baati hum which was a huge hit

Ohhhh that really amazing

From there I started writing.... Siya ke Ram review changed everything , I came across so many young writers in that forum who introduced me to wattpad and my first book on wattpad was a compilation of one shots on SKR

Yeah I saw it

Followed by independent fiction Seven Vows

Prompted by my young fans from India Forums I published seven vows with notion press in 2018

So u can say in 2018 I became an author officially

Ooh a huge story

Yeah

4. How do you create your ideas?

➡️ See I have interest in both mythology and history ...... So one thing is I take ideas from mytho and weave my stories and that idea.

If u look at Pativrata it's based on a folktale

Second is romanticize history

Seven vows is woven around post liberalization india

90s time

Ooh that's interesting ...

Then of course I am writing for couple of anthologies if the theme interests me

5. As a writer What does success mean to you?

➡️ Inspiring youngsters to achieve their dreams ..... I want my stories to be an inspiration

Ohh that's great

6. for you what comes first, the plot or characters?

➡️ Plot , mostly I decide the last chapter first as how I want to end a particular story

7. How do you develop your plot and characters?

➡️ See my idea in story has to be a circle

It ends where it starts with the character graph changing

Or rather the character grows with the challenges thrown at them

I am very particular that my heroes and heroines actions do not contradict their words

8. Do you hear from your readers much? What do they say?

➡️ Of course I love happy endings ..... Yes see for some books u get a lot of feedback

For eg Pativrata is a huge hit , ppl wait for me to update it

But then there is my short story second chance which doesn't have that kind of fan following

So I evaluate what succeeds what fails

Ohhhh

Sometimes u think this plot will succeed but it may not succeed

Yeah it happens

9. So , sometimes some readers are too funny .... and sometimes their comments make the writer laugh hard . So anything like this happened to you?

➡️ Yeah

See yesterday I had updated princess of vidharbha in which I had kept rukmini dreaming about Krishna . I had thought ppl will comment on the romantic dream part but ppl were interested in being sarcastic about what shisupal was going to get....

One person even mentioned shisupal don't dream u will get babaji ka thullu

😅😂😂😂😂😂

It made me laugh

Me too

In seven vows chapters where villains get bashed

Ppl put witty comments

And it's more interesting when it comes in regional language

10. What is the most surprising thing you discovered while writing your book(s)?

➡️ The interpretation of plot by readers......

Many times readers have surprised me their interpretation of certain incidents

Certain symbolisms

I might have not kept that kind of an interpretation for that chapter or plot but then they take it

So I realized u need to be very careful about words you use

Second is some readers bash

Criticism is fine but then if they have any problem with plotline

They undermine you as a writer

There were occasions I had to delete certain comments which were in very bad taste

It happens mostly for mytho fiction where some ppl are too rigid with their beliefs

Hmmmm..

It's a little danger zone

On one side u deal with fanatics and other side who don't understand the time period

And readers expect u to write it as a contemporary love story

11. When you're writing an emotionally draining (or sexy, or sad, etc) scene, how do you get in the mood?

➡️ Romance is ok but sad after writing , I had to take a break as sometimes it gets too heavy for u

Yeah it happens 😅

12 . How do you deal with poor reviews...like low comments and also those so called silent readers ?

➡️ See each comment and each vote boost our self confidence

But lack of comments and readership not increasing is a dampner for sure

But then experience has shown me some books readership and comments increase when u complete it as lot of readers wants to read full book

Quite a lot of them comment only in last chapter

So for an ongoing book you have to take things in you stride and keep writing .... If u get one vote per chapter be happy

Yeah but 1 vote is too low ..

But I take it as motivation and write next chapter

Ohh that's good

All my books started that way only ... now I have 3 books with over 10k reads

So used to it

13. Writing can be an emotionally draining and stressful pursuit. Any tips for aspiring writers?

➡️ See one thing I want to tell an aspiring writer is first understand your interest.....Unless you are interested in a topic you can't get the interest of another person

Don't go with fads. A thriller works or romance works ... It might work for someone but not for you

Second don't expect sudden financial gains...If you are in writing to earn money you are in wrong place as if u don't succeed u will get depressed , Yes money will come but you need to have passion and perseverance to create an audience

Passion will help you to continue writing even if your first book is not a hit.

Perseverance will help u to wait for the right opportunity

One last thing. Every reader who gives their time to read what you wrote is valuable....... Appreciate them

Nobody will read anything just becoz you gave it free

Even time is valuable

Yeah your every point is important .... and yeah I will also remember this

One more thing

Don't leave ur story incomplete

Hmmm that's important

Many readers are emotionally invested......Do justice to them

14. How many plot ideas are just waiting to be written? Can you tell us about one?

➡️I have 3-4 ideas

Wow that's great

One is based on mahabharata

Journey of abhimanyu......The man who held the flag of dharma high fighting a battle of lifetime

Ohh I love mahabharat

Yeah the title is great

Chakravyuha will be the title

Second I am not sure u know the legend of ayyappa and malikapurathamma

Yeah 😅..I don't know about it ..

Book will be based on that unique love story

Ohhh

Many don't know..... So planning to write it

Third is a historical

Ok great

A romance in the backdrop of bhopal gas tragedy 1984

How that tragedy affects the leads

Ohh I know about it ...it was in my school syllabus 😅

It's my dream book...... So I am doing research

Ohhh that's great

Ok now from here ...it's not serious ..it's time for some funny questions

Ok ...

⭐If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?

➡️ Strong-willed,emphatic, dreamer

Ohhh

⭐If you could choose celebrity parents, who would you choose

➡️ I prefer my parents

Everyone prefer that only 😂

Now would you rather

Okay

⭐Would you rather be a class topper or a funny backbencher ?

➡️ I was actually a class topper who was a chronic backbencher

My entire gang was that....We were trouble makers .... But our marks heels saved us

Ohhh that's great ...😂😂👍

⭐Would you rather always be an hour early or be constantly twenty minutes late?

➡️ I reach early

Ohh so early

Not one hr

But I am not late yaar

Half an hour early I mostly reach

⭐Would you rather meet your fav celebrity or go on your most fav destination

➡️ Fav destination ....any day

Ok now either or

⭐Movie or web series

➡️ Presently web series as I am loving their scripts

⭐Social media or books

➡️ Actually both .... But then if u have to choose its books

⭐Coke or pepsi

➡️ Pepsi

⭐Morning person or Night owl

➡️ Night owl ..

Ok so with it your interview ends here

Go and sleep but before going pls share a genuine review about the interview ...

Sure I will give

Thank u for the wonderful interview Krithika. Though I have been writing for sometime this is the first time I had allowed myself to be interviewed

I didn't know I spent almost two hours with you

Hehehe ....😅..yeah you are right ..but thanks for giving your time and your these nice words

Ok bye

Bye tata ...

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