Mridu Khullar is a freelance journalist based in India. She's written for Marie Claire, ELLE, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and many other publications. Here, Mridu discusses her approach to writing and managing her time.
Urban Muse: What writing piece are you most proud of? Why?
Mridu: One of my favorite pieces is one that I did earlier this year [for East West Magazine] about rural Indian women starting a newspaper—Mahila Paksh—to talk about their grievances and the injustices in their community. The piece was published in February '07 and received a lot of attention.
Through an interview I did with NPR about this newspaper, someone at an American university learned of the story, and is now looking into sponsoring one of the women to attend a conference there.
In addition to the fact that this story is about people changing their circumstances by refusing to accept injustice, it's also special to me because it proves how important words are. That what we do is important and has the power to create lasting change. If a small newspaper in rural India can change a whole community, can you imagine what we, with our high-tech gadgets and unlimited resources, can do?
UM: Any tips on dealing with rejection?
M: Chocolate helps. Alcohol helps a lot. Obsessing over it doesn't.
UM: Both of us are on writer’s forums, and I sometimes struggle to tear myself away, even though I know that there is no direct monetary compensation. How do you make sure you’re not spending too much time on non-revenue generating activities like posting on forums?
M: I'm only active on three, actually. One's a critique group, the others are discussion lists for professional journalists and writers, where we share contacts, ideas and have discussions on the craft.
I spend an hour on average on these groups every day. But while it may seem that they're time-sucks, they're actually free education. We're all contributing to, and pulling from, a professional pool of knowledge on a daily basis, and that's priceless. It does lead to monetary compensation indirectly in terms of furthering my career and giving me professional contacts.
As for making sure I'm not over-doing it, setting a time limit helps. I also try to limit the number of forums I'm active in. I've found three that I trust, and hence don't feel the need for more.
UM: Any tips for other writers trying to crack markets in other countries? How do you deal with currency exchange or editors and interview subjects who are halfway around the world?
M: Currency conversion works in my favor since I'm living in India. For American writers, pitching to European markets is a good idea, as far as the money aspects are concerned.
I use e-mail for service pieces, but for my other stories, I mostly just call my experts or sources. Skype is good, too, if you're on a budget. There are software packages that will let you record those conversations.
The one piece of advice I'd give to anyone who is either writing for an international market or about an international subject is to: (a) know your audience, and (b) know the culture of the people you're writing about. I often find incorrect information about Indian culture in pieces by foreign reporters, some of whom have spent several years here. I wrote an article on the subject here.
UM: Your website includes some great tips on goal setting. What are some of your goals for 2008?
M: Find work-life balance. I'm either a raging workaholic and can forget everyone and everything around me when I'm obsessed with a story, or I can go two months without writing a single word and feel no guilt. I did good this year by combining both aspects of my life, but think I'll need to work on it a bit more in the coming months.
Then of course, there are the usual how-much-money-will-I-make kind of goals. I have extensive Excel sheets that outline exactly how much work I'm going to do every day of every week of every month, and exactly what that is going to translate into in terms of money and career prospects.
By the end of January each year, I throw them all out.
This year, I'm trying to be saner about the whole thing. That's the goal. Sanity.
Good luck, Mridu, and thanks for sharing your insights. This is the final 5 Q's for 2007. Check back in January for more!