Kanchana Banerjee is a full-time author with three books to her credit. An ardent fan of writing thrillers, Kanchana has honed her craft at London School of Journalism and Curtis Brown Creative Ltd. (London). She has worked as a freelance writer for various publications and MNCs which includes some of the reputed names like Times of India, Femina, Marriott Hotels, Colgate, Unilever, UNICEF, Deccan Herald, Deccan Chronicle & others. Kanchana lives in Gurgaon with her family and is currently awaiting her 4th book ‘Until I Find You’ to get published.
In an exclusive interview with Nitish Raj; Editor-in-Chief, The Literary Mirror the noted author talks about the thriller genre along with various elements of writing.
Q. From domestic drama to fast-paced dark thriller, how has been the transition in your writing journey?
KB: If you read my first book ‘A Forgotten Affair’, you’ll see that it has a lot of thriller elements. The plot has twists and turns, and an edge-of-the-seat kind of feeling, dread, and danger lurks in the story. It is a quasi-thriller. I guess I was already moving in that direction – of writing a hard and gritty thriller.
Q. A believer of the famous saying “It’s not the writings but the re-writing that counts”, what role do you think editing plays in the making of a book?
KB: Writing is more about rewriting and then rewriting all over again. Writing well is all about deleting and rewriting the first draft. No one writes a perfect first draft that doesn’t change. It’s the ability and perseverance to rewrite again and again that makes a good book.
Q. Having been a freelance corporate writer for 17 years, how did the switch to fiction writing happen?
KB: I always wanted to write fiction and I think that the years I spent writing for publications and companies were just preparing me for fiction. I came to Gurgaon in 2013 end, all set to expand my freelance writing to the numerous companies in the city and a chance meeting with an enterprising woman Kiranjeet Chaturvedi took me in a different direction. We started hosting writing workshops, inviting established authors and in no time I was pulled into the world of authors, publishers, and agents. Just like that, I began writing my first book which got published in 2016.
Q. ‘A Thriller Writer at heart’, what elements according to you, are important to create a successful thriller?
KB: The ability to start with a bang and have a blast of an ending. The start and end of a thriller must be explosive. The characters must have intrigue, a past that they don’t want to reveal. The story must have twists and turns. It’s also very important to have a very strong villain. The antagonist or the villain in a thriller is a very important character. In Nobody’s Child, Kamini Pratap Singh is a vile and cunning woman. She will do anything to get what she wants. The readers loved the character. In my 4th book, yet to be published, ‘Until I Find You’, the villain is a cult leader. He is dangerous, scheming, and a nasty fellow. So, you must have a very strong villain.
Q. How do you choose your characters and what impact do you intend to create in the readers through your writing?
KB: My characters are from the world around me. I’m very observant and soak in what I see and read. Myra in Eye on You is a single independent woman and there are women like her around us in any city. She loves fitness, is confident, very successful, and isn’t awkward about her sexuality. She loves to post on social media and that gets her into trouble. Eye on You is about the dangers of social media. So, my stories and characters are from the world around me. I also loved digging out true crime cases and making them the base of the story. Until I Find You is inspired by a true crime event that happened in the US in the 1970s.
I don’t write to motivate or educate. I love reading for the joy of it. And I write with the same purpose. To entertain readers but having said that, we can never turn a blind eye to what happens around us. And what happens around us, will-nilly finds its way into what I write. Forgotten affair is about emotional abuse that women face in educated rich homes. Nobody’s Child is about greed, power, and the cruel world of reality TV. Eye on You is about the excessive social media posting that people do and the dangers of that.
Q. Would you like to tell us about your future projects? Are they going to be in the thriller genre?
KB: My 4th book is a thriller and so is the 5th one – I’m writing that. That said, I am thinking about writing a modern-day adaptation of one of the classics. But that’s not happening immediately but I am thinking about it.
Q. What advice would you like to give to the budding writers, especially with publishing aspects?
KB: Read a lot. Write a lot. Keep writing. Join writing groups to get feedback. Don’t expect immediate success. Writing isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon and to be able to write well, takes time, hard work, and determination. Be prepared to work hard and rewrite a lot. This isn’t for the faint-hearted.
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