Secrets of Writers

Every author has a particular style. Some write on their desk. Some write everyday. Some go to a crowded spot to write while write in isolation. Last week I came across a copy of the weekend journal of Wall Street Journal dated 13-15 Nov ‘09. I was fascinated by Alexandra Alter’s article in the Books Section on the writing habits of some well known writers. Here are some interesting bits I gleaned out for you.

How do they start their novel? Do they need to think about the opening lines and closing lines?
Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk agonizes over the first line – rewriting it 50 or 100 times.
John Irving begins his novels by writing the last sentence first. Read more

GHAR – Four Fab Songs

In 1978, Rekha and Vinod Mehra shared the screen in Ghar (trans: Home). The story won the Filmfare award for the best story. Written by Dinesh Thakur, this film explored the trauma of a rape victim portrayed brilliantly by Rekha. This film marked the transition of Rekha from being a B grade bimbette to an actress. She got nominated for the award for Best Actress along with Zeenat Aman for Satyam Shivam Sundaram (talk about raj Kapur’s clout!). A really maudlin performance by Nutan got her the best sctress award. Read more

Leadership Development Dilemmas

Leadership Development involves “identifying and measuring leadership qualities, screening potential leaders from non-leaders, then training those with potential.” The definition makes it sounds like a simple recipe with which to keep cooking up a steady flow of leaders. I wish it were.

The Leadership Development function exists to help the organization gauge the future, create the model of leadership that will be needed to be successful today as well as to create a benchmark of what the future will demand of leaders. Once the benchmark is set, it is all about identifying potential talent that can be groomed to take on the mantle of leadership in future and then deciding what will develop those leaders to build the competencies that will make them successful in navigating the organization in a world we do not know yet. It is about preparing for a world we do not know, for skills we do not know about yet and using methods we do not always understand.

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