Novoneel Chakraborty - Author Interview

An interview with the bestselling author Novoneel Chakraborty, about his first novel... A Thing Beyond Forever... exclusively in Chubby Cheek's Column...

1) Did you always wanted to be a writer?

I suffered a bit while choosing what exactly I wanted to do in life because I was good at many things. But when I started penning short stories for myself, for the first time when I was 20, I knew storytelling was something I can’t do away with.

2) Are you an avid reader? What genre you prefer the most and what is your favorite book?

I’m a choosy reader which doesn’t mean I’m not an avid reader. I read anything with an intriguing plotline. I’m not a genre specific person but I do have an inclination towards thrillers. 

A book is like a person. One learns different things from different people and hence it’s futile to compare and say which one is a favorite of mine. Still, one book that ‘blew my mind off’ when I was in college was ‘The Fountainhead’ by Ayn Rand.

3) Who are the authors you admire the most, and did any author in particular inspire your writing?

Ayn Rand, Haruki Murakami,  R. K. Narayan, Buddhadev Basu to name a few. 

Nobody inspired me to write but the above mentioned people and few others, instead, introduced me to an ethereal kind of thrill a story can provoke in someone. Perhaps that realization inspired (and still inspires) me to write.

4) What does "writing" mean to you?

Honestly, I love to think. Writing is an eventuality with me. And, also a means to sustain myself so that I can think more and more.

5) A Thing Beyond Forever being your first novel, what was the biggest challenge you faced while writing it?

The biggest challenge for me was to write the story exactly the way I felt about it. 

6) Was it a real struggle to get your first novel published?

I always knew it’ll be tough to get a publisher. I went with the one who responded first with their acceptance of my work.

7) What is your favorite setting to write in? Do you tend to follow a strict work schedule or write in spurts of activity? 

I try to write every day. To be in the ‘writing mode’ is important for me.  Setting wise I always write in a closed room. I can’t write in an open space or in a room with doors and windows open or curtains not drawn. 

8) “A Thing Beyond Forever”, how did you come up with this title for your book, or was it suggested by someone?

The title was coined by me. I wanted a title which gave away the exact texture of what I was talking about in the book. And I thought this title did it better than the ones I had in mind then.

9) When did you start with the plot and how long did it take you to finish writing the novel?

I started plotting and then writing almost a year and a half before it was finally published. 

10) How much is your story inspired by your own experiences?

A bit of it. Some of the character dynamics are inspired from what I have seen in life.

11) In “A Thing Beyond Forever” Which of your characters do you feel more connected to? why?

The character I feel most connected to has to be Radhika because it’s through her eyes I was able to realize the story.

12) One of the main characters in the book is Radhika. Was it hard to get in to the skin of a female character? 

In the beginning I wanted to write the story from the male protagonist’s point of view only. But when I started writing about Radhika she simply ‘took over’. It was hard but creatively fulfilling.

13) Wasn’t it a sudden and unexpected way to end Raen’s life with dengue? Didn’t you feel that his death would have happened in a slower phase or in a different way?

Raen’s death was a major plot point in the story. It had to happen somehow. Dengue was only a tool to make it happen.  I wanted to keep it sudden for the ‘jolt factor’ to be appropriate.

14) Do you feel that you did justice to the character Radhika at the end?

I think so, I did. More than doing justice to a character what matters to me is how I can ‘liberate’ a character by the end of any story.

15) Do you believe in reincarnation? What inspired you to add such theme to the plot? 

People who have read the story, I’m sure will agree,  the reincarnation was not the point of the story, nor its feasibility the theme. I have spoken about reincarnation in the story not from the point of view of the one supposedly reincarnated but from the point of view of someone who was connected to the person before.  This is a rare angle in any reincarnation story. Since I was trying to myself understand if attraction indeed is a missing link between souls, this element was bound to come in the story.

16) How did it feel after receiving the very first feedback from the readers?

I was both elated and humbled.

17) Talking about the feedback since the book launch. How has the overall response been? Was it below or above your expectations? 

I am happy with whatever feedback I have got. I have learnt in life that it’s futile to expect but fruitful to hope. I only hope.

18) Your fans from all over the globe might be sending you their wishes and feedback via facebook & email regularly. Any specific lines from your book that have struck a chord with majority of your readers?

The majority seem to have loved the discourse Radhika has with Sister Melinda in the book about love apart from few other lines and instances.

19) What has been your greatest strength which leads you in all thick and thins of the journey as an author?

That visceral streak in me which never agrees to the norm is, I feel, what keeps me alive as a storyteller.

20) Any advice you would like to give to all the budding authors out there?

We live in a world where every second we are being subjected to illusions and knowingly or otherwise these end up choosing our priorities for us as storytellers. Unfortunately, this ‘relentless attack of illusions on our senses’ corrupts the innate instinct of a storyteller that’s there in all of us. I would only request, and not advise, all the budding authors to protect that instinct of theirs because in the end this will be their best bet to connect to their original voice hidden within them.