On Teacher’s Day, How This Writer’s Editor Became Her Fave Teacher

As a writer who intends to pen her first book very soon, there are few better teachers than her editor.

An editor-writer relationship can be pretty picture-perfect. Just ask me.

There’s a sudden spring in my step, a smile on my face and a glint in my eyes when i receive a mail from mine, which tells me, “Yes, Pranjali certainly write this one”.

It was exactly a year back when she ‘found me’ on a popular media group on Facebook and emailed me asking, “Would you like to write for us?” I remember having wanted to jump. Thus began the trajectory of our editor (teacher)/writer (student) relationship!

She may be a decade younger but in this course of one year she has helped me bloom as writer – which is perhaps why, on this Teacher’s Day, when I thought of my favourite teacher, I thought of her.

So in apt celebration of Teacher’s Day, here’s remembering some of the best things, she’s taught me about being a writer.

Lesson 1: Patience!

I had always dreamt of writing someday and when I received the first confirmation mail, I was excited beyond words. I remember having suggested writing a food review. Riding on my first flush, I’d penned down a whole elaborate piece, borrowed a few words rather generously from a thesaurus, done a quick spell check and shot her a mail.

Pat came the response: “Sorry! This isn’t exactly what we’re looking for.”

There I was, staring at my screen, learning my very first lesson in writing – the hard way. Don’t get ahead of yourself; wait until you hear from your editor.

Lesson 2: ‘Out of the Box’ is a Real Thing

After a few hits and misses, I began writing for her. She would approve of almost everything I suggested, until one day I began to notice a strange trend. She didn’t like any of my ideas. “Let’s skip this! No, we’ll let this go”, she’d bluntly let me know. I was more than a little perturbed. I began to wonder if she was hinting at something. Perhaps she was skirting around a polite way of saying, “We don’t need you anymore?” The fear enveloped me and grew larger and wider – until she wrote back, saying simply, that my ideas were sounding much too similar and she knew I could think out of the box, be more, write better...

There it was – my second lesson in writing. And it made sense. The topic had to stand out; I had to think differently!

Lesson 3: Story Titles Need to be Catchy

When an editor as good as mine turns to perfecting stories, the result is a masterpiece. Moreover, titles are the differentiator. They have to be catchy, they have to let the reader make a choice: whether to read or to let go. And she was honed in me the skill to ‘handpick’ the most efficient trope of my story yet: the most perfect titles for each of my stories, my articles, my blogs.

Lesson 4: Writing Should Transport One

My dear editor once wrote, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. And I have borrowed heavily and generously from that phrase. There are words/phrases from her atelier that I will often sift through and pick up, to allow a similar magic to permeate my writing. The idea that words should transport one to the subject of their choice – that words have the power to transport one – is something I am picking up every day. When I dream of writing my own book someday, I shall want to make my pieces as capable of metamorphosis as hers.

So on this Teacher’s Day, I would like to thank her – for making me realise my dreams, for adding that extra feather in my cap and for making me believe that I will create ‘art’ someday. Just like she does.

(A freelance food and fashion blogger, Pranjali Bhonde Pethe aims at getting people and their favourite food and style closer through her blog moipalate. Email her at [e-mail] and follow her on @moipalate.)