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A write up on Popular Writing which is included in the reader on Research Methodology,

compiled by the Sociology Research Forum, Kerala

Doing Popular Writing
K.S. HAKIM

In the last two or three years, from time to time I usually have to
answer my friends from Kerala (many of whom are university students
doing some research works) about how to write or how to get it
published in popular Malayalam periodicals. I realise the fact that I am
not an established or professional writer myself; however, I always
attempted to answer their queries. Its because I have this secret dream
of promoting as many as young research scholars coming into the field of
popular Malayalam writing and publishing industry; so as they may
contribute and create a semi academic culture and debates in this area.

When you write something, your intention is to reach out to as many
people as possible, i.e., to maximum number of readers. For that you have
to go through a highly challenging process, especially in Kerala. You may
take a lot of effort to write a good piece of article/story and it may take
weeks, months even a year or more. As you put in a lot of energy to
write your thoughts, it is quite possible that you have an immense desire
to get it published and widely circulate it. So once you finish it you may
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immediately send it to a magazine / weekly like Mathrubhumi,
Deshabhimani, Madhyamam, Chandrika or any magazine of such stature.
But, at the same time you should bear in mind the fact that you may
not get an immediate reply from the editor.

Getting a writing published may seem really a difficult job in Kerala
because this is the only place in the country where at least half of
population are into the literary field; many of us have the secret dream
of getting their own work published in some popular weekly/ magazine.
Thus a large majority try their luck in getting their thoughts printed. So
a standard Weeklys / Magazines editors are normally receiving
thousands of write ups for publications. It is quite natural that they do
not go through such a huge number of articles as the publication in a
magazine is not just about selection of articles. The editors make their
own strategies to select better pieces from a bulk of other writings.
Many of them always look for familiar names like established writers on
the top of the post covers they receive. So it is expected that it will take
time for you to get an entry into Malayalam weekly industry because it
is not just the quality of your writing but many other factors like your
previous publishing experiences, which also play a crucial role in getting
your name printed on any Weekly in Kerala.

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Immediately after the publication of my first article in a popular Weekly
one of my college professors from Kerala (he is also popular there as a
renowned writer) told me that I should write and publish as many as
articles in the same year because only then my name would get adequate
attention from the side of both editors and readers. I did not understand
the logic of his suggestion at that point of time. But later I realised that
he was actually forcing me to build a base in Malayalam popular
publishing field from the very first entry which came to me by sheer luck.

But for getting an entry you really need enough patience because you
never know how long it will take an editor to pick up your write up and
identify your talent. Those people who are sitting in the editors desk are
just professionals and they dont have time and patience to write a reply
to every person who sends their writings to them. But I have heard that
people like M.T. Vasudevan Nair or editors of his generation used to
write reply with comments to people who send them articles, even if
they found it inappropriate for publishing. You cannot expect such
gentility from todays editors because they also represent the same
society and socio-economic tendencies we are representing. In todays
world, though modern technology and all its amenities make our life
easier, ironically it had left us with no time in its reality. Today the
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editors job is not necessarily to encourage new talent but to make their
magazine more attractive and sensational and increase its circulation.

Another possibility left for new writers is that they can send their
matter to online magazines and other periodicals. The positive part about
online magazines is that they dont have any page or space constraints.
People all around the globe can access it through a click on their reading
device. It is said that if you have decent write up then these people would
easily help you to publish it. For an entry and initial recognition as a
writer there is no harm in sending your initial trials to some decent
online magazines.

Of course, there are struggles and sufferings to get your material
published in some reputed magazines. The best part in publishing with a
reputed platform is that you will get a lot of responses from readers.
Many times one will have to counter severe criticisms from the reading
folks. If you are dealing with some political issues then criticisms are by
default. As a writer you should learn to accept criticism. Remember,
criticism will help you see your vocation, that is writing as a serious
endeavour and mould you stronger and develop further.

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The writer has to go through a lot of struggle in order to get his or her
thoughts and ideas across their readers. Many times you would never
know if your article/ story had reached the reader in the way in which
you have imagined. In some cases, however, genuine readers letters
come in, telling you that your article/story has reached readers in the
sense in which you wanted them to. This will help you to forget all those
struggles you have gone through before your work reached the readers
table.

The simple idea I wanted to share is that you and your write up has to
go through all these process and experiences before your thought finally
reaches out to the readers that you are aiming at. The only way I know
to become a good writer is to start as bad writer and keep on writing
and re writing. The entire process needs a lot of time and patience. Trust
me this is the way I started writing


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The author is a Research Scholar at Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics,
University of Delhi and you can reach him at kshakim@ymail.com.
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