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. It’s 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 Weekly’s / Magazine’s 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 editor’s desk are

just professionals and they don’t 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 today’s editors because they also represent the same

society and socio-economic tendencies we are representing. In today’s

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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editor’s 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 don’t 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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