Wednesday, March 4, 2020

My March IWSG Post and Using My Family Traditions in my Books


January and February flew away into the sunset super fast and March marched into our lives quickly. The last few months I have been writing so much, that my brain has become scrambled. No wonder I am coming up with these silly lines.

It’s time for another IWSG Post. IWSG (Insecure Writers Support Group) is an online group of writers, posting on the first Wednesday of every month. In our posts we talk about all our writing related issues, worries, fears and doubts, and get support and help from other writers. Do check out the IWSG website.

IWSG is the brainchild of Alex J Cavanaugh, the author of several amazon bestsellers: CassaStar, CassaStorm, CassaFire and Dragon of the Stars. A warm-hearted human, Alex has several clones helping him, no wonder he writes such amazing books so fast, catches up with his thousands of followers by visiting their blogs and leaving his sweet comments there and gets the time to play his guitar. Alex, help me out, I can do with a couple of clones.

March 4 question - Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

In my last book Festival Stories Through The Year (HarperCollins Children’s Books) I have used a whole lot of our family traditions in certain festivals. India is so culturally diverse, that families celebrate the same festivals differently. During my research I wasn’t getting proper information on a particular festival, hence I used the customs my grandmother followed, which are now being carried on by my mother. And luckily for me as one of the characters in my book belonged to my community, it was easy peasy to introduce my family customs. And the best thing is that character has become a firm favourite with the readers.

What about you all? Have you all used your family traditions and customs in your stories?


19 comments:

  1. How lovely to have such rich and meaningful customs in not just your family and that you shared them in your book.

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  2. So interesting, Rachna! And happy to hear you're so busy writing. :)

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  3. That's great you were able to put your own traditions into that character. Now they will carry on.

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  4. I love that! And putting those traditions in a book like this is a great way to immortalize them. :)

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  5. Brilliant. They will live forever as long as you continue with the traditions. ;-)

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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  6. I can see how your family traditions could be a super asset for a book on festivals. Glad you're writing so much.

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  7. That's wonderful that particular character is a favorite.

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  8. That's really cool, both the customs and the three generations of women keeping them alive for future generations.

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  9. How neat is that! Just think, now these traditions are immortalized through your writing! :)

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  10. That's awesome how you were able to put your own customs into your book.

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  11. India seems so rich in festivals. I think it's Holi, when colored powder is thrown around onto everyone and everything. I celebration of spring joy. I love that!

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  12. It’s so wonderful that you were able to use your family traditions in your book! My family is too scattered to have any regular traditions.

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  13. It’s so wonderful that you were able to use your family traditions in your book! My family is too scattered to have any regular traditions.

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  14. It's wonderful that your family traditions seem to have had a positive influence in your life and this has made its way into your writing.

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  15. If customs are celebrated differently and information is hard to come by using your own family traditions makes a great deal of sense.

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  16. So good to be here after a long break! More power to you on this International Women's Day.

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  17. That's great you were able to incorporate your grandmother's family traditions through your character.

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  18. That’s amazing how different celebrations come out of the same festivals.

    also wanted to say thanks for stopping by my Beast World campaign =)

    Tara Tyler Talks

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  19. I haven't really used any of my family's traditions in a story yet. But I can think of a couple that I would like to use when I get back to writing for young people. (At present, I'm mostly writing adult mysteries and poetry.)

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