o you have a great story to tell but don't know where to begin or how to give it shape? Whether you're an aspiring writer or a seasoned one, a writer of fiction or narrative non-fiction, Kissing the Demon will help you navigate the maze of plot construction, narrative viewpoint, character development, dialogue creation and description even while allowing your imagination to flow. Written by an editor and publisher who has for over four decades nurtured some of India's finest writers, it also tackles the insular world of publishers, agents, contracts and editors. It tells you how to find a publisher or agent, what gets a publisher's attention and what turns it off - all the stuff writers take years to learn. Finally, it offers solutions to the vexing issue of balancing everyday life with writing, a problem every writer faces and the reason why so many books remain unwritten. George Orwell once described writing as a horrible, exhausting experience, and that he wouldn't have written a single book were he not driven by some demon he could neither resist nor understand. Kissing the Demon will make your journey as a writer a little less painful, make you look upon that demon with a little more love.

1.The Empty Page
You must eat broccoli before you begin
Why do you want to be a writer?
True lies
Overcoming writers block
How to be both passionate and dispassionate
The two lives of a writer
Stepping out of script
How stories begin
The shifting measure of things
The importance of research
2.Narrative Techniques Structure and Plot
Plot isn't story
The plot-story-theme nexus
Building a Plot
Pacing through plotting
Using time as a structural device
Is plotting anti-creative?
plagiarism-what it is and isn't
Characterization
The unforgettable Heathcliff
The dimensions of being
The Houdini Trick
The importance of conflict
Who is the man on the road?
Basing a Character on someone you know
Your dramatis personae
Narration
Who's telling your story ?
Finding your voice
Psychic distance
The Show don't tell principle
The essence of style

Dialogue

The role of speech
Integrating dialogue with narrative
When silence speaks louder than words
Holding the readers interest
The writer as ventrriloquist
Pacing through dialogue
Emoting through dialogue
Nine deadly dialogue sins

Settings and Description

Is the sky really blue ?
What if it's really blue
The poetic device
Sense and Sensibility
Detailing and dismantling
The descriptive opening

Beginnings and Endings
To hook or not to hook?
Resolution and logical exhaustion
Letting go
3.Getting ready to publish
Changing your lens
Getting the big picture right
Micro-editing
Finding a Publisher
Should you get an agent?
How to submit your book
How long will you have to wait?
Why rejection isn't the end of the road
4.The publishing process
What exactly is the publisher's role?
What to watch out for in your contract
How royalities work
How advances work
The Editorial department
The production department
Publicity and marketing
Ten Commandments for the writerly life