Blogs

How to write a novel-Step-3-Support Characters

So, you want to write a novel?

In this series, I’ll detail out my process of writing a novel. This is the story of How I converted a simple idea into 70,000 (Scrabble Queen) and 80,000 (Penniless) word manuscripts.

I will use my latest writing project Bhumiyin Kathai (Bhumi’s story) as an example, so that it can serve as an inspiration for you. (Totally selfish reasons, while trying to explain stuff to you, I am getting the motivation to complete outlining the story 😁)

I am writing this story (eventually as a screenplay) to serve as a backdrop and an interest creator for this course - https://study.iitm.ac.in/ds/course_pages/BSCMS3001.html

Right, back to novel writing.

You’ve written the one line story, then wrote your main story arc. Now what?

Step 3

List down support characters

For Bhumiyin Kathai:

1. Bhumi - main character
2. Okano Nakazo - Main support character (maybe romantic interest)
3. Vaani - Bhumi’s sister
4. Kathir - Bhumi’s brother
5. Kalai - Bhumi’s youngest sister
6. Palanisamy - Bhumi’s dad (antagonist 1)
7. Param - Bhumi’s classmate (antagonist 2)

What do you do with each of these characters?

You will have to make them 3 dimensional. How?

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Podcast Enterprise: S1E10: Dagger in the mind

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

When this episode opens you find that the USS Enterprise is doing a cargo drop to the Tantalus - penal colony on the planet, Tantalus - V.

So they beam down certain supplies to them. And while they’re doing so, a certain fugitive comes aboard the Enterprise. And this fugitive, from at first glance you get the impression that he’s a little crazy or a little insane. He’s not quite there. He seems very violent. And he’s also very cunning.

While this fugitive is aboard the Enterprise, you come to know that the Tantalus penal colony is run by this rather legendary doctor Tristan Adams. He takes these inmates in and he manages to reform them with spectacular results. And everybody is in awe of him. Even Captain Kirk is in awe of him. He’s quite legendary. He’s got this huge set of accomplishments.

And while people are talking about him and this colony, however, they capture this fugitive and they find that his name is Simon van Gelder. And apparently he is an assistant to Dr. Tristan Adams. And it appears that something is not quite right because Simon van Gelder wants to say something. He’s not able to say something. Sometimes, he’s coherent. Sometimes, he isn’t and Dr. McCoy feels that there is something to his insanity and he has to be kept sedated.

And as time goes by Captain Kirk and a certain psychiatrist from the Enterprise with whom he has some sort of history, Dr. Helen Noel. They beam down to Tantalus five and there they find that Tristan Adams has developed something called a Neural Neutralizer and the inmates or the inhabitants of this world, they’re strangely lifeless and almost zombie-like.

And eventually it comes to pass that the neural neutralizer is being used to erase their memories, erase their thought processes and then implant new ideas into their head.

And then Kirk discovers this. He becomes a prisoner of the crazed Dr. Tristan Adams, and then he has to fight his way out of there.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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How to incorporate handwritten notes into Emacs Orgmode

This is the video I made for the Emacs conference 2022 on my own experiences with trying to include handwritten notes in to my workflow.

Special thanks to the organizers of the Emacs conference for giving me the opportunity to present my experiences with a really old, but rock solid and awesome software. As they say, I wish Emacs had a text editor too!

Abstract of my talk:

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Podcast Enterprise: S1E09: Miri

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

In this episode, we find the Enterprise responding to an earth like SOS coming in from deep space. And when they follow that signal, they find the planet that is an exact copy of the earth. At least it looks exactly like the earth. The topography is the same, same mass, same circumference.

Everything is the same. That puzzles them, and so Captain Kirk and a small crew decide to go down onto this planet and they find that it is virtually deserted. The architecture seems archaic. There are no people and they come across this strange tricycle there. And when they try to interact with it, they’re attacked by a peculiar and deformed creature that seems to be off its head. It’s mad. It’s crazy. It’s screaming and it goes into seizures and it dies. So further investigation also reveals a little girl and that girl’s name’s Miri. She leads him to a lab. She tells him about the planet. And apparently what happened here is that a pandemic has run rampant.

It has killed all the adults. And at the same time, it has kept the children alive for more than 300 years. This pandemic, because it affects the adults, it makes its way to Kirk and the crew. All of them find themselves with strange scabs and purple splotches on their skin. They have to develop a vaccine in a hurry.

And while they’re doing this, the rest of the children on this world, in this area at least decide to attack the crew, take away their communicators because these children have the memory of the adults going berserk. After that eventually, it comes down that they must have a confrontation with these children.

They must talk to them, tell them about this disease, how it spreads. They’re allowed to leave this planet with the team, looking after the children who I assume they are vaccinated so that they don’t catch the disease.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S1E12: Menagerie

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

The menagerie is actually a story split into two parts. So this particular story has two episodes, but the story is quite simple. Basically what you have here is when the episode opens the USS Enterprise arrives at Star Base 11, because they received a message that Kirk says is from Captain Pike.

In charge of the base is commander Commodore Jose Mendez tells Captain Kirk, that it’s not possible for Captain Pike to have sent such a message because Captain Pike, as the crew discovers is in very, very bad shape. He cannot move. He’s basically paralyzed and he’s encased in this strange contraption type wheelchair.

He cannot speak. He can barely see, and he cannot say anything without press his thought ways translate into either yes or no, that shows up as flashlights on the wheelchair type thing. And that’s about all he can do. So there is no way that he could have sent this message.

This is where these two episodes begin, and there’s a mystery here, but as we move along, we find that it was Spock sending this message and it was Spock manipulating the Enterprise’s orders. It is Spock who goes on to reprogram and reconfigure the ship’s computers, so that it goes into autopilot that nobody can come out of.

The reason for this is he served under Captain Pike 13 years ago. He wants something for Captain Pike that he will only get on Talus IV. This is the planet that was featured in the pilot. And he basically, what he does is mutiny.

There’s a court martial. They are given this video, which basically replays all the scenes from the pilot episode of Star Trek, the original series. And as the court martial progresses, you find the Talosians making a reappearance. They’re a bit, more benevolent this time than we saw on the pilot and they agreed to take in Captain Pike and there’s a lot of illusions, there are fake messages coming in and it’s a really long draw out story this way. Eventually everything comes together and Captain Pike is allowed to disembark on Talus IV, in spite of there being a death warrant for anyone who enters that star cluster. That’s what it is. I think because this is a two part episode, we can talk about it in detail and elaborate what the stories about.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S1E08: What are little girls made of

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

What are little girls made of, when the episode opens, you find that the USS Enterprise is nearing a planet called XO three, and they’re looking for a certain Dr. Roger Korby. He’s a prominent scientist who’s left large legacy of work, and he has been missing for the past five years.

He’s also the fiance of nurse Christine Chapel of the Enterprise. When the Enterprise establishes contact with this planet, they find that Roger Korby is alive and he learns that Nurse Chapel is on board the Enterprise and he wants her to go down to the planet along with Captain Kirk.

This planet is a very strange place because it’s cold, it’s icy, and there are the remnants of this ancient civilization underground. And so when Kirk and Nurse Chapel arrive there, they find themselves underground and very quickly things go wrong. They meet an old acquaintance of Korby, who is acting very strange.

They lose security guards to chasms and a strange Frankensteinian monster type creature. They also find a new character called Andrea, who’s extremely attractive. Nurse Chapel starts feeling a bit of jealousy towards her. Eventually it is revealed that these are the only inhabitants of this planet.

There are only three of them, still alive, apparently. As time goes on you find that Korby is obsessed. He’s maniacal, he’s a little bit crazy. He’s in a search for perfection and there are a lot of Androids involved.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S1E07: Mudd's Women

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

Today’s episode, we’re focusing on Mudd’s Women, I’m gonna give you a small gist of this episode. The USS enterprise is chasing an unidentified cargo vessel and the cargo vessel is meandering this way and that, and flies into an asteroid belt. The USS Enterprise is forced to cover this ship with the deflector shield to prevent the ship from disintegrating from the asteroid hits. Eventually as time goes by the captain of the ship is transported into the Enterprise and he turns out to be a very interesting conman who calls himself by some other name in the beginning. But eventually his name is revealed to be Harry Mudd. And this guy, he is smuggling women across the galaxy to various colonies. And these women who are with him, three of them are with him. They’re very, very alluring and seem to have a peculiar hypnotic magnetic effect on the men of the Enterprise. And even on the captain.

These women confuse the men and they’re not able to focus on what they’re supposed to do. Because the Enterprise shielded Harry Mudd’s now destroyed ship from the asteroid hit, the lithium crystals that the Enterprise runs on is destroyed. They have to go to a mining corner to get more lithium crystals.

Harry Mudd uses this particular trip to try and leverage something for himself. He tries to trade the women for the miners on the planet. Eventually everything goes wrong for him. And the women are released from his custody and yeah, it ends in a very amusing note. There’s also reference to a peculiar drug called the Venus drug.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Ask the Design Thinking Doc - Not so heavy books to read

What are some books one could read to learn Design Thinking? The answer can be contradictory. Since, Design Thinking is a skill, is best learnt from on-field experience. However, without knowing what Design Thinking can do, the on-field experience may not be so rewarding after all.

So, what books must one read and not read to attain expertise in Design Thinking?

This post will answer that.

Design Thinking, as a skill, can be learnt by practicing the methodology on real world problems. I run an online course on Design Thinking on a Govt. of India platform called SWAYAM where close to 40,000 learners have learnt Design Thinking already.

What I have got in return (apart from lots of love 😍) is the variety of questions that have been asked by so many curious learners. This Ask the DT Doc series can be helpful to anyone – a beginner, intermediate or advanced learner of Design Thinking. (Also checkout https://dt.balaramadurai.net for the book on Design Thinking)

This post will cover the question “Please suggest some awesome and not that heavy books to read?”

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Podcast Enterprise: S1E05: The Naked Time

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

Today our episode is a fun episode. I really had a good time watching it. What is our episode for the day?

Today we are following the Naked Time.

And in this episode, USS Enterprise, it goes around a planet called Psi 2000. This is a frozen world. That’s begun its process of disintegration. So in the beginning you see Spock and Joe Tormolen. They beam down to the planet’s surface and then they find that everybody on this planet is dead. All the scientists that went down there to investigate this planet, they’re all dead.

And they’ve been found dead in peculiar positions because the engineer is dead at his post. Somebody’s in the shower with their clothes on. So there are some weird happenings on that planet. And then for some weird reason, Tormolen, he rubs his nose after touching something on the planet’s surface and he puts his hand down, unprotected on a table surface, and then he’s infected with this peculiar infestation.

Nobody really knows what it is. And then, plot follows these characters as they go back to the Enterprise, the infection spreads. And then what this essentially does is it brings out hidden thoughts and emotions to the surface, which makes the characters behave very erratically and almost drunk.

One person, a certain individual he takes over the Enterprise. He tries to do some really, really strange things. And then the captain has to take control back. He switches off the engines and then Kirk has to switch the engines back on, but then they have to do it in a controlled implosion. Finally, the infection is contained and everything is back to normal.

However, there’s a twist at the end. So that’s my brief summary.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S1E06: The Enemy Within

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

In The Enemy Within, the USS Enterprise sends a couple of crew members down to study a planet called alpha 1 77. And while there geological technician Fisher, he falls down some rocks or something, and he has an injury and Kirk sends him back to the Enterprise.

But then when he gets back to the Enterprise, Scotty notices that there’s a strange magnetic substance, yellow substance, like a powder, sticking to his clothes and he advises him to go and get himself decontaminated. Shortly after that, Kirk beams up to the Enterprise.

And then the transportation room is empty. However, you do see that the transporter works again and a shadow Kirk materializes. Something like an evil twin apparently, because he seems to have all of Kirk’s violent personality traits, magnified hundred fold. This episode follows both Kirk and this negative Kirk, those two halves that, form the whole, as they navigate their way through the Enterprise. Negative Kirk creates all sorts of problems for the positive Kirk, including attempting to assault Yeoman Janice Rand. As we’ve seen certain other Star Trek episodes also, somebody tries to take over the Enterprise.

In this case, it is the negative Kirk. Somehow or the other, the two have to be brought together. And then this episode ends.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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