Chennai: Priyanka Ramakumar (25) is a writer with a twist. In the morning, she works for an IT firm and in the evening she is a writer, having published three of her poems. Speaking to News Today, she says, “I have been writing from my seventh grade but I lost touch during my tenth board exams.”
She adds, “But when I was in my 11th grade, I started writing as my friends motivated me to continue. They encouraged me to get serious and collect whatever I wrote.”
She starts speaking on what made her get into writing in the first place. “I wasn’t passionate about writing or any particular writer,” she reveals.
“I just started putting down my thoughts on paper about anything I saw, observed and whatever emotion I went through. For example, if I saw rain pouring outside, then I would quickly write about it.”
She credits her schooling at PSBB as the place where her English improved.
What does she love to write about? “I like writing poems and I have also written short stories.”
She adds that all of her poems got published after a “very long wait”.
She starts explaining about the poems she has written. ‘One is about fire, and the other, insomnia. My third poem is about positivity in life. It sums up how much negativity there is in life but concludes with a positive message,” she says.
She goes on to add that for her poem Fire, she has personified the flame as a source of encouragement. “Insomnia is more of a scenario-based poetry. It is about a guy who has proposed to a girl and he becomes sleepless as he waits for her to reply,” she says.
How did her work get published? She says that her poems are part of three anthologies published through Poetry World. “It was quite encouraging for me once I got a certificate that my work was published,” she says.
She then shares tips for aspiring writers. “I think to be a writer, you should be really good in marketing, then you can get a really good platform. I have also seen many publications organise competitions. So, I feel participating in them will give good exposure for writers.”
She further says writing every day will improve your craft as that gives the ultimate joy more than getting your work published.
True to her words, Priyanka is now working on a new poem.