Music drives me while writing: Amish Tripathi

-amish-tripathiNEW DELHI: For Amish Tripathi of “Shiva Trilogy” fame, music and writing are inseparable as different sounds provide him ideas while penning about different situations in his books.

“Music of different genres is a must for me while writing, sometimes even instrumental music. They help me a lot,” he says.

“The love song ‘Kaise mujhe tum mil gayi’ from ‘Ghajini’ helps me in writing anger situations. Heavy metal songs help me in writing battles scenes,” says Tripathi, whose new book “Scion of Ikshvaku” exploring the life of Lord Ram will be released this month.

“Scion of Ikshvaku”, the first of a five-six book Ramchandra series, is a fictional interpretation based on the many versions of the Ramayana, and talks about the perfect empire where ‘dharma’ and honors prevailed over all, how a misunderstood king created a Ram Rajya and how a tortured prince turned into a great king and then into a god.

Ikshvaku was the first king of the Ikshvaku dynasty and founder of the Suryavanshis (sun gods), a dynasty Lord Ram belonged to.

Tripathi says writing becomes easy when a writer does not try to control his characters and let the story go with the flow.

Calling himself an instinctive writer, he says he has story ideas for the next 20 years.

“All my stories are linked. Many of the thoughts are already there. But I write more of these books, they kind of expanded more and more. When I start downloading one series, more stories open up,” Tripathi told PTI.

Coming from a banking background, he says it has helped him a lot in marketing of his books though not in writing.

Tripathi says follows two phases – writing and marketing and never allows each other to overlap.
A chapter of “Scion of Ikshvaku”, published by Westland is now available on Kindle.

“I am always experimenting with different and unique ways to engage with my readers. With this exclusive chapter launch on Kindle, I’m hoping to not just engage with my readers but also start a dialogue with a new set of readers and allow them to sample my narrative and hopefully excite them to join me in this journey,” he says.

He has written three books till now, “The Immortals of Meluha”, “The Secret of the Nagas” and “The Oath of the Vayuputras”, collectively called the “Shiva Trilogy”, which is said to have sold 2.2 million copies till now, making it arguably the fastest-selling book series in Indian publishing history.-PTI