“I am prioritizing things that are important to me instead of whatever is expected of me, which means that I’m probably not following societal norms.”
Join me to workshop self-editing skills!
The next ALE Club meeting is Feb. 8 at 2pm Eastern (1pm Central, 11am Pacific, or calculate your local time here). It's live, online, and free (recording available afterward on my YouTube channel), and this time we'll be analyzing a podcast, the "Switched at Birth" episode of This American Life. I recommend listening first--since that's the medium the story was designed for--but you can also find the transcript here.
If you haven't already, sign up here to get the link the day before the session.
You'll find a handout that's useful in analyzing a story here (helpful for editing your own manuscripts too). Hope to see you live!
Amulya Malladi has a master’s in journalism, works full-time as a vice president of marketing for a life sciences company; paints and sells her original artwork; and just passed her Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) level one and is prepping for her level two test at the end of this month.
Oh—and she is also a bestselling author with nine published novels that have been translated into several languages, including Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Danish, Romanian, Serbian, and Tamil. She won a screenwriting award for her work on Ø (Island), a Danish series that aired on Amazon Prime Global and Studio Canal+; and her most recent book, A Death in Denmark, releases March 28.
When I asked in our recent interview how she finds the time to do all of that, Amulya gave an unexpected answer: “Um, I think most people have the time.”
I blink, thrown for a moment. “Say more,” I blurt.
“I think it's a prioritization thing. It's not time; it's prioritization—what do we prioritize?... As long as we can prioritize what is important, I think we can find time for it.”
Amulya admits she’s in the fortunate position of being an empty nester now, but says she always had a very understanding family who respect her writing time, even on family vacations (“Leave her alone,” she sums up their approach succinctly). “Mostly I’m able to find the time to do the things I want to do. I also don't do things I don't like to do.”
Those things might include not cooking dinner if she doesn’t feel like it, eschewing social engagements if she doesn’t really like the people in attendance, and even backing out of family gatherings if she’d rather be focusing on her writing or other pursuits.
“I end up spending time at work doing a lot of things I'm supposed to do, that I have to do: I have to sit in meetings with people, I have to do all of these things. So in my personal life, I do things I like to do,” she says. “I am prioritizing the things that are important to me instead of whatever is expected of me, which means that I’m probably not following a lot of societal norms.”
“One Day I’m Going to Become a Very Famous Author”
Read more about Amulya's writing journey, and how she revises here, see our full interview on my YouTube channel here, or share this newsletterhere. Sharing helps me reach more authors!
