Venkataraman Gopalakrishnan, click
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Venkataraman Gopalakrishnan's
Success Story
Hello Readers,
It was some eleven years earlier that I had attended a motivational training program held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On my way back to Singapore in the coach, I pondered deeply over what I had achieved in life.
The painful truth struck me hard that there was virtually nothing that I could claim to having achieved. The only intrinsic asset I possessed was a good command of the English language. I had read many a novel - crime, thriller, adventure and western, to name a few.
The idea suddenly dawned upon me that I could also contribute to the writing fraternity. Thus began, in that bus, the seeds of my first story, 'How It All Began." I decided, then and there to finish writing my tale - no matter how long it took.
The passing days, weeks and months proved more to be challenges to my determination to continue writing my tale. To put it squarely, just like the vast majority of people on the planet, I had to work to support my family and myself. It is therefore not so easy to stay on course in the matter of authoring a book.
In fact, six months after my return from Kuala Lumpur, I had not written another single word to continue with the story I had started on the bus.
It makes you think about what is important and what your priorities ought to be. Of course, a hobby can never take centre-stage over the more pressing demands of raising and maintaining a family.
Many a midnight oil was burnt in the process. My wife, Raji, took it in her stride, wondering when I would just call it a day and never again think of writing another story. It was always easier to read somebody else's story than write one yourself. By the way, my wife reads avidly.
When two years passed into the background, I found that my story had lengthened to 150 A4-sized pages. This was a real feat by my standards and it gave me that much-needed drive to continue with my writing efforts. Two more years were to pass before I completed the first part of my story. In the meantime, the title of the tale had changed from "How It All Began" to "The Mythical Emblems of Gragodon - Part 1"; coming close to 600 A4-sized pages.
By this time, I received lots of literary knocks, pun intended, from friends and professional critics, learning more about the art of writing a story. This kind of hands-on experience provides the means to polishing one's literary skills.
Six more years were to pass in this fashion before Parts 2 and 3 of the intended trilogy came to a completion. An Americanized, printed, hard-cover version of Part 1 of the story was published in 2010 and a British English version of the same was released during the Singapore Writers' Festival in 2011.
A total of around 1,670 pages of written work, combined with 10 years of sustained writing, is not a joke. I therefore decided to resize this epic novel into 6 readable ebook volumes and the last four ebook volumes have also been published.
I would also like to add that Raji has become the greatest support in my authoring journey. With an understanding and supportive spouse by your side, the journey towards one's dreams and goals becomes a very much smoother ride.
I have learnt that for success to be handed to you, Discipline, Dedication and Perseverance are the three values that any author should embrace. When Creativity in the thought process and Patience are added to the above-mentioned literary ingredients, a truly entertaining tale is churned out. I am also encouraged to learn that not many in Singapore have accomplished what I have achieved in the field of Adventure-Fantasy literature.
