Writing Notes: Wisdom on the subject of writing is rarely neatly packaged, but Rajiv Kanwal Anand has become the conveyor of such wisdom to many. It all started when he signed up for The First Draft Club (FDC) run by the Himalayan Writing Retreat back in April 2022 (FDC #7). 

The First Draft Club is a group of writers that meets every 2-3 months. They get together virtually to meet their personal writing goals as a community, and not feel alone. There is a lively WhatsApp group where much writer-ly conversation happens. As a part of this push, they also meet with an expert from the world of writing/publishing every Sunday from 5-6 PM over a live video session. This could be a published author, or a literary agent, or an editor from a publishing company. 

We (at the Himalayan Writing Retreat) noticed that Rajiv would make detailed, precise notes on writing after each such session, and offer them up to the community. First, we thought it was a one-off, but he has been consistent in generously offering his writing notes all the way from FDC #7 to FDC #16 (ending now).

It is almost cosmic but as I write this at 5.42 AM this cold December Monday, a message popped up in the group saying,

“Good Morning folks,

Session notes of yesterday’s Sunday FDC session..Devika Rangachari….4 pages..bullet points…anyone wanting.. please ping me one on one with your email ID. 

Those already receiving the notes by email continue to do so 😊

Kanwal Rajiv Anand”

The fortunate people who have attended the last ten FDC’s have seen this message some 45 times, and Rajiv is not letting up on offering his writing notes to a grateful community of writers. (To join this community, click here.) 

The notes themselves are a mix of wisdom and art: Rajiv picks out the main takeaways from each session precisely and pens them down by hand using pen and paper. They are available to anyone who wants them within this community.

Rajiv’s writing notes come attached to a mail at 11AM on a Monday. Four to five crisp ruled sheets divided into sections, in blue/black ink, with points and highlights. Written in a handwriting that would have made-your-mother-proud, these notes – for those who have attended the session – are a distilled reporting of what was told, hitting refresh on the memory of the session. And for those who haven’t attended, it is a documented reference to catch up on what was missed. That there has never been a break in these notes since FDC#7 has made it permanent in our heads – a thing to count on and set your clock to. 

{Ramanjaneya Saraph, another FDC member, has written a post on ‘ACEing the Himalayan First Draft Club’ that you should definitely check out.}

A few weeks ago I had the chance to sit down with Rajiv for an informal chat. Here is the excerpt of the conversation:

Thanks Rajiv for talking to us. Let us start at the beginning – can you tell me a little bit about what got you interested in writing?

My initial schooling was in different Irish Brothers Missionary Schools in India. English was not the language spoken at home for routine conversation and hence held some attraction for me. I was particularly impressed by one Mrs Campbell who was my English and Class Teacher in Goethals Memorial School, Kurseong (near Darjeeling) in Class II and also by one Mr Burn who was my English and Class Teacher in Mount St Mary’s Delhi in Class V. 

Also, my father used to subscribe to the Readers Digest each year. The Quotable Quotes section and the Increase Your Word Power pages were my staple on many languid afternoons even as a kid.

There was also a lot of emphasis on reading fiction in those days by our teachers in general. I guess my interest in English, writing and vocabulary stemmed from all these experiences.

Later, in The Daly College Indore, from Class IX to XII, I was a regular contributor to the School Magazine and also on the Editorial Board of the monthly Newsletter. 

So how did you discover Himalayan Writing Retreat (HWR) & its First Draft Club (FDC)?

Post-pandemic, one was generally scouting online for avenues related to my fascination for the “World of Words” as I refer to this cloud of all things related to the written word. I chanced upon the book club and was given Dr. Shalini Mullick’s (also an FDC alumnus) book Stars Beyond the Borderless Sea to do a book review. In that context, I explored the website and felt that the FDC was a good format – being online and location-agnostic otherwise, to make an initial foray.

What workshops of the HWR have you attended? And when?

I have attended every single FDC since FDC 7 since April 2022 down to the current FDC 16. One hopes to attend the on-site workshops at Satkhol at HWR but I am constrained by certain personnel commitments of being the primary caregiver for the geriatric care of my nonagenarian father.

One reads amazing reviews of the HWR workshops and the pictures are indeed enticing. One also hopes that HWR eventually establishes retreats all over the Himalayas including one in Himachal Pradesh, which may be closer home for many of us North of Delhi. 

{You should check out our Book Club too}

Any FDC sessions that you have particularly enjoyed?

The first Session in FDC 7 was of Anindita Ghose and while my notes were very sketchy, her session in terms of takeaways for wannabe authors was extremely helpful. She was focused and articulate without any arbitrary responses at all.

Also, Shatrujeet Nath’s session again was one I remember vividly. I would also say that speakers who have just published their first book are closer to the FDC participant’s journey and hence impart greater learning value without getting into hi-fi fundas. As a specific case, Salini Vineeth’s session recently comes to mind immediately on this score. You will agree that FDC members are looking for takeaways which can help them bridge the gap from being a wannabe to becoming a published author – and the personal journey per se of the speakers is of little relevance unless it brings out some contextual meaning to the FDC participants. 

How has this experience of FDC helped you?

FDC has been my very own self-paced, self-syllabi generated way of a DIY-MFA (Do-It-Yourself Masters-in-Fine-Arts). While I have been attending the Sunday sessions with missionary zeal, I have not been a rigorous word count tracker at all, which is the accountability system of the FDC. FDC has exposed me to various facets of “Kalam se Kitaab tak” and also connected me to the larger community. Each Sunday session speaker has broadened the horizons of learning and have offered insights and honest inputs which have indeed enabled much progress in my writing journey.

FDC has also been instrumental in converting the solitary writing journey into a bandwagon of fellow travellers who all are encountering and overcoming similar obstacles in their paths. 

The larger FDC fraternity connected via the WhatsApp group also provides a ready FAQ and online response to many queries based on the experiential wisdom of many others who are at different stages of the writing journey.

Having also attended similar workshops and retreats overseas, I must mention that the Indian context and relevance of content to us is one area wherein HWR wins hands down over its Western counterparts.

What keeps you motivated? 

One thing that has kept me hooked to HWR and FDC, since April 2022 – FDC 7; is the altruistic nature of the FDC wherein the commodity eventually being exchanged is ‘learning’ – we contribute to the children at the NGO-run  Chirag School near  Satkhol, Uttarakhand. In turn, HWR enables our learning process in the writing journey! So this whole “mahoul” of a sort of benign mutually beneficial kar-sewa type effort spurred me to do my two-penny bit to contribute to this effort.

{Writing can be a lonely job. Aside from FDC, you can check out this list of 23 Writing Groups in India to find your tribe.}

Let us talk about what you, uniquely, bring to the FDC. The writing notes from every Sunday session. What is the backstory here? Have you always been a note-taker?

By nature, since childhood, I have studied through writing and was never the verbal learning type. In my engineering days, the junior batch students, at the start of the semester, would offer to buy me good stationery in exchange for my notes at the end of my semester exams. They often requested me to use black ink – since the Xerox comes out better! So maybe my notes were reasonably ok as a habit.

How did you begin taking your writing notes during the FDC?

To be ruthlessly honest, when I initially joined FDC 7 in April 2022, I held a world view that all that is required to be an author is a reasonable command over the language and a vocabulary to match. However, soon, very soon I realised that there is an art and a science to this whole new world of words. Many terms used in passing during the FDC session and the Whatsapp group discussion were totally new to me. So I would make a note with a * mark in my notes and add it to my further reading subjects list for the week. This was the genesis of my starting to take notes in FDC.

How did these notes go from just your effort to the large audience you have now?

Statistically, one found that usually only about 25 to 30 members of FDC turn up for the Sunday evening session. Why this figure remains centred around a mean of 25 irrespective of the FDC strength beats me. Someone probably asked me for the notes initially – one on one. I would send them by WhatsApp as a PDF file. Thereafter, the numbers grew and I found it more convenient to send a bulk email. As of today, out of approximately 341 participants of the HWR FDC Whatsapp group, 124 are receiving my PDF notes.

That’s just wonderful. Tell us about the process of writing notes a little bit.

Firstly, the commitment now of taking notes recursively ensures my attendance of the Sunday Session – so that’s a spin-off benefit to me too! Although I prefer blank A4 sheets, they tend to give a free run to the latent calligraphic instincts…so while the flourishes may make the page look good, legibility tends to take a backseat. This feedback has made me buy a ruled spiral notebook recently

On Monday I usually scan the sheets and create a compressed pdf file. The soft copies are retained on my hard disk as my own reference too. The Q&A of each session actually has immense learning value too since these are the issues the FDC writers are grappling with. Often, an innocuous question opens up a completely new thread of conversation on the WhatsApp group.

{Facing a Writer’s Block? Unlock your Creativity with Proven Strategies.}

In a world which prefers a recording to written notes, you have a beautiful analogue habit of writing by hand – why do you prefer this?

The flow of thought of the analog method cannot be replicated in any digital form and so, that remains the primary reason. Also, in the manual writing process, the content of the class or speaker is processed more naturally by the brain and it is your assimilated learning that is getting transcribed onto the notes. You will find higher clarity of thought emerges in manual note-taking as compared to digital notes.

It also helps you maintain and improve your handwriting which is a much neglected skill today in the era of digital devices.

What advice do you have for anyone wanting to take notes? Is digital note-taking ok?

Not qualified to give advice. However the power of digital note-taking should not be underestimated, particularly for collaborative efforts of a group of people where notes need to be shared. For example last year, a group of a few volunteer beta readers of FDC, did a beta read effort on the draft shared on Google Docs. Also, when one does a review of a book, the notes features of Kindle are amazing. So it has to be a combo of the best for both manual and digital note-taking.

So what’s next?

I have finished two first drafts which include about four rounds of self-edits. One is a Memoir and the other is Non Fiction. Once the books see the light of the day, they will speak for themselves. Let’s keep the surprise for later. During 2024-25, I wish to focus on the short story format.  In addition, one will continue the DIY-MFA with HWR through FDC.

Rajiv’s social media profile describes him as “Writer wannabe Author, World of Words, Calligraphy, Creative Arts, Cycling, Golf, Yoga”. This 4 AM Club member has recently become a grandfather. A world traveller has also done pro bono calligraphy work for social media posts of author friends ..basically extracts of quotes from the books.

Despite his hectic schedule and travels, Rajiv is diligent about freely sharing his writing notes. His generosity adds a dimension of selfless giving to the FDC that makes it all the more wonderful. The recordings of the FDC Sunday sessions are shared on the HWR youtube channel. But to encourage more live participation, the recordings are shared on YouTube weeks after the live session. Rajiv’s diligent writing notes allow people who may have missed the live session to get a quick recap the very next day.

The world is a better place with selfless people like Rajiv, and we’re grateful and lucky to have him in our midst.