THE WRITER’S SPELL

The spell that writers cast fascinates me. They absorb your whole personality – your mind, your spirit and even your body. Through their writing, they seem to overpower you as if, to use the imagery of romance, enchanted into the grip of a passionate lover.

How do writers command such power? By their power of imagination, intellectual verve and personality vibe – I suppose. My passion at the moment is to launch a media school of global excellence to guide anyone interested in writing.

My credential is that I have been teaching for a quarter of a century: for the last five years with the Times School of Journalism (TSJ) and before that with prestigious colleges of Delhi, like Lady Sri Ram College (LSR) and Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (DCAC).

I have authored two books on writing: Writing for the Media (Vision Books 1997) and Writing to Win (Heritage Publishers 2008). In his foreword to the first book, Jug Suraiya, the Doyen of editors and the Art Buchwald of Indian journalism, wrote:
There is a patent need for a handbook which, clearly and simply, establishes the ground rules for effective communication in English. Mr Sunny Thomas’s manual does precisely that. In 16 succinct chapters, Mr Thomas offers valuable tips and suggestions covering a wide range of genres from newspaper reporting and feature writing to crafting scripts for the stage or the screen. Mr Thomas has a long professional association with the newspaper world and his book should be of benefit to all those who would like to write for the media.

An excerpt from the book Writing to Win reads: Style is Eva Braun hiding in the bunker! Style is Josephine captivating Napoleon, style is Cleopatra fascinating Caesar, style is Marilyn Monroe bewitching President Kennedy. Style is fatal attraction. Style wins instant applause.

Style is something that everybody wants to develop but has not. Style engenders the desire to emulate since it is a big leap from practice to perfection. Style is an imprint of your thought wave expressed in words and sentences. And your thought wave is a profile of your mind, the critical essence of your personality. Hence style is your inimitable personality. To improve your style, you must improve the quality of your mind. Read voraciously, think positively, contemplate critically and eliminate garbage.


Writers on Writing
A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself – Arthur Miller

Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write
clearly – about any subject at all – William Zinsser


The true artist declares himself by leaving out a lot. The artist alone sees
the spirit – Goethe

I think the single most important factor in writing is its rhythm – Helen Cresswell

The writer lives in awe of words – John Steinbeck

The most important sentence in any article is the first one – William Zinsser

If I didn’t know the ending of a story, I wouldn’t begin. I Always write my
last line, my last paragraph, my last page first – Katherine Anne Porter

Books rule the world, or at least those nations which have a written language; the others
do not count – Voltaire