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Welcome to the newest post in Writing While Healing, a series where I speak with indie authors who’ve found light through writing during their darkest times.
Today, I’m honored to feature Nilakshi Garg, an author, writer, storyteller, indie filmmaker, and brand strategist. You can learn more about Nilakshi Garg here.
Please introduce yourself!
Hi, my name is Nilakshi Garg. I am an author, writer, storyteller, indie filmmaker, and brand strategist. I wear multiple feathers to my hat and all are coloured in creativity or content at the core. I have been writing for the past 10 years and more. My journey began from part-time blogging and freelancing because people around me referred to clients automatically after seeing me diving deep into novels, dramas, and stories.
My books are currently being used as resources within mental health in the U.K. and USA 🇺🇸. I enjoy offering early intervention for mental health, and addiction awareness within local schools.
Please tell us a little about yourself and the kind of stories you write.
I write stories that are both fictional and non-fictional. In my stories like the first novel Mirage, you will find the female protagonist fighting her inner battles or coming up to the point that she would have to break her mirage in the mind to move ahead in life.
Similarly, I have written and published Twenty Eight Plus One poetry book which recognizes social, communal, and personal mishaps like civil war, suicide, gun violence, abandonment from a mother, investigative journalism, plagiarism, and much more. It bends every reader's thought while reading the poetries of such scenarios that we often fear or are apprehensive of reading or even researching.
My third book, Goodbye Home, is all about 120 essays that give you hope to step out of the comfort zone, which is no less than a home to our mind, body, or soul. It encourages the reader to push themselves one more time, to break that habit they liked, to think from a different angle or perspective, or to connect to the stories I have written from an open mind and then make a decision if they are ready to step out into the unknown world of discomfort.
Please share a bit about your mental health journey, as much as you are comfortable with :)
I have seen a lot of mental health issues around my family members from anxiety, chronic depression, schizophrenia, to obsession, narcissism, avoidant and escapist behaviours and OCD like traits. Thus, I have developed a knack to study all of these and more such mental barriers and blockages to help people around me navigate a better life with more centrally aligned principles, boundaries, morales, values, and ethics.
Mental health issues have in the recent times became more talked about. Earlier, in the 90s, it was definitely taboo. I, while growing up, was unable to address these issues around or in me properly. But these issues eventually shaped my psyche and helped me to connect with mentally challenged people with more empathy, patience, and grounded nature. Mental health journey for me has been like a spiritual awakening, especially for the last decade. I became more attuned to my own energies, auras, vibes, feelings, thoughts, or behaviours.
I became more responsive instead of reactive whenever someone was making a point, certainly the one that did not align with my own principles or values. I have learned to respect people with more calmness over the years, even if they hold a very different lens or perspective of life they have lived or observed so far.
How has your mental health influenced your writing process or creativity?
To a greater extent. If I was not honest with my own emotions, feelings, thoughts, actions, or behaviours, I wouldn't even dare to pick up the pen to write. Writing has made me more open to opportunities, new and modern modalities to heal oneself and others around me, and to be sincere in the efforts to impress, educate, inspire, humour, or soothe someone with my writeups.
I can say that my writing has become more personified and poetic over the years because I like to bring a swing to my content so that it whispers like a song or a lullaby to someone who has been mentally stressed or worked up.
Do you find writing to be healing, challenging, or a bit of both?
It is kind of both. At times, it heals you as a writer or a reader and at times, it challenges you to think differently so that you can create a more justified, objectified, or fair world of characters that you want to portray in your books.
Has your experience with mental health shaped the themes or characters in your stories?
As mentioned earlier, awareness of self and other's mental health has influenced the way I write and build a world of my own characters to the T. I do my homework to note what my characters traits, obstacles, objectives, and solutions will be.
I do practices with my two and more characters to interact and see what, why, how much and how often do they interact and what phrase they use, and what decisions they make and what impact do each of these characters have on each other. This is very important for building a realistic world readers can connect to even in it is a romantasy novel or story.
Are there any writing routines, boundaries, or self-care habits that help you stay grounded?
I write like 500-2000 words daily as a ritual. It keeps me going and helps me build a certain momentum. Then I outline the number of chapters I want to have in each novel. Then, I write the summary of each chapter first and then expand it with the characterisation of the FMC and MMC that has to come to play in the front to fill up the scene.
What advice would you give to other writers who have similar struggles as you?
I would suggest them to keep writing daily and build that muscle in the mind to continue writing as a sacred practice and eliminate overthinking or self-critizing beyond the limit. We need to be less hard on ourselves when we are starting our journey as a writer or an author. Hiring editors and beta or ARC readers help so that we can focus on building the relatable world for our characters and readers to bond over the pages without missing the beat or the story's purpose.
Have you ever taken breaks from writing to focus on your mental health?
Yes. I often go to retreats and take trips in the nature with my girlies. I ensure that I often get digital detox as well to step away from devices and feed myself good food and energy from my favourite people or from my favourite go-to places.
What’s something you wish more people understood about being a writer with mental health struggles?
Often writers with mental health challenges are low on budget when they are lesser known or are not famous. But people come up to them with hefty orders of paid reviews. These authors are looking for genuine readers and reviewers for their books. Their books are like their babies.
They often do not have costly budgets for marketing so if you can leave a review on your own, it would mean the world to the authors.
Also, authors with mental issues have their own timelines, rituals, and priorities. Readers, reviewers, and other service providers must understand that the author might not always be available for a quick chat or reply. You got to be patient with them and let them finish one of their projects first.
Is there anything else you'd like to share with the readers?
Leave a review for each author that you read, even if you end up DNFing them. Reviews mean a lot to an author. These are like little token of currencies or appreciation that authors crave for. Please be aware to do that to support your favourite authors.
Where can readers connect with you and your work? (Socials, website, books, etc.)
All my links :
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Thank you for reading!
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