“Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, and your words become your actions.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Did you know that…

Mahatma Gandhi wrote two books for children, Balpothi and Nithidarma. These books focus on children learning values, morals and principles.

 

So how did Gandhiji start writing books?

Bapu wrote about ideas and topics he believed in, such as nutrition, health, world peace, vegetarianism and the freedom movement. He had his own unique writing style — simple and lucid. The common man could relate to his writings.

Lonely Planet is every traveller’s go-to guidebook for tourism information. But did you know that Mahatma Gandhi wrote a London Guide for Indians visiting London? In this guide, he shared insights on how Indians lived in the city, typical expenses, and where to buy essentials like groceries. Bapu also wrote a guide on how to become a vegetarian.

Yet perhaps the most widely read book is his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He wrote it in Gujarati, which was then translated into English and 40 other languages.

Learning from Mahatma Gandhi, you can begin by writing about your friends or family, what makes you happy and sad. Perhaps like Bapu, you could write a diet book for your family or a collection of your grandmother’s recipes. You could even grow up to be an author and choose it as a career. To become a good writer, it’s important to cultivate good reading habits by reading fiction and non-fiction. Start with reading short story books for fiction and newspapers for nonfiction.

Writing a story is not as hard as it seems. When writing a story, you need to think of three things:

1. A place
2. People or objects
3. Sentiments

For example:

1. A place — garden
2. People or objects — myself, trees, sparrows, eggs and a nest
3. Seniments — happiness, surprise, anger, excitement

Use your imagination to create a story based on the themes you picked. Here’s a sample:

One evening, I went to my favorite garden and I was happy to see green trees swaying in the breeze. As I walked, I was surprised to see that a bird’s nest had fallen to the ground. I went closer and saw that it was a sparrow’s nest, and some eggs were broken. I was annoyed. Who could have done this to sparrows? The mother and father sparrows were chirping angrily. I picked up the nest and realised that only one of the four eggs was broken. I was excited to save the nest for the sparrows. I carefully picked up the nest, placed the healthy eggs back in it, and placed it on the tree branch. I then walked back home, enjoying the breeze and feeling content.

If you like the idea of becoming an full-time writer, we have other suggestions:

Content Writer. This professional writes content for websites, blog posts and other internet resources.

Copy Writer. She writes copy for advertisements, descriptions of businesses and products.

Script Writer. She writes scripts for stage plays, films and broadcast media.

Playwright. She crafts scripts for staged theatrical performances, creating characters, dialogue, and dramatic structure to bring stories to life on stage.

Editor. A person who shortlists and edits the final content of a newspaper, magazine, or multi-author book.