We were lucky to catch up with Mansi Shah recently and have shared our conversation below.
Mansi, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
The biggest thing I did to keep my creativity going is to leave my longtime career as a corporate lawyer and make the leap to writing fiction full-time. It is a scary thing to leave the comfort of something that is stable and familiar, but since doing that in 2022, my creativity has really flowed, and I can structure my day around my writing as opposed to squeezing writing into my breaks from my legal career. I firmly believe that as you close one door, many others will open, and it’s up to you to figure out which is the right one.
My novels tend to focus on identity and belonging and my main source of creative inspiration is traveling. I have had the privilege of visiting over seventy countries. Seeing how others live and the way community is formed throughout the world allows me to develop as a person as well as a writer. It increases empathy, which is one of the greatest tools in a writer’s arsenal. I have set each of my novels in a different country, and being able to see those places as a writer who is crafting a story rather than just a tourist on holiday has really changed how I travel. I aim to bring those places to readers who may never set foot in those countries, and I take that responsibility very seriously. For my novel A Good Indian Girl, which is being released on September 3, 2024, it takes place in Italy and I am able to take the reader on a culinary journey through Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast and show a side of those places from a Gujarati perspective rather than the standard Western perspective we often see in literature that takes place in Europe. The same is true for my 2025 release, which takes place in Singapore and shows the city from a lower-income Indian protagonist rather than the wealthy, Chinese perspective that people often associate with that country. When I travel to these places and am able to interview people, or observe the parts of the city that often go unnoticed, and know I can bring something unique to readers, my creativity always flows.
When I’m not traveling, I think it’s so important to nourish creativity in other ways. I love unplugging and being grounded in nature. I’ve always felt at peace in water, and I swim several times a week. Being immersed in water and the rhythmic nature of gliding through water is often, completely away from my phone or other technology, is often where my best ideas come through. Even if I’m not able to work through a plot point or new idea in the water, the meditative nature of being there frees my mind to let the ideas come during other parts of the day. Another thing I really enjoy is using my creativity in different ways. My favorite creative hobby is cooking and I’ve found that using my mind to develop recipes or learn a new technique keeps me energized to return to my writing. It doesn’t hurt that it also means I have delicious, healthy snacks and meals waiting for me during writing breaks. Overall, the most important thing for me to nurture my creativity is to give it time and space to grow, and I’m grateful that I’ve been able to make that my top priority over these past couple years.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am the author of A Good Indian Girl (coming September 2024), The Taste of Ginger, and The Direction of the Wind, which center on Gujarati characters and speak to generational differences across the Indian diaspora. My stories focus on identity and belonging as my characters try to find the people and places that make them feel like they are home. Now based in Los Angeles, I left my long-time career as an entertainment attorney in Hollywood to travel the world and write full time. I love to cook, and food often plays a prominent role in my books.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Resilience is the most important skill for anyone pursuing an artistic endeavor. Creativity is subjective and you’ll hear “no” far more often than you’ll hear “yes,” so it’s important to be realistic and thick-skinned about that. Those who create art should only do it because it’s a burning desire within them, because if you’ve created something you love, then the rejections don’t affect you as much. And with each rejection, you have to let it fuel you to improve and do better so that you are constantly evolving and growing in your craft.
Another is to be willing to take risks. My writing often includes subjects or issues that some may deem “controversial,” but I believe having taken those risks and including those storylines that might not resonate with everyone have led to work that is more authentic and a reader base that is more invested in my work.
The last would be to make time for fun. Doing things for the pure joy of them with no agenda can refill your well faster than anything else. There is so much pressure in the world to always be moving forward and being productive, but there is value in being still, especially when looking at creative professions. I used to feel guilty if I wasn’t working, but I have now come to appreciate that time spent on play is just as important as time spent on work. They balance each other and that allows me to be far more efficient when I write.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I always strive to be balanced and well-rounded. There is so much that is gained from the process of learning, failing, and succeeding, and I’ve always been better for it in the end. With my writing, I strive to learn something new with each book I write, whether it’s exploring different points of view, or moving between present and past storylines, or creating traits for characters that are different from me. In my third novel, A GOOD INDIAN GIRL, I wrote a main character who is a people pleaser even though that is the opposite of my actual personality. Being able to represent that type of person accurately was a big focus for me when writing that book and there was a lot of editing to get it right. And I often try and fail in the kitchen, but I learn so much when I make a mistake while cooking and rarely repeat that. I love being able to understand the science behind why something didn’t work, because then it helps me decipher what is necessary to get to a successful result.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mansikshah.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mansishahwrites/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mansishahwrites/
