"I never call it Writer's Block because I know I have to write anyway. I write bad pages if I am feeling blocked and eventually I end up losing them which is painful. But everyday's hard work is sort of inspirational," Greer said at the 10th edition of Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival.
The American, who bagged the Pulitzer for his comic novel 'Less' in 2018, said he is not going to write anything on his new novel while "in India because it is too much fun here and I am taking a break". Asked to share some tips for aspiring writers to keep their creativity alive, the man with six fictions in his kitty said: "I think that one should write from their weakest part and about things they are scared to share."
He elaborated that if there is anything hard to write about oneself, it is truly about the person. So it is good to be imaginative to be able to reveal those things in writing.
"If someone says to a writer that he/she puts too many dragons in his writing, he should put a full dragon. That is my advice and one shouldn't let people make them mediocre and become oneself," he explained.
Geere had been writing 'Less' as a tragedy and it was not really working when he actually decided to start making fun of the protagonist and while swimming one day he made up his mind to write this book as a comedy. He wanted to celebrate joy.
Asked if such recognition can be beneficial for any genre which is going out of fashion, he said: "I hadn't thought about it, but yes it is possible that this will give courage to other writers to write literature that is a comedy or all of those things that people are bit ashamed to speak about. And especially it gives me a chance to write more on such topics." 'Less' is about Arthur Less, a writer fleeing the humiliation of love, middle-age and failure. In his book, a character actually wins the Pulitzer Prize.
"I am confident that this is the only book which talks about Pulitzer and then actually wins it. It never occurred to me that I would actually win it," he said.
The protagonist wears a bright blue suit for the awards which, according to Greer, symbolises his innocence and he wears it with confidence. He thought he would choose something sober for himself in real life but on a friend's advice he "wore a red suit" for the awards as it symbolises joy.