Epics of India

I was expecting a bunch of long, drawn out articles that highlight writing techniques, with analysis on "exemplary" writing throughout history, but was pleasantly surprised to see it's just a page full of quotes and snippets from various authors. Here are some I really liked: You Develop Empathy As a writer, it's important to approach your work through the lens of someone who's on the other end. This allows you to consider how you want to forge your story into one that the reader can appreciate. As you do this, you will develop this sense of empathy. You can relate to what your readers are feeling, whether that be boredom, interest, excitement, etc., and can adjust your narrative accordingly. A Character is Never a Whole Person   This title really caught my attention - is he saying that characters aren't really people? Nope, not at all. The writer, upon developing a character, must know every detail about him or her, but then must selectively show specif...

Taken from The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie. The illustrations for the Mahabharata are a lot more detailed than the ones for Ramayana. The Ramayana's were more flat and primitive, but the Mahabharata's have depth, shading, expressions, etc. that make it more interesting (in my opinion) to look at. Similar to how Valmiki was the author in the Ramayana (and also a character!), a guy named Vyasa is credited with writing the Mahabharata. From the wording though, it seems like he'll have a larger part to play than Valmiki did in his story. (King Shanatu and a beautiful woman on the Ganga, from Wikipedia ) King Shanatu and Ganga Aha! So this is where that story of Ganga throwing babies into the river comes from! And there's some justification behind it as well - the babies are actually celestial beings that have been cursed to have a human form. They went to Ganga to ask her to be their human mother, where she promised to throw them into the r...