Abi:original - If you aren't original, what are you?

Train travel has always inspired me. Sure the Mumbai suburban train service has its flaws. It packed like hell on most days. But it also provides solace and a chance for one to find your own little corner to catch a breath and think. Some of my best ideas have come on a 50-minute train ride to college or work. And that’s been no different 20 years later on the Dubai Metro. Here is one piece that came up recently. On motivating, passionate women at any age. Danica's free hand drawing, December 2015.  I don’t have to look far when it comes to women who are passionate at any age. My daughter provides sufficient inspiration. At the age of five she wants to be a mother above all else. I tell her I would simply love to be her age again but there's no going back. No adult logic that works with a five year old and for now she says she can’t wait to be a mother as I’m gathering she believes it’s a fun job. Noted poet, author and my English Literature professor is another ...

Inspired by Elmore Leonard's 10 rules for writing, The Gaurdian came up with 10 points shared by various authors. I'm sharing my favourite, Ms. Atwood's. Margaret Atwood's rules for writing fiction 1 Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can't sharpen it on the plane, because you can't take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils. 2 If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal or glass type. 3 Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do. 4 If you're using a computer, always safeguard new text with a ­memory stick. 5 Do back exercises. Pain is distracting. 6 Hold the reader's attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don't know who the reader is, so it's like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What ­fascinates A will bore the pants off B. 7 You most likely need a the...