If you are…
- Ready to inspire, uplift and provide hope and healing for other South Asian women
- Feeling the call to share your story in an impactful way
- Seeking the support to write your story from award winning, best selling authors and professional editors
Then The Desi Divorcee is for you.
This is an opportunity to join a healing and writing program that allows you to become the author of your own story by writing a chapter in a book that will be published and distributed globally on Amazon and on the bookshelves of select independent stores!
Whether you want to kickstart your writing career or take your message and life lessons to support someone stuck or recovering from a bad marriage, your chapter in the Desi Divorcee anthology will be the ticket to do exactly that.
Devangini Mahapatra Chauhan
Editor
Deepika Sandhu
Editor
Here is how it works:
- You have been through divorce and have a story you are ready to share
- You apply to be part of the book and interview with the editors
- Once selected, you will be part of a 10 week program, meeting weekly with the editors and your fellow Desi Divorcee authors, to take the story in your heart and move it onto the page.
Here is how you will move from idea to finished chapter in
10 WEEKS
Week 1:
Setting the Stage
In our first week together, we set the stage for 10 weeks of creativity, healing, inspiration and writing! You meet Deepika and Devangini, learn their own personal stories and meet your fellow contributors for the first time. You are introduced to the tools, techniques and schedules we will follow to create our chapters.
Week 2:
Step into the Writer's Mindset
Let’s face it! Speaking about divorce has been taboo in Indian culture for so long. It’s normal if coming into this project you feel fear, worry or concern. But spoiler alert, this isn’t because of the divorce topic or because of your Indian heritage. Every author has some degree of fear starting a new writing project. The fear you face is completely normal. In this session, we will address the beliefs and fears authors have and explore what may hold you back as you write. We will deeply explore why you are writing your chapter and how to harness your unique why as you write.
Week 3:
Define Your What and Why
This week is all about taking the bottom line from your story and matching it with a message. What do you want your experience to tell someone? How do you want it to be told? We discuss tonality and the basic idea of your story in this session. You know all that happened to you and you have so many parts of your own lived experience to share. Here, you are going to learn how to convert all that happened to you into one concept or idea that you can share with the audience. Once you have identified that part of your story, it’s time to match it up to existing books that are on a similar topic. What books are doing well, which ones aren’t, which are similar, which are different, what else does this niche need to hear that you can offer.
Week 4:
Milestone - Hook - Takeaway
We start to templatize the story. We take the main sequence or series of episodes and assign each one a hook that will get readers turning the page, and a takeaway that will give them value. This writing exercise will help them envision the readers holding the book in their hands and turning page after page to get a valuable, transformative message.
Week 5:
What's Stopping You?
In this week’s meeting, we will address the blocks that are setting in and the habits that are kicking in. The future authors need to know who is going to read their books and why this book is an important tool in their hands. They will see their own mirror image from a time when they were scared to break free and have a conversation about healing. They will do so by scripting their story and steering it to their current, much improved ending.
Week 6:
Laying the Arc
We get back to the story here. In this week’s meet, we lay the arc. This is the framework of the five points in a story – exposition, running action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Each participant receives a spreadsheet with a template for dividing the episodes and its details into rows and columns. These are to be expanded into paragraphs that will build the story. In this session, a demo will be provided.
Week 7:
Techniques for Filling the Arc and Clinic
Now that the arc has been laid, techniques for adding and expanding the details will be shared. Texturing elements like setting, descriptions, dialogue and more will be discussed along with writing techniques like cause and effect sentences as well as mirror and reflect phrases. This meeting is to ensure that creativity offsets any writing blocks. This week will also have a clinic in session any time the participant is stuck and wants to reach out for clarity and movement.
Week 8 and 9:
Review
This is the week where we do a peer to peer review. Participants are paired up and allowed to review each other’s work in one back and forth session spread over 10 days. Then, we all meet and discuss the flow of the stories individually over the next 5 days. This helps in the final editing.
Week 10:
Wrap Up
This week’s meeting is all about seeing your edited versions and discussing how the process made you feel. It is about entering a power packed new identity that helps you put your story forward. Now, when you tell your story, you are able to say your name with it.
Week 11 and 12:
What's Next?
The next two weeks will be spent formatting the book while we do 2 more complimentary sessions on launch and marketing strategies for your book. During week 12, there will be a cover reveal online live session where each participant will be introduced and invited for a quick interview. At the end of Week 12, the book will be launched on Amazon.
Meet The Desi Divorcee Editors in Chief
Deepika Sandhu
Life Expansion Mentor
Devangini Mahapatra Chauhan
Publisher (And All Publishing)
Her forte lies in turning thought leaders into authors. An award-winning content strategist and publisher who was conferred a citation as one of the top 100 content marketing specialists by the World Content Marketing Congress. She was also recognized as one of the top 25 digital icons of India by India Today. Devangini has also appeared as a panelist in several prestigious literary festivals. Details of her work can be found at Studio and All.
Why You Should Become a Part of this Book Project
Healing from what you have gone through is more than just making a better life for yourself – it also allows others to learn from your example and set them on a path of transformation. This process will be conducted by author and manifestation coach Deepika Sandhu who has countless transformed clients.
The scripting will be structured and you will be given tips and techniques by ace authorpreneur and publisher Devangini who has helped numerous people become authors.
The marketing of the book will place you in the spotlight with book and blog tours, live sessions, social media campaigns on the coach’s pages and email blasts as well!
You get to see your name in a book with your picture – on the virtual bookshelves of Amazon!
How to Join
There are three steps to becoming part of the Desi Divorcee Anthology
- Fill out the application
- Schedule time to meet the editors
- If selected, pay the program enrollment of $2,250 by March 1st.
The program enrollment includes the 10 week program, complete editing and creative support for your chapter, publishing your chapter in the Desi Divorcee Anthology, and marketing support to launch the anthology.