How does a new work begin for you?

Originally asked

The Paris Review, to novelists and poets, The Art of Fiction

A recurrent craft question in The Paris Review's Art of Fiction interviews; wording varies between character, theme, first sentence, image, and idea.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Chaitanya Tamhane said elsewhere, not written here
I think the starting point has changed for me over the years. I think with Court , The Disciple and the short film, it was the setting, the world that got me interested. It was very sort of driven by fascination and curiosity, and a very unconditional kind of curiosity, where it’s like, “Let’s just immerse ourselves into this world that we have no idea about.” And hopefully a plot, a certain theme or certain characters will evolve and emerge from there. And now after The Disciple , which takes place in the Indian classical music scene, I want to work even more from sort of an inside-out manner, where it’s the themes, and it’s my concerns, and my worldview that comes first. But then again, there’s no one rule, right? It’s always going to be different for every story, for every film.

The Talks interview, 22 December 2021 source ↗

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