Retelling Traditional Stories

Author Uma Krishnaswami, who has recently written 4 stories for the Karadi Tales Mythology series and will hopefully write several more, blogs about her experiences at Writing with a broken tusk. 

She discusses the process of retelling mythology and the differences between writing for an Indian and an international readership. She writes: ‘To begin with, I found it exhilarating to be back in the realm of retellings. I listened to Sanskrit verses, trying to catch cadence and rhythm and express it in the English renderings. I followed the twists and turns of mythological story, instead of following characters as one does in fiction writing. I found myself delving deeper into the story with each revision, sometimes revealing flashes of the backstory of minor characters, sometimes following a single prophecy or a promise gone wrong.’

Thanks, Uma!