Mahak Wadhwani, Author  of Diary of a Baby :Author Interview

 Mahak Wadhwani, Author of Diary of a Baby is a highly accomplished Engineer and MBA. She is now working as a part-time consultant while juggling her mommy life and writing life. Mahak Wadhwani, Author  of Diary of a Baby talks about the reason behind her book and how she gets things done while managing everything else.

When you meet people virtually you have no idea about their journey. How it is that our paths crossed? With women I have interviewed for over three years, I have found a common string. You, my dear friend, is an example of a strong woman, who built the foundation under her own castle in the air.

Read the inspiring journey of a woman who balances life as only women can . This Wednesday on my Blog,

 Mahak Wadhwani, Author  of Diary of a Baby

Why did you want to write a book

It had always been on my bucket list to write a book. I guess as an avid reader and bibliophile, it was an ultimate dream for me to have a published book in my name. Though it always seemed far-fetched and I certainly had no plans to write a book so soon. In fact, had never really given much thought to it until I heard about the Blogchatter Ebook Carnival.

What is this book about?

My book is called “Diary of a Baby – Candid Confessions of a baby from 0 to 2 years”. It is all about looking at life from the eyes of a baby.I am sure as new parents, at some point or the other we have all wondered what exactly is going on inside our baby’s mind. What must the baby really be thinking about during all those colicky nights, teething, crawling for the first time, the first day of playschool etc?
In my book, I have tried to present a candid and witty take on life from a baby’s perspective written in the form of diary entries. Each entry is followed by an interpretation of that phase of the baby’s life with anecdotes from my own parenting experiences.

Who helped you write the book

Though the book was written by me, there were many people who helped me behind the scenes, either directly or indirectly. First and foremost my family unconditionally supported my decision to quit my full-time job and take up writing. Without their support, especially during the 2 months when I was busy writing this book, I would not have been able to accomplish this.

My friends in the mom blogging community helped me immensely. They were my sounding board for many of my ideas and my first critics to tell me what was good and what needed to be improved.
Most importantly, my dream to publish a book would have stayed a dream, had it not been for Blogchatter. I cannot tell you have grateful I am for the Ebook Carnival that gave me the push I needed to turn this into a reality. Plus their tweet chats, live discussions were immensely helpful in guiding me on how to edit and self-publish.

Lastly, I think it was pure serendipity that I reached out to you a couple of days before the book was due for submission. At that point, I was a little lost and about to give up, but your podcast gave me the direction and motivation I needed to push through.

(Check out the podcast that Mahak talks about below. Click to listen )

Tell me a little about your writing habits (How many hours a day, how do you proofread, edit, format to help those who are inspired by you)

As a blogger, I spend at least 3 hours on my blog every day. This includes writing, editing, designing creatives, and engaging on social media.
Every post goes through 4 iterations. The first draft is just listing down points as they come in my mind. I don’t worry much about forming sentences and grammar here, I just go with the flow and jot down points. The second iteration is when I form sentences and paragraphs, giving structure to the whole article. The third iteration is when I add creatives and captions. The final iteration is proofreading. This I usually do after a gap of a day so that I am reading the whole post with a fresh perspective.
With regard to my book, I followed a very similar process for each chapter. Since it was self-published, I did not have anyone to help edit and proofread. It was Dr. Amrita’s suggestion to read the book aloud to myself while proofreading and that helped a lot.

Tell me a little about your background. Your story
I am an Engineer an MBA. I spent 8 years working in business and technology consulting, before jumping off the corporate ladder and landing headfirst into a life of pooplosions, 3 a.m. feeds, teething and toddler tantrums.
During the first few months of motherhood, I felt disconnected from the world. I was spending most of my day closed in a room with a baby and not much adult interaction. It struck me that there must be millions of moms out there feeling just like this and that was what prompted me to start my blog, to connect with other new moms through my writing.
I now work part-time as a Consultant with a recruitment firm. The rest of my time is divided between my toddler, my family and my writing.

 Do you think publishing the book has helped you?
I definitely think that the A to Z blogging challenge, as well as publishing my ebook, has helped me immensely as a writer. I have a much better understanding now of what works and what resonates with my audience.
Also as a blogger, I was quite adhoc in my writing, writing only when inspiration struck. Now I have become much better at being able to organize my thoughts and plan my writing.

When you started writing, did you have a plan of writing a book?
When I started blogging, I did not have the idea of a book in mind. As I mentioned, it was more like a far-fetched dream that I never gave much thought to. It was only when I heard about the Blogchatter Ebook carnival that the idea of a book started forming in my mind.

 What about the Blogchatter Ebook carnival? What is your favorite part?
My favorite part has been the incredible sense of community. Though we are all bloggers and many of us from the same niche, we are all here to support each other. The community kept me motivated throughout, even at times when I was so close to giving up. We have been each other’s biggest cheerleaders.

 Your favorite quote
This is a quote by American writer Henry David Thoreau that I connect strongly with:

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

In hindsight my dream of writing a book was something like this, a castle in the air that I worked hard to lay the foundation for.

Did you have a launch plan
Honestly, as this was my first ever Ebook, I was not really prepared with a launch plan. The one thing I did was share it extensively on social media and my Whatsapp groups and that really worked. Thankfully Blogchatter had us covered with the launch creatives and their plan for book reviews and dramatic readings.

How happy are you with this milestone?
My book crossed 500 downloads within the first 2 weeks. This is an unbelievable milestone for me. I am completely over the moon.
My book is honest and from the heart, sharing my own experiences as a mother. I am proud yet humbled to know that so many parents out there could resonate with it.

Tell me about your future plans and goals
Since I work part-time and I have a toddler at home who needs my attention too, my writing suffers. My goal to be more regular with my writing. I also plan to focus on growing my social media presence aggressively in the next few months.

One wish you have for your journey as a writer
Now that I have an ebook published, my next dream is to have a physical book too. I think I will reach my ultimate pinnacle as a writer the day I see my book on a physical storefront or maybe when I have an actual book signing event. This is my next castle in the air 🙂

Mahak Wadhwani
Diary of a Baby