Why lawyers can be writers too

The idea that one can be a lawyer is not far-fetched, as there are many lawyers. Like there are those who are drivers. Of course, the fact is that for a lawyer, an unbridled imagination is an asset, whereas for a driver, a keen sense of the factual position of things is rather necessary. So lawyers, while driving, would do well to keep an eye on the facts. This is true for lawyers trying to write as well.

It is true that a writer may have a little more imagination than a driver. Yet, he is expected to have a much greater grip on reality as compared to a lawyer. In addition, coherence and the ability to stick to a plot, however tenuous, are also prerequisites for a writer - these qualities, by the way, are of no use to drivers. Thus, the only way a lawyer can be a writer is through the medium of an editor. This is also the reason why editors can easily apply for a driver's licence.

An example of the very different perspectives that writers and lawyers require is illustrated when one examines the case of the well-known tale of woe, violence and happy ending. I admit the degree of violence puts this work in the genre of Kill Bill and Three Little Pigs, and so it may not be everyone's cup of tea. The classic I speak of is popularly known as Little Red Riding Hood. I ask myself a question every time I read the book, which is not very often now because I have lost my intrinsic belief in the abilities of grandmas to thwart digestive juices - being prone to acidity myself- why was Red Riding Hood wearing a riding hood of any colour? Since she was walking, which is how the wolf noticed her in the first place, the question that I put to myself is, would she have escaped the drama if she had dressed appropriately? I am not trying to be facetious.

The point is that girls, nowadays, attract the attention of wolves that have wandered in from the wild due to diminished habitat and unsustainable ecological practices. In their famished and delusional state - with insanity brought upon by the mental strain of keeping the body and soul together - these wolves don human clothing and hunt other humans, completely forgetting that they cannot behave like wolves. The humans they hunt get blamed for attracting the attention of the wolves because they were dressed inappropriately. So going by this argument, one wonders whether Red Riding Hood and her grandmother would have been saved a ton of trouble if she had worn a red walking cape or a red jacket. Presuming all the while that wolves, unlike bulls, have no special regard for the colour red, it can be discounted from our deductions.

As a writer, the elements of anticipation, suspense, action and thrill in the story appeal to me. As a lawyer, to me, the idea of the basic incongruity of her attire given her purpose seems to be the key to explaining why Red Riding Hood became a story full of guts and glory instead of a single line in the weekly forestry gazette - something pithy like "carpenter's daughter bakes cake and visits grandmother. Everyone pleased and girl commended for baking skills." This could have accompanied a picture of the proud father or grandmother holding the empty basket and biting into the last cupcake or brownie.

While I constantly try to balance the contrary demands of the writer and the lawyer, there comes another chore: the no less stressful business of trying to ensure that the subconscious does not sabotage one's efforts. This is achieved by constantly keeping it - the subconscious - in the right pace. My legal training, especially all that reading about mensrea, makes it very clear to me that intention is everything. Hence, half the job is done if one convinces the subconscious that the book is a humdinger. So one has to - in effect - outwit oneself while being mindful of avoiding loopiness. Sometimes meditation helps, sometimes it does not.

Also the fact that we live in modern times is incredibly helpful for any lawyer wishing to turn to writing. As this most modern of inventions, the internet, now exists: it helps in keeping track of oneself and provides useful tools, thereby allowing one to assume various roles. The internet thinks it's the cat's whiskers and its right. It has the answers to everything - the unknowable and knowable. It really is the bee's knees, the real deal. I am in awe of it. So I checked out my technique on the internet. It knows me very well and immediately brought up what I needed. There were wiki pages on how to write novels in three parts, with pictures and seven steps in each part, and tragedies in six steps. Being witty is something they teach us at law school and we are all very confident of our abilities to entertain with this wit and wisdom, so I did not have look at the comedy section of the wiki pages.

Finally, there is the desire to edify and instruct. For as Socrates is widely known to have said - the laws are the guardians of men and so lawyers have to take up from where the poets have left off. Poets, I gather from impeccable sources, were the big wheeze in those times, setting legal themes to the right metre and accusing philosophers such as our hero of being a useless layabout.

Keeping all these aspects in mind, and with no little effort, a book was created. But that was the easy part. Editing it was a wonderful lesson about knowing one's place in the universe. Then it was done, and someone or the other, woud gently ask how the next one was coming along.

So in the end, I can confidently say, for a lawyer to be a writer is a tallish order, but for a lawyer to stay a writer is perhaps an ambition not to be scoffed at.

(Lavanya Regunathan Fischer's first novel One Tree One King and the Open Road was recently published by HarperCollins India.)