Bridget Jones’s Diary ― Yay! Sex and the City ― Yippee! The Shopaholic series ― I’m getting goosebumps. We’ve all read or heard of these books and watched the movie versions. Nearer at home, we’re familiar with Rajashree’s Trust Me and Anuja Chauhan’s The Zoya Factor. These books feature a sexy lady in designer wear and stilettos, romping merrily through love affairs, shopping sprees, work crises, weight issues and pushy moms.

They seem so airy-fairy, requiring little or no brain-work, and must be a breezy write, right? Wrong. It’s hard to get into the mood, to plunge headlong into this world where one well-worn pair of jeans might make the difference between finding true love and becoming the cat lady. Remember the series, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants?

The plot may be based on a girl’s burning desire to fit into a glamorous world. Like Anne Hathaway as Andy in The Devil Wears Prada; Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie in Sex and the City; or Renee Zelweger as Bridget in Bridget Jones’s Diary.

But trust me when I say that writing this genre is not that easy. You need to be totally immersed in that world, and be able to see drama in a broken fingernail and disaster in a missed clearance sale. You need the gumption to push your dizzy, ditzy characters into performing crazy loops and klutzy maneuvers till they somehow emerge into a glitter-tinted world of happily ever after.

How do I know? Well, I started with my set of five girl characters, pretty college girls with life stretching before them in a welter of pink tights, broad-chested heroes and romps in the bed. And then they stopped in their tracks, refusing to move forward. Call it mind over matter, the left side of the brain over the right, whatever. I couldn’t take it further as I didn’t know where they were going.

Crash and burn! I dumped the characters, wrung my hands and cursed a blue streak. And then, and then… a killer came to town and brought them to life again. Yeah, a page right out of Stephen King’s What-if scenarios? And The Madras Mangler was born.

He’s waiting for you, so check him out. On Amazon or Flipkart or your nearest store. Or download an ebook at a low, low price. And don’t forget to tell me if you love chick lit, or hate it ― you have a right to your opinion!