To begin with less, Ramya R. Moorthy is a new-age IT intrapreneur, and recently turned to writing powerful self-help books about women value and empowerment. She has authored The 9 Colours of Vibrant Women and A Journey in Search of Happiness. Both of her books turned out to be Amazon Bestsellers in Personality and Development.
She spoke to News World Inc about self-help books, inspiration, and her favorite recent read.
NWI: How was writing a self-help different from writing some other genre books such as romance, adventure, and so on?
I am a technical writer. I have authored many technical articles and blogs in my area of specialization in my IT career. But I feel the level of satisfaction and sense of accomplishment of a self-help book author isat a different level. The positive attitude, compassion to contribute to others’ positive living and responsibility a author would carry while writing a self-help book makes the difference. As a author the feeling of giving my drop of contribution to the society for everyone’s’ personal growth brings in lot of satisfaction in me.
NWI: For your latest book, The 9 Colours of Vibrant Women, how did you get the idea? How did it evolve as you were writing it?
The rise in social crimes against women and continuous postponement of Nirbhaya rape case accused created a push within me to write this book. As I was brought up with good knowledge and importance of Navaratri celebration from my childhood days, it helped me to bring in a quick correlation of the traits exhibited by nine avatars of goddess Durga that is much required for millennial women. As I was highlyinspiredby reading biographies of various Indian women personalities, I decided to pass on that to my readers too. Initially, I was planning to write about a few personalities, but later I was quite excited to pass on the inspirational real life stories of various game-changers to make everyone to live their best life.
NWI: In both of your books, you used a plenty of women stories. How did you find them and how do you feel them suitable for the situation in the books?
Generally, I have a great respect for Women. I personally feel, a WOMAN is a unique special creation by the creator. I always feel that the positivity and attitude of a woman becomes the foundation for the success and happiness of the family. Be it at work or at home, women undergo several sensitive challenges but in spite of them, the one who is able to count their blessings and be courageous succeeds in life. Some of my personal experiences in life triggered me to write about Women. Thanks to the dotcom boom. It wasn’t a big challenge for me to learn about powerful women personalities from internet. I couldn’t afford to forgo the kind of inspiration and transformation I had in my personal life, so it was super easy to quickly recollect my memories to fit in the right women personality while writing about a particular topic in my books.
NWI: In your opinion, what makes a self-help book great? What are some of your favorites?
Every self-help book is written for a big social cause. It is very different from books of other genre. Authoring a self-help is a big responsibility to leave a treasure for future generations. In my personal life, self-help books are my only companion during my tough times. I knew all am I now is only because of self-help books. I am always grateful to those self-help book authors who have transformed my life. Hence, it was an easy decision for me to do the same to fulfil my responsibility, passing on the same to next generations. Some of my all time favorites include, “Who Moved My Cheese?” , “The Power of Positive Thinking”, “The Monk who sold his Ferrari” , “The Success Principles”, etc..
NWI: What does a typical writing day look like for you?
I usually prefer not to multi-task while writing a self-help book. I plan well ahead with at least 2 months vacation from my work to do justice to my book themes. I do not engage myself in my work ( am a software engineer by profession ) while writing the book. I will ensure my complete thought process are dedicated to my book theme during this 2 months period. This helps me to focus and quickly express all my thoughts and shape it. Both my books are my attempt during my 2 months vacation and I managed to complete them as planned. During the span of this 2 months, I do not read any books to avoid any possible bias. During this period, I spent a plenty of time googling / browsing to boost my positivity level and this keeps me going. Within this 2 months period, almost every day looks the same, with atleast 12-13 hours spent on thinking and writing. I start my day early and kick start writing soon after my morning meditation which gives me good focus and motivation throughout the day to accomplish the planned work.
NWI: What books or authors has been your greatest influence?
Here are the top 10 books that have influenced me a lot. I would recommend these books for anyone who wants to transform their life. These are life booster medicines to take better control of one’s life and live their best life.
- The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
- The Power of your Subconscious mind by Dr.Joseph Murphy
- The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma
- The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
- The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
- Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr.Spencer Johnson
NWI: What’s the best thing you’ve read recently?
If you want to change your life – Realize the power of Self-Enquiry – Ask yourself, “Who am I?”
I am reading couple of spiritual books currently
- ‘Love of Conscience’ by Rita Bruce (about four aspects of human nature)
- ‘Be the Self’ by V Ganesan & ‘The Maharshi and His Message’ by Paul Brunton (both books about Ramana Maharishi)
NWI: What are you working on next?
I have identified my next book theme. Of course, it is also a self-help book. I believe my 3rd book would serve as a good reference to relook at our value system and nurture it to achieve great satisfaction in life. I am hoping to publish it in 2021. Due to change in priorities due to Covid-19 and being a busy mother of two little ones, I have to take this decision to postpone my 3rd book publishing to next year. I am a firm believer that ‘Everything happens for a positive reason’. Looking forward to complete my 3rd book to boost positive living.
Connect with Ramya R. Moorthy: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ramya.ramalingamoorthy Instagram: happyjourney.ramya YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXrDfkXUUksS9tiu8zlySIw/ email: ramya.happyjourney@gmail.com