“You can make anything by writing” ~ C.S. Lewis.
Meet Merasen-na Jamir, a 22-year-old up and coming author from Nagaland, and a student from Tetso College, English Department. She has authored a manga titled “This is The Part Where We Die” and recently released a book, “Into My Abyss”, published by PenThrill Publication House.
The simple language and vivid imagination she uses in her works are what strikes us as her greatest strength. Read on to find out more about this young prodigy in an exclusive interview with 3T…
3T: Hi Mira! How are you?
Mira: I am doing really good, I feel blessed, happy, but a little stressed.
3T: Great! But I hope you feel less stressed after this interview! So let’s get straight to it, would you please give us a little intro in yourself.
Mira: I am so bad with self-introduction that even after answering all these questions I will still not know what to say for this part. Well, I love oranges!
3T: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Mira: I didn’t actually intend or want to be a writer to be honest. When I was in sixth grade, my teacher read out the essay I wrote in my exam sheet out loud in the class, the essay was on the topic; “My Family” and the entire essay was made up. My teacher said it really spoke to him and the emotions he felt made him continue to read the entire thing. That was when I thought, maybe I could reach people or I could express myself better on the things I cannot feel if I started to write everything and anything I wanted.
3T: What inspired you to write this book, “Into My Abyss” which has been published by PenThrill Publication House?
Mira: An acquaintance of mine who had been reading what I wrote for quite a while, suggested that I write something based on our Naga society, since I dropped out back then because of my ‘manga’, so I thought maybe I should try and now I’ve been lucky enough to be publishing my work!
3T: Can you give us a little sneak-peak about the book? What did you learn when writing the book and what surprised you the most?
Mira: The book focuses on a girl named Masen and the people around her. It is sort of like a teen fiction but also psychological. I’ve added elements that focus on the issues of what is going on in our Naga society. For instance, corruption, the educational system, family, friendships, mental health and so on.
So I started writing the book sometime in January 2018, and I had the entire story completed inside my head and then I procrastinated (lol). This book took me the longest to write because of that, I completed it in March 2018 and by then I totally forgot what the ending was supposed to be like so I just changed it.
3T: What are some of your other works and where can people find them if they want to read your books?
Mira: I’ve written about five to six books on my old Wattpad account which I no longer have access to but I’ve added them in my library on my new account. The ID is Merasenna. You can read my poetry collections and my recent manga that is based on my ongoing novel; “This Is The Part Where We Die”, on my Instagram page.
3T: What is your writing kryptonite?
Mira: My worst worst trait is the one a human shouldn’t have; Laziness. It’s like the word itself is derived from me! People get writer’s block, I go through this thing where I’m like I need to write this down but if only someone could type it for me while I narrate the story. I’m sorry for the disappointment I am.
3T: Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
Mira: You know it’s very funny actually because I really wish I could turn back time and tell myself to change my pen name to someone not a soul knows of, probably Gin and be incognito, that would be much cooler because I smell like regret right now (lol)
3T: Do you try to be more original or to deliver to readers what they want?
Mira: I really wanted to answer a question like this because I feel like this is so important. When I started writing, some called me too young, some said I write only about sadness, some said my words were too simple and I should try to add more to my vocabulary. But since the beginning, I wasn’t here writing to maintain an image or impress people. I wrote what I wrote because of my inability to feel certain things while feeling the rest too much. I never considered myself as a writer, I was simply doing what made me feel a little leave while hoping that somebody who reads it relates to me. I’ve said it so many times, it wasn’t about my originality or about what people wanted, it was me trying to be human without being a germination of anyone else’s seed but mine.
3T: Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?
Mira: This is a very interesting question. Our opinions might differ but I think someone could be a magnificent writer even without feeling emotions. In the beginning, when I started writing on Wattpad, I would say I was completely numb. I even wrote that on my bio back then. Embarrassingly, I was too emo as a teenager but I did genuinely write what I could not feel with a hope that my readers could feel them for me. So if I could write that I think people could always find a way in reverse to write on it?
3T: Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
Mira: This kind of a serious question always makes me feel like I’m such an airhead. I just realized I never thought of this. Each of my works is very distinct in its own way but also similar to the last emotion they leave behind. I’ve written on philosophical, psychological, adventurous, thriller, crimes, and serial killings and you just made me realize that I don’t have a specific genre and I’m all over the place. More like I just do what I want to, feel, or talk about because I can basically do what I want with my books no? (Lol)
3T: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Mira: I really want to say, “Thank you for doing this for your future self even though you were breaking wholly,” The first time I was proud of myself was in January 2020 when PenThrill said they went through my manuscripts and they want to publish it as a book for me. I never imagined this to happen. I wrote Into My Abyss and just kept it on my file under my table, it was my illustrator who kept telling me to send it to some publishing houses. Even my acquaintance kept on pestering me with the same thing. I submitted it last year, November, prayed about it and left it to God. I had actually forgot about the whole thing until one morning they emailed me and the first thing I did was, I went to the bathroom (I was in college) and just thanked God and my past self, because I really wasn’t living the best times back then yet she did that for future me and that was everything to me.
3T: What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters?
Mira: Most of them are imaginary; personalities of mine maybe? Some of them my eternal gratitude for existing at the same time as I exist, for meeting and inspiring me. The rest I owe a slap across their faces for the trauma they caused but it’s all good. I’ll just kill them in my books and weave stories out of the lessons they taught me.
3T: How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
Mira: A lot of them. Half in my lost Wattpad account and most of it on my Google Docs in my phone.
3T: How do you select the names of your characters?
Mira: Except for Into My Abyss, all the characters in my books have very strange and distinct names especially the main characters. I based some of it with some meanings for the later parts of the stories or just make up names inside my head which I think is peculiar yet pretty.
Some names of my characters would be; Renae, Hegelian, Summer, Jun, Alora, Pan, Cosmo, and even Mira. Hegelian was a character I based on from one philosopher I am interested in and the reason why I named him so is that the story and his name have a meaning but I think no one that has read it so far even noticed(lol).
3T: Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
Mira: I always, always do. There are hidden meanings in and around everything I have ever written. Meanings that would make more sense to what the reader is confused about actually or messages I want my readers to decode.
3T: Does your family support your career as a writer?
Mira: I wish everyone had parents like mine to be very honest. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with theirs but I have always felt so grateful and blessed to be born as the daughter of my parents. Not only have they been supporting me with writing, but they also listen to all my opinions and thoughts and make me decide my own choices.
Anyone that enjoys reading what I write should actually thank my father because if it wasn’t for him on that day I decided to stop writing before I even started on Wattpad, nothing would have been this way. Writing or anything you have a passion for can turn into something that takes a toll on you in the end because sometimes it demands a lot from you. When I wrote something, the process before getting it down always hurt me deeply and so I wanted to stop that. I told my father about it and he said, “It’s your choice, but in life, everybody wears a crown and people admire it from a distance but there will come a time when that crown falls off and nobody is going to pick it up for you. You have to bend down on your own to pick it up,”
Mira ends the interview by saying,” Everything I am, I owe it to God. For his everlasting mercy upon me. His Grace that carried me when I could not walk. For making me a vessel of words even when I was unworthy of love and forgiveness.”