We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ananya Devarajan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ananya, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I learned to write by writing—a lot. I started out posting original fiction on Wattpad, which I like to affectionately describe as my training wheels era. It gave me a space to experiment, figure out what kinds of stories I loved telling, and, most importantly, learn how to finish a project. From there, my education came through trial and error: drafting manuscripts that didn’t work, revising them anyway, and continuing to read widely within and outside of YA. Looking back, if I could speed up the process, I would spend less time waiting for permission to call myself a writer. I would have sought out writing communities earlier, shared my work sooner, and embraced being a beginner instead of worrying so much about getting everything right on the first try.
The skills that proved most essential weren’t necessarily the flashy ones. Craft matters, of course—learning character development, pacing, and revision were crucial to my growth as a writer—but persistence has been just as important. Publishing involves rejection, uncertainty, and a lot of waiting, and curiosity is what keeps you growing through all of it. The biggest obstacle to learning more was often time, especially in my case as I balanced writing with school and medical training. I also had to unlearn the idea that perfection was the goal. Creativity thrives when you’re willing to experiment, make mistakes, and trust that every imperfect draft is teaching you something you didn’t know before.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
I’m Ananya Devarajan, a young adult author and medical student who writes contemporary romances featuring chaotic Desi teenagers, close-knit families, and just a touch of magic. My books, including *Kismat Connection* and *Sanskari Sweetheart*, explore falling in love for the first time, figuring out who you are, and learning that life doesn’t always go according to plan. I grew up as a second-generation Indian American who adored both romance novels and Bollywood movies, and I didn’t often see stories that reflected the communities and experiences I knew so intimately. I started writing original fiction on Wattpad as a teenager, which was where I learned how to finish stories, respond to readers, and develop my voice long before I ever imagined seeing my books on bookstore shelves. From there, I kept writing through college while studying neurobiology at UC Irvine and eventually through medical school, proving to myself that creativity and science didn’t have to exist in separate worlds.
I suppose the “products” I offer are my stories, but what I hope readers take away from them goes deeper than entertainment. I write books for the Desi teens who want grand romantic gestures and happy endings, for readers navigating family expectations and cultural identity, and for anyone who has ever felt caught between the person they think they should be and the person they actually are. My stories tackle perfectionism, belonging, and vulnerability, but they do so through humor, hope, and joy. What sets my work apart, I hope, is that blend of heartfelt emotional journeys with lighthearted escapism—think Bollywood-inspired warmth with a speculative twist.
What I’m most proud of isn’t any single milestone, although publishing books while pursuing medical training is certainly something I never imagined I’d be able to do. It’s hearing from readers who tell me they saw themselves in my characters for the first time, or that my books made them feel a little less alone in their own struggles with identity. At the heart of everything I write is the belief that everyone deserves to be the main character of a joyful love story. If readers were to know one thing about me and my work, I hope it’s this: my books are an invitation to laugh, swoon, and trust that even if life doesn’t unfold exactly the way we planned, there can still be magic in the unexpected.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the biggest lessons I’ve had to unlearn is the idea that perfection is the same thing as success. I was the kid who loved getting gold stars and checking all the right boxes, and that mindset followed me into adulthood. Between medicine and publishing—two fields that attract ambitious, high-achieving people—it’s easy to believe that if you just work hard enough, make all the expected choices, and avoid mistakes, you’ll be rewarded with certainty. But writing doesn’t work that way. Some of my strongest ideas came from manuscripts that never sold, scenes that had to be rewritten dozens of times, and risks I wasn’t entirely sure would pay off.
The backstory is that I spent a long time treating mistakes as evidence that I wasn’t good enough rather than as a natural part of learning. I wanted every draft to be brilliant and every opportunity to unfold according to my whim. However, balancing a writing career with medical training taught me that there is no perfect path. Sometimes you miss deadlines you’ve set for yourself, receive rejections you didn’t expect, or realize that Plan A isn’t actually the right fit anymore. Unlearning perfectionism is definitely an ongoing process, but it’s made me a better writer and, I think, a kinder person to myself. It has also found its way into my books, where many of my characters discover that life becomes much richer when they stop trying to control every outcome and allow room for surprise.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is realizing that something which existed only in your imagination can become meaningful to someone else. Writing is often such a solitary process—it’s just you, your laptop, and a lot of second-guessing—so there can be something surreal about hearing from a reader who connected deeply with a character or saw their own experiences reflected in your work. Some of my favorite messages have come from Desi readers who tell me they’ve never seen themselves in a romantic story quite like this before, or from readers who recognized their own coming-of-age journey in my characters. It’s an incredible privilege to know that a story you wrote during stolen hours between classes or clinical rotations made someone feel understood, or, at the very least, escape into another world for a little while.
I also love that storytelling creates connection. Books have always helped me feel less alone, and getting to contribute to that tradition feels deeply meaningful. There’s joy in celebrating the parts of our identities that don’t always make it onto the page—Bollywood references, cultural traditions, inside jokes that feel instantly familiar to some readers and delightfully new to others. At the end of the day, I’m proudest of creating stories that offer both comfort and hope, functioning as reminders that growing up is messy, uncertainty is inevitable, and love, in all its forms, can still find us in the middle of the chaos. If a reader closes one of my books feeling a little more seen, a little more optimistic, or simply a little happier than when they opened it, that’s the greatest reward I could ask for.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ananyadevarajan.com
- Instagram: @ananyad12
- Twitter: @ananyad12
- Other: TikTok: @ananyadevarajan
Image Credits
Credit: Manasi Patel