Vibhuti Jain: On the Hardest Part of Writing a Novel

Vibhuti (“Vib”) Jain lives with her husband and daughter in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she works in international development. She began her career as a corporate lawyer in New York City.

She holds degrees from Yale University and Harvard Law School. She grew up in Guilford, Connecticut. Our Best Intentions is her first novel. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

In this post, Vibhuti discusses the true story that inspired her debut literary novel, Our Best Intentions, her advice for other writers, and more!

Name : Vibhuti Jain
Literary agent: Alexa Stark, Writers House
Book title: Our Best Intentions
Publisher: William Morrow / HarperCollins
Release date: March 14, 2023
Genre/category: Literary Fiction
Elevator pitch for the book: Our Best Intentions follows the Singh family, a working class Indian-American family who become entangled in a violent crime that takes place in the public high school of their town. The incident forces the Singhs to confront issues of race, class, and belonging as well as their own personal emotional baggage, revealing truths about power in suburban America and about the complicated nature of understanding and being there for the ones we love.

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I had always wanted to write, and it felt like this story was brewing within me. The plot was inspired by a real-life series of incidents in a public high school in the New York City suburbs that I learned about during an Uber ride. My curiosity and imagination took over and the end result was Our Best Intentions.

I wrote the first draft of the book in the second half of 2019 and spent most of 2020 polishing and revising it, primarily during nights and weekends since I have another full-time job.

I found Alexa, my agent, in 2021 through a cold email query and worked with her on further polishing the manuscript. We sold the novel in a pre-empt in early 2022 to Liz Stein at William Morrow.

I couldn’t be more thrilled with the team at Morrow—they share my vision for the book and have been terrific advocates for Our Best Intentions. The plot of the book has remained mostly the same, but the actual text, the novel pacing, and the ending went through a number of iterations from the first draft to the final manuscript.

This is my first novel and my first experience going through the publishing process, so there have been many learning moments and surprises. I sold the book to William Morrow about a year ago, and when I learned the publication date was a year out, I was shocked. I didn’t appreciate all of the work that takes place behind the scenes prior to publication.

But now I’ve seen firsthand all the effort it takes to finalize a manuscript for publication, from copy editing to planning the sales and distribution to the marketing and publicity outreach. I feel very lucky to have a patient and motivated team to work with.

Absolutely. Prior to writing a novel, I assumed the hardest part was getting the first draft down on paper, but in fact, I found that revising and reworking the manuscript was much tougher.

The text of the book has changed so much from my original draft to the final manuscript (for the better!). I often needed to take time away from the draft to be able to constructively rework language and passages.

I also found that in writing the novel, I got to know the characters better and so certain details or aspects of their backstory that I hadn’t considered before would come to me during the process. It was like a pleasant surprise each time.

First and most importantly, I hope that readers enjoy reading Our Best Intentions. Second, I hope the novel sparks thought and conversation about different social issues addressed in the book—race, access to public schools, the precariousness of being working class in America, how privilege can distort whose voice is heard and whose story is told.

I deliberately chose to tell Our Best Intentions through multiple perspectives, including those of characters whose actions may seems despicable and unsavory; because, when we strip characters down to their motivations and intent, there are ways in which those same characters may be relatable. And that’s quite powerful.

Finally, while Our Best Intentions involves some heavy social issues, it is also the story of a family, trying to learn how to be there for one another, often taking missteps along the way—something which most, if not all, of us can relate to.

Write the book you want to write without letting concerns or fears about how you’ll sell it and get published interfere with your process. Once you have a manuscript you are proud of and excited by, then focus on all the rest.

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