One fine day, more than a decade ago, as a journalism student, I stumbled upon the magical world of blogging. Fascinated by the idea of having a dedicated online space to record one’s writing experiments, I embarked on a journey that I had no clue would lead me to where I am today – a writer, a writer of stories. I must say that while I stepped into the world of blogging with excitement, I had no expectations from it. I still hadn’t understood that blogging was not just about recording your written work and storing it out there somewhere. It was much more than that. What it also meant was that people from across the world could discover your writing by a process called ‘blog hopping’ or by doing something as basic as a Google search that would lead them to the little nest that you have been building painstakingly with words.
The limitless space and freedom that blogging gave me to experiment, at one point, led me to try my hand at writing stories. I began posting one story after another. And with every story I wrote, I tried to find and define my own writing style.
The process of arriving at your signature style of writing takes years. This style is what defines your writing, what makes you feel comfortable as a writer, what makes readers instantly connect with you and again what makes you connect most perfectly with your audience.
Soon, I had my own little audience reading the tales that I wrote – readers who left thoughtful comments on what they liked about my stories. Some would even take the time to send long emails elaborating on what reading my work meant to them. Some of the feedback I received have moved me deeply because of their honesty in stating how the world of my stories have helped them forget their worries for a while or how they could relate to the characters in my stories and the situations they lived in.
Such feedback showed me that beyond the personal satisfaction your writing gives you, there’s this unique happiness that comes from knowing that you have made a difference to somebody’s day in your own little way through your words. The knowledge that people who you haven’t even met, chose to tell you something about your writing and how they could connect to it, is in itself a priceless reward. This encouraged me to take up writing fiction seriously and passionately.
Over the years, I have figured that I like to keep my writing simple, direct and honest. I have also realised that for me, writing is a constant process of demystifying what life is all about. Therefore, whatever I write, including stories, focus on celebrating the ordinary things that define our lives. In my tales, the ordinary becomes the extraordinary.
My stories are not as much about twists and turns as they are about making you see yourself or someone that you know through words. And letting you know that you are not alone in this world in dealing with unsettling situations in life. They are about our fears, our hopes, our strengths and our weaknesses.
I choose to focus on the ordinary things that make life what it is. I strive to make readers feel a connect through my characters and what they go through. Therefore, my stories are about memories, pleasant and unpleasant, relationships, ways of life, daily physical and emotional problems that we deal with as we make our ways through the journey called life.
My second book, “Ways Around Grief & Other Stories” published by Authorspress, is a short-story collection that silently captures the flavour of my storytelling the way it has evolved over the years. The stories in this collection will point out to you that you are not alone in dealing with testing situations in life. They will show you that each of us have our own ways of dealing with what our lives have to offer.
This book is a representation of something I am very passionate about – creating stories. It’s a work of labour and love and when I hold it in my hand, the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction is something very precious.
I hope you will share my joy by picking up a copy if you still haven’t. And if you do, I hope you enjoy the read. 🙂
The book is available on Amazon @ http://www.amazon.in/Ways-Around-Grief-Other-Stories/dp/9352073673/