Compelled to Write

You'll be seeing this image permanently on the blog - that is unless the cover is changed. Regardless of what may come, this picture perfectly captures the essence of my story - Esha's Story.

Throughout my life I always carried a passion for writing. There's just something incredibly exciting about seeing a fresh clean sheet of paper and holding a pen. Well not just any pen, my fav has always been a black ball point that has a thin edge and just 'rolls' off the page... you get my point. Similarly, I feel excited about looking at a blank sketch pad and holding a fresh new pencil. I suppose its always served as a reminder that there are endless possibilities in life.

A blank sheet, a writing utensil, and just my thoughts and imagination. Just think of the possibilities.

However, my stories never amounted to anything but mere short stories, or incomplete character sketches, brief articles, letters and journal entries capturing what I felt when I saw, read, or heard something that inspired me to write. That is until one day I was inspired not by a song, not by a movie, not by art, but by life itself. 

Immediately following this a story idea hit me and it hit me with such force that I was left speechless. Days passed and I didn't write anything. I just thought about it. Then I finally thought I would give it time. See if it disappeared like my many other story ideas of the past. So I carried on with my university finals, followed by my first ever trip to British Columbia and then back home to Toronto. Yet, as much as I tried to leave the story alone, it continued to develop in my mind. It wouldn't leave me alone. Then one day, while I was lying in bed staring up at my ceiling, the entire story from start to finish wrote itself in my mind and I knew it was time to put pen to paper.

The following 2 years were the most incredible, monumental, and emotional years of my life. I devoted as much time as I could to writing, while I managed my everyday life, which included an amazing city councillor election in my city of Brampton. I hit a few writer's block moments, namely when my father was diagnosed with advanced-stage colon cancer in the winter of 2006. The writer block was strange because what the main character in my book was experiencing, as far as emotions go, I was now facing in real life. It was the experience of loss. Accordingly I should have been bursting with inspiration for my story, yet I found I couldn't even manage one word, one letter, one thought. I let the book be for some months.

The inspiration didn't come back for 5 months. What brought it back? A 16 hour flight to India, carrying my father's ashes on my lap. It was a smart thing that I brought my journal along. I still remember sitting there as the rest of the plane slept and writing away. I can still feel the leather of the journal on my hands, the feel of the pen as it moved smoothly across the pages. Most of all I can still feel the weight of the urn on my lap. That moment I translated the weight of the urn as the weight of my father's belief in me that I would one day realize my dream and complete the story.

The characters became alive and the story began to write itself. Every chapter was new now. I knew what was to come, how it would unfold, but still the intricate details, the dialogue was unknown even to me until it materialized on the page. Everywhere I went the story, my characters travelled with me. They went even as far as the island of St. Kitts. I spent two weeks sitting on a beach and doing nothing else but writing. One day, I finally reached my end. I experienced separation anxiety for more than a week. For the life of me, I did not want to depart with my story, my characters... I wanted to keep writing! Eventually I faced reality and I completed the novel. It rests at just a little over 100,000 words and I am now working towards getting it published.

So what is this story that I was so compelled to write? And why do I say that "life" inspired it?

As it turns out you will have to wait for more information regarding the novel. Right now it is in editing. I will update you when the time is right ;)