WILTED

Hi there,

Only a short one today. I got back into the habit of writing after reading Chris's script today. I think it was because the script conjured an urge for me to write something modern with modern characters. It is probably why I have lost a little interest in the novel of late...I am just burned out with writing in an elegant voice with Lord of the Rings/His Dark Materials style characters.

I finished the first draft of the short story ‘Wilted’, which I hope to submit to Tindel Press. Well, it’s not so much of a short story, more of a semi-autobiographical piece, for I happen to be better at writing autobiographical pieces. It is written from the point of view of a grown British Asian woman who recalls her romance with a white guy and analyses her parent’s oppressive attitudes towards the choices she makes. As I have said in another blog, the inspiration was taken from a novel I began for the module, ‘Writing the Novel’, about an Asian girl who embarks on a friend with benefits relationship with a white guy when she gets her heartbroken and begins to fall for him.

Since finishing university and taking up yoga/meditation again, I have become a lot more perceptive. All the times I have felt angry at my parents for having certain expectations from me I began to analyse…for the first time. I must say, it was a good experience; it made me look at my life from a completely different angle. I have already learned that understanding is the best way to quench hurt and anger. At the end of the day, it is a refusal to see things from the other’s point of view that makes you do frustrated at the person for behaving the way they are behaving.

The hardest part of writing was trying to go back and think about what it was that made me fall for my ex in the first place. As my friend Nicola said, I must go back and remember the feelings I had for him. At first I was a little reluctant, as some of those feelings did creep back when I arrived in Edinburgh, resulting in my eyes glazing a little. But now that I have gotten over him completely, thanks to a conversation I had to Birmingham David a few days ago, I found writing down feelings I do not have a little difficult. In fact, I wonder if the words come across as a little empty to the readers, but I won’t know that until I get feedback.

Currently, I have uploaded the piece on my Facebook notes in hopes that my friends and Creative Writing classmates will give me that much needed review. I am not sure if the publisher would mind an autobiographical piece, but hey, it’s the best I could come up with :)