Story Writing

Half of my stories come from history or mythology and the other half from my imagination. Whatever the origin, each story has something to do with me; each one is an expression of some conflict within my being. “I knew you would come to deliver me from my stony existence,” Ahalya said touching Rama’s feet. That’s how my story Ahalya begins. Ahalya of that story is as much a character from mythology as an expression of my own longing for deliverance. Something similar can be said about each story of mine.

I think for all good writers each story is originally an agony within. It is an agony that seeks deliverance. In the words of Maya Angelou, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” The inner agony is metamorphosed into characters created by the writer. The characters may be from history, mythology, the writer’s imagination, or just anywhere like the house next to yours. Whatever the origin, the characters you create in your stories have something to do with you: they are manifestations of yourself in some way.

Writing fiction is a kind of self-discovery. It is also a discovery of life. That’s what Anais Nin means when she says that “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in the retrospect”. Every story you write is your attempt to savour life doubly. Or maybe it is an attempt to make life more bearable. The latter is the case when it comes to me. Every story of mine is an attempt on my part to make sense of life that is ostensibly absurd if not excruciating. That is why Ahalya’s deliverance can make Rama, her deliverer, ponder on the “endless human delusions.” Ultimately Ahalya and Rama are all expressions of their creator’s inner conflicts.

PS. Written for In(di)spire Edition 252: