On writing...

Since I've recently finished writing the story 'The Magnolias Still Bloom' on this space, and have heard/seen a lot of online and offline comments, I've been thinking about the feedback I got.

I'm glad a lot of you liked reading the story, even though it has a sad ending. I'm just an amateur writer, trying to learn to write better, but I thought I'd just share what makes me tick. (Perhaps it is presumptuous of me, but I think I'll still do it.)

When I write, I like to 'live' the character, so that's why most of my main protagonists are simply 'I' or 'He' - with no names specified. That helps me blend into the character better, and assign him my thoughts and my emotions.

And since I actually imagine myself going through all the experiences that a character does, I think I tend to be more visual, more descriptive and more 'raw' in my emotion. (That's both a good and a bad sign, as far as I know.)

When I started writing 'The Magnolias Still Bloom', I wanted to write a story about how a boy has a chance meeting with a mysterious girl, and how his infatuation changes to love. I wanted to write about how she spurns him, and is not very comfortable with the idea of a relationship.

But between the time the story was conceptualised and written, the boy grew up. I discovered that I could no longer believe in a fairy tale romance - 'and they lived happily ever after'. (Make no mistake, it's not that I don't believe in love; it's just that with love one also has to accept disagreements, arguments and other 'negative' emotions.)

I didn't want the boy and the girl to end up as two bickering middle-aged people, bored and frustrated with life. I didn't want the love they had to fade.

Even though she died (and I did feel very sad when writing and editing that section) I would like to believe that their love lives on. She died in pain, but happy at having found true love.

He lived (for many more years, hopefully) with the knowledge that true love exists and he shared it with her. He will always be able to go back to memories of happy times spent with her, and smile, even though that smile may be tinged with a bit of sadness.

Nevertheless, the magnolias still bloom.