MY JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF WRITING - II

Although retirement or superannuation, as it is officially called, is a stage in one’s life to put up one’s feet and relax forever, it is often filled with anxiety, uncertainty, and indefiniteness. Mine is no different.

My prime concern was my not possessing my own residence. Hence, I needed to augment my pension amount. My attempts to get an employment suitable to my status of retirement, age and physical limitations got me a couple of opportunities that eventually proved to be untenable. I concluded that I am unsuitable for today’s corporate job market.

I was depressed and directionless for a while, not realising my potential in “other” fields.

Then I received a kick in the butt from a guardian angel of mine. She urged me to take up writing. She felt that I possessed the essential “qualifications” and talents to take up the onerous task – good command in English language, good expression, good vocabulary, and good narrative skills. What she meant was I could spin a good yarn!

However, I was diffident. Having grown up on some classics and the contemporary works of master storytellers like Agatha Christie, Irving Wallace, et al, I knew how different spinning a yarn to one’s own children is from spinning a yarn to a vast number of readers out there. To say that it is fraught with risk would be the euphemism of the century.

I expressed my misgivings in so many and in many more words to my guardian angel. She brushed my misgivings aside as unfounded and almost commanded me to embark on my journey into the world of writing.

While I tentatively decided to take the plunge into the new activity, I was not sure of the topic. All my alleged writing skills during my 36-year long career were laid bare at the altar of fiction writing. I painfully realised that never the twain shall meet.

Writing an article, an essay, a report, etc. on a single point is easier, be it non-fiction or fiction. However, writing a short story or a novel is an entirely different kettle of fish. There must be a storyline, several characters, multiple incidents and situations, and dialogues. All these must be interwoven by means of coherence, cohesive narration, plausible logic, and cannily dramatised. Above all the readers’ attention must be attracted by an effective narrative style.

Did I possess any of these qualities?

Yes, I was definitely diffident!

Well, more of it in my next, folks!

See you later, ciao...