- How does the structure of a story mirror the way we experience time and memory in real life?
The drive that pushes us to write a book over a series of events in it takes time. Everything in life takes time, and through that time there are moments of boredom, stress, anxiousness, and impatience. We call this the journey. Walking on the journey to the destination would mean nothing without all the upside-down turns, sideway lanes and zigzag roads. When we finally reach the destination, we feel a great appreciation for achieving our goals. Without the journey we would not feel the same level of appreciation and our goal would be nothing. One cannot have experience without the aim towards the goal, and one cannot have a goal without the need for experience. Therefore, through our experiences and goals in life, we can use this knowledge to write a book. We create how the character starts out small and later blooms into who he/she is supposed to be. We use our memory to recall the hardships we experience to get to the goal. Our memory guides us to feel appreciation and reminds us that we deserve our achievement. Time and memory go hand in hand. We need to take our time to experience hardships, before achieving our goals and we need to remember why we are working towards a goal which will be used as motivation to keep pushing forward. With this time and memory, we can write a book which mimics our experience, hardship, and patience. For example, my characters Elara and Daniel fall in love. Love cannot just happen. It is a gradual experience through many challenges. They need time, to work on understanding each other and they need their memory to remember their fondness for each other. Writing a book is just like falling in love. A process of complicated self-doubt and self-assurance.
2. Did the writing shape the philosophy, or did the philosophy shape the writing?
My philosophy shaped my writing. There would be no story without my philosophy. I started writing based on my observations of the world. Philosophy has always been an incredibly interesting subject to me. It is not something many people discuss in modern times. I wanted to shed more light on topics that are undiscussed in today’s world.
3. How can love serve as both the conflict and the resolution within a single narrative?
There are different variations of love. Romantic love, friendship love, parental love, family love and self-love. In order to write a book about love, you need to identify which type of love you want to explore. each start off differently, and each have their own set of complications. I wrote about romance because it intrigued me the most. Each type of love has their own conflicts and can be used as a resolution through tons of communication. In romance communication is a serious issue. In my book, a different variation of love is the resolution.
4. What happens when a character begins to question the very story, they are part of?
This takes place right after the climax. It is an important point in the book because the character questions their decisions, way of life and somewhat sense of stability. Because my book is philosophical, Elara (Main female character), questions the meaning of life. She does have a set standard of opinions on a lot of philosophical questions, but after hearing different answers to the meaning of life, she begins to question. With writing a philosophical book, it is hard to make your character an overthinker and still be able to give her a reality check. When a character begins to question their life that is the moment where you discover the ending. The falling action is fun to write, but also very sad.
5. Can a novel become a mirror where readers discover their own beliefs about existence and connection?
YES! I cannot stress this enough, YES! Every single form and piece of art is made to have an impact on humanity. Art is a way of expressing a view that would inspire the audience/reader to fix the problems of the real world. My book is about the meaning of life. I want my readers to reflect on how they view life, if it satisfies them and if it makes them happy. If not, then they need to go out and fix it! Your meaning of life is the way you live your life. If the way you live is destroying you, you need to change it! Any form of art is not easy to do, and having someone inspired by it, well that depends on the person. I strongly believe that we all have the ability to change the world and decide to. We can decide to make life easier for everyone. I doubt we were created to be stressed and panicked.
The Book That will Change The World, will create powerful change in it.
Akira Singh
