The Art of Words
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, in the deepest and darkest part of the forest of alphabetical letters and punctuation, a story was born. Fed by the hands of relatable metaphors and nurtured by the milk of grammatical construction, the story slowly grew — from a single moving sentence to a multitude of coherent paragraphs, and finally into gripping chapters. As time passed, this story reached the exciting and effervescent age of walking through the road of editing. This was an unscrupulously painful journey for the story. It weathered the tempest of doubts and carried the burdens of fear as it walked on.
Unworthy, repetitive, and exhausted, the story finally saw the end of its journey. Blinding lights and murmurs of a cheering crowd awaited a few miles away. But the story couldn’t reach its destination. Drunk on the thirst of its own insecurities, dried up by the need to be accepted, it stopped and sank to the ground. The words on its page dimmed, and now all that was left was useless paper.
Now that it had run out of the ink of belief, it wondered if this was truly the end. Suddenly, the story thought back to the wars of sentence construction that it had fought. Chapter by chapter, the story had persevered. It remembered the beauty that each paragraph bore, and the characters that it had delightfully met on the way. Its mind numbly took it back to that one beautiful sentence it had been illuminated with — that one sentence that had given birth to it in the first place. That one sentence became the kernel of hope the story needed as it began to crawl. Its knees and hands were now caked in the mud of negativity, bleeding from the wounds of exhaustion, but it continued to crawl towards the end. That one sentence courageously dredged up the last of the story’s energy in the hope of changing the world, one sentence at a time.
The trajectory of a writer’s success is often confounded by the monetary value of profits and the positive feedback that is often given. Realistically, no one wants to run a business at a loss or earn a meagre profit. In that same breath, we often associate success with fame and popularity. Drawing everything together, one can conclude that success is fame and money… right?
In my opinion, I would at first outrightly say no. Upon further reflection, I can firmly say that the trajectory of a writer’s success is dependent on a particular variable: the why.
Why do you write?
Why do you want to publish a book?
Why?
If your reason for writing is to share your story, then your success is measured by the number of people who have read your book or story. If your reason for writing is to turn a profit and become famous, then you should not only be selling your book or story but yourself as an author too. Different goals will have different sets of hurdles and obstacles. No two stories are the same, and no two writers have the same difficulties or successes.
The writing process is tremendous, the editing process is brutal, and the marketing process can sometimes leave you bone dry. The only thing that keeps you from giving in to your doubts is holding on to the reason why you started writing in the first place. That reason that you write, publish, and wade into the book market has got to weigh enough to push you out of writer’s block and onto the finish line, where the fruits of your labour await.
There is beauty in wholesome words, there is art in a story of simplicity, and there is profit in a masterpiece. You just have to choose to start with one, and eventually, with perseverance and dedication, the rest of them will follow.
About the author
Atiyya Dawood Karkbelkar
Atiyya Dawood Karbelkar is a self-published author and blogger. She has published two books and has contributed to a few anthologies. She is also a writer for the Muslim Woman Magazine. Atiyya is passionate about telling wholesome stories that move her readers. Her books are available at Uppercrust – Lenasia, M.I Nanabhai – Fordsburg, Darun Nashr – Lenasia, and Cii – Ormonde