Hi there,

Welcome to the world of books written by me. Well, so far it is just one book. But I am sure I will write some more. Eventually. Before I start talking about the book and the world I have created, I wanted to talk about how I got to a point where I started to write.

Why should you care about how I started? You don’t need to. However, you are here. Might as well read what I have written.

Why do I want to talk about how I started? Well, after I wrote this book, I started to tell my friends and family about it – why didn’t I tell them as I was writing it, you ask? (well, maybe you don’t ask. But hey I don’t know you that well, so I am assuming you are asking) Well, that’s a long story. I really don’t want my first post to rival my book in its length 🙂 The sentiment I encountered the most, was surprise.  Apparently, I wasn’t really the type to write fantasy books. People thought, at best, I would have written some book on management (makes sense – given my day job as a management consultant).

Well, here it goes (The part about how I started writing). At least the short version – I have a tendency to digress (Occasionally. Once in a blue moon). May re-visit and pen down the long version if I feel like.

We all have innate affinities and inclinations. We also have important events which occur in our lives. The choices we make during these events, coupled with our affinities (which also influence the choices) lead us down a certain path. The path becomes clear only once we are already well on our way. We can only connect the dots, retrospectively. There are 3 – 4 factors and 2 – 3 events in my life that led me down the path of writing. I’ll lay out how these factors and events are connected, and how they pushed me towards the path of writing, closer to the end.

1. Reading: This might not come as a surprise (because I have started to write, not because you know me in anyway). I love to read anything with a story. Fiction, biographies, book on business (as long as they tell a story). And I read fast – I usually read a 500 page book in about 4 – 5 hours. Why does speed matter? Will come to that soon.
2. Sleep: I love to sleep. Each and every one of my friends know it. My family knows it. My wife wishes it wasn’t true, but it is. I can sleep any time of the day for any duration of time. And when I sleep, I usually read/watch/listen to something. And then as I fall asleep, I imagine. I imagine scenarios where characters and setups from various books and TV series I have read/seen interact with each other .
3. Boredom: I get bored very quickly. I need activities (work or otherwise) that continue to excite my mind and imagination. And I don’t really like getting bored (not sure if a lot of people do, but I thought its better to clarify). Interestingly, I don’t get bored of reading/watching the same thing over and over again.

So, I read a lot, absorbing the entire story line quickly. When I am about to sleep, I make various story lines and characters from different setups and imagine their interaction. And I do it repetitively, especially the stories and characters that excite me, tweaking those interactions in my mind every time.

Now,  the events. There are many important events in my life and this isn’t a list of the most important ones, in absolute terms. They are, however, important in my journey towards writing my first book.

As I write this, I realize that this post is becoming too long. So I will lay out the events and my conclusions in the next post.  I swear it wasn’t my intention to split this post into two, but it is turning out to be a little long. Believe me, this is still the short version. I have/will not go into the details. Not a lot. Some detail is, after all, necessary. How would a fairy tale be, if stripped down to its bare bones, without details? (not saying this is fairy tale – just taking an example. Please do not jump to conclusions). Once upon a time, there was a person. That person was nice but comes up against some obstacle. Then that person overcomes the obstacle and lived happily ever after. See – boring, isn’t it?

Anyway, where was I? Oh Yeah. I am ending this post because its too long 🙂 Will conclude in the next post 🙂 Until then, Cheers!!!