The first verse of Neil Diamond’s song, Sweet Caroline, “Where it began, I can’t begin to know when, but then I know it’s growing strong…” explores the feeling of the initial stage as one falls in love.

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It is often hard to tell when one first falls in love.  By the time you feel a sense of euphoria when they talk to you, the sense of anxiety and uncertainty about whether they feel the same way, and the excitement of an imagined future together, you are already enshrouded in the web of love.

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Similarly, it would be hard to say when my literary journey started.  By the time my first short story, The Letter A, was published in the Saints & Sinners Short Story Anthology in March 2024, I was already tightly enshrouded in the literary web.

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My short story was finalized in October 2023 during my first creative writing course at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Education.  My instructor was Dennis Bock, a renowned Canadian author whose books had been shortlisted for, and had won, some of Canada’s most prestigious awards.  His feedback on my short story was the reason why it became a finalist at the Saints & Sinners literary festival writing competition.

 

However, my first creative writing course was not the point where my literary journey started.  I had already completed a draft of my story (an embarrassingly bad one) before that.  I wrote my first draft in the summer of 2023.  But that draft was based on material written in 2022. 

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If I had to select an arbitrary threshold of when my literary journey started, it would probably be in mid-2022 when I was undergoing therapy.  One of the techniques in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is to write the worst-case scenario on the subject that is causing you anxiety.  Then you read what you wrote, and you keep reading it over and over until it loses its power over you.  During that time, I wrote – a lot.

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My anxiety had eased somewhat by the Fall, only to return during Christmas.  Christmas always seems to trigger something in me – I never figured out why.  I started reading some of the things I wrote for therapy.  Then, out of boredom or a spark of inspiration (or likely both – for boredom often sparks inspiration), I started rewriting some of the material to give the stories a sliver of hopefulness at the end.  Stories that started with fear and anxiety ended with acceptance and absolution.  That was the genesis of my first short story. 

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When I write, I feel happy.  I feel like I can truly breathe – like the first deep breath after recovering from a cold.  So, I keep on writing…

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Since writing my first short story, I have met many wonderful authors, including my unofficial mentor, Ann Y.K. Choi.  In addition to her invaluable feedback on my writing, she introduced me to many business aspects of the literary world.  Sometimes, an act of generosity can forever change the trajectory of someone’s life.  I am forever grateful to Ann for being so generous with her time and insights and guiding the trajectory of my literary journey to something that I know will be amazing.

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So, how did your literary journey start?  Send me your thoughts through the Stay in Touch page.  I plan to compile the views I hear and write about things I learned from you.