A WEEKLY WRITING CHALLENGE BY HEARTLINE PUBLICATIONS

Books I’d Press into Every Writer’s Hands

This one is Quite Different

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Books! Wow, I never thought I would be writing something about books in my life. To be honest, I’ve never really been into reading them — even though they’re filled with curiosity and crazy imaginations, I usually skip them. But as it turns out, that became the ultimate turning point for me.

The book I’m talking about is not about motivation or profession but about a Thriller: “The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides.

The worst and most embarrassing thing about this book for me is that I couldn’t complete it in the first place, not because I hate reading or I’m a slow reader, but because I came to know about the story before I could read it. Even after my whole family had read it, I was still behind, but I asked only one question to them after they had read it;

“The story was something like this, right?” and the simple answer was “Yes!’

Now you might think why I’m writing all of this over here, but even though I couldn’t finish it, it taught me a lot. A thing that I ignored for so long: after reading thirty-five pages on a running bus, I stopped, and I couldn’t read it, thinking I could read it after some days, but that “day” never came.

But I’m recommending this because it taught me something that became an important turning point in life, and that is “Never Give Up, even though you know the whole thing”

This specific line brought a change in me; not a temporary one, but a permanent reminder that things may not always be in your favour. After realising what I had done, it didn’t click for me during that time. After eight months, I understood its true meaning.

Every time you think that you may not do something or say something just because, you may think that the outcome will be as you imagined. In my case, I thought of giving it a read later, but I got the whole story before I could read it, so I didn’t read it. But. But. WHAT DID I MISS? WHAT DID I LOSE?

I missed the whole point I was reading that book for. A person who loves crime thrillers, suspense, and horror couldn’t touch the thirty-sixth page? Couldn’t think that “Okay, one more page for today?” No! Nothing like that. But in the end, it screamed only one thing, and it is still screaming;

“Never Give Up”

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The example I have couldn’t be more relatable. As a writer who loves to twist stories — whether they’re fictional or real, movies or personal — I just love putting it all down on paper. So, I thought of writing a short story adaptation of none other than Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. I’m not even joking. Even though I wrote and published two parts of it, it didn’t turn out well.

I knew something wasn’t as great as the movie. I couldn’t quite match its elements or complex plot in my own story, and it didn’t get the hype I thought it would. So, I stopped at part two. Now, you might think: isn’t this the same as just skipping the book? But here was the difference: I didn’t give up

My third and final part of Tenet is still lying in my drafts, waiting for me to finish writing it down. Looking at it now, I see the two scenarios side by side.

There was the book, which I gave up on simply because I couldn’t bring myself to read it, even though I was entirely capable of it. But when I found myself in the exact same frustrating situation with my Tenet adaptation, the outcome changed. I didn’t walk away.

I COULD have deleted my previous two parts without anyone noticing. I COULD have deleted my third draft waiting for me. But whenever I thought of doing so, I remembered this book. The same book I had brought for myself. I could have read it without any spoilers, without any problem, creating a beautiful cinematic world with those words.

I could have gotten those goosebumps after reading those twists. I could have had a different experience for the first time in my life after reading it. But I decided to put that to waste just because I knew something that was the core point of it.

Now, I know it won’t be a great point of writing the third part, but I will still write it. I will complete something that I left behind. Something I should be proud of, because I tried. Tried to write something which could improve me from inside; like improving my storytelling, my mistakes, the places where I could bring a change — In my writing and personal life.

The thing I want to share with you guys is that with this book, some things in life have a second way of making you think, changing your imagination in life, making you think from a different perspective, and the results are always unexpected. All I want to say is that you need to read this book because if I could change my perspective with just thirty-five pages, imagine what you can achieve with three hundred and fifty-two pages!

Thank you Heartline Publications for this prompt. I’m really glad I was able to write this. I was thinking about it for a long time and got a golden chance to express it. Manya Sachdeva and Annaya Mahale, thank you!

Aarohini Arya, Katarina B., Muskan Purohit, Read with Shifa🌻, Gwen Ares.

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