Each time I sit down to write fiction, I embark on a voyage out in the ocean.
A voyage is full of uncertainties. When a writer starts to craft a story, the journey to the last sentence of the manuscript is also full of uncertainties.
On some days, the weather is bright and sunny, and the wind favors the sailor. In the same way, the mind may conceive many ideas, which the writer can put in words, filling pages after pages in harmony.
And then, there are days when a sailor must navigate in the middle of a storm, fighting big waves and the fear of lightning and thunder.
Writers, too, face many challenges – from the tempest in the mind to the struggles of everyday life.
But writing is not just a voyage but also a pilgrimage. The writer seeks to, through the act of writing, get closer to the Creator from whom the words, and all words, come.
It is through our devotion that we string together the words to find our way through darkness and light, as the sailor sails forward at night and during the day.
People say truth is stranger than fiction. But it is also through the work of fiction that we share the possibilities that the true world could reveal.
Writing a novel is a long voyage that a writer must embark on.
When the ship reaches the shore, there is an even longer journey that begins.