Category: The Story

[The Story] Headache Against Spineache

I woke up this morning with a headache. It was because of the way my pillow had arranged itself throughout the night, it lifted up my spine too much, causing severe pressure to my head. I’ve had experience with this before, but I woke up in the headspace where I ask: How could this be applied to “The Story?” Does John experience occasional, severe headaches? If so, does that outweigh Trishna’s severe, frequent spine pains?

Spoilers?: Minor [a trick question]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW HEADACHES CAN APPLY TO LITERAL AND METAPHORICAL EXAMPLES IN WRITING? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] Not Living Alone

How have my own disability experiences affected “The Story?” I don’t believe by much. I am not disabled in the same ways as Trishna or John, but my own experiences can amplify the sensations that I would have been able to intuit but not intimately know without having experienced them. There is a certain value, then, to write about what you know – but I know these characters. Wouldn’t that be enough for knowing about them?

Spoilers?: Minor [knowing yourself, characters]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW YOU’RE NEVER LONELY IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] Spine Relief Evening

If there’s any positivity toward all of the chronic pain and severe disability I’ve experienced over the past 15 months, it’s that it can all inform “The Story.” Just today, I work up feeling gnarled, went to bed; had a spine pop at around 2pm, woke up, went to bed, and by 7pm had the second pop my spine needed to feel better. I imagined how Trishna would deal with that situation. It was the same.

Spoilers?: Minor [positivity through negativity]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW BEING A DISABILITY ADVOCATE MEANS BEING FLEXIBLE AND EMPATHETIC? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] Pain Versus Pleasure

How close will “The Story” relate to my life? I suspect there will be some similarities, but more than anything, my life will serve as a sort of better understanding for the lives of two characters that I summon into my imagination from somewhere unknown, either an alternate reality or from no reality. Pains that they have will be ones that are independent of my pains, but my pains inform the depth of their pains.  [110]

Spoilers?: Minor [pleasure or pain]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW A PAIN TACHOMETER MIGHT BE A GOOD WAY TO ASSESS PAIN? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] The Story’s Relationships

There are two main relationships in “The Story.” There’s the in-universe relationship between John and Trishna, and there’s my relationship to the world around me. In order to write fiction like I want to with “The Story,” I have to sacrifice many areas of my life – besides the ones that have already been sacrificed for me, like my health. Although it seems nicer to have more, it actually means having less time for writing fiction.

Spoilers?: Minor [lifestyle for writing]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW TRUE COMMITMENT REQUIRES SACRIFICING SUB-OPTIMAL GOALS? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] Boy Meets Girl

Throughout the entirety of “The Story’s” inception, from the library of my high school, to today, I had thought about the relationship between John and Trishna as one that would have some degree of romance, because, well, that’s what all of media portrays. There is nothing outside of media involving romance, always in a positive light, but could “The Story” involve two friends without benefits, without anything more than the benefit of a deep friendship?

Spoilers?: Minor [what distracts us?]
WANNA CONSIDER WHETHER A TALE LIKE THIS IS WORTH TELLING – A ROMANCE BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] Disability Impacting Gender

If there is any positive about my severe spine pain, it’s that I’ve been able to learn more about how it’s like for the main characters in “The Story,” John and Trishna, to go about their lives. They both have physical disabilities, as do I, but different than mine – and still, I can empathize with them far more than had I never been disabled. Could I have written their characters respectfully without having become disabled?

Spoilers?: Minor [disability affects everything]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW ONE PERSPECTIVE OF GENDER? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] Trading User Accounts

I’ve been thinking about gender through my own perception of reality along with through the lenses of the main characters of “The Story.” I’ve written extensively about my thoughts in Zdiscord’s #gender in all areas except for through the perspective of John [he/him] and Trishna [she/her]. Straightforward, right? John’s a boy and Trishna’s a girl. Nothing more to consider… right? Over the years, I’d considered how there were areas of inconsistency in their shared experiences.

Spoilers?: Minor [transferring accounts, occasionally]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW FULLY-DEVELOPED CHARACTERS MIGHT COMFORTABLY EXPLORE OTHER AREAS OF LIFE? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] Writing As Divination

I was in Bellabelluga’s livestream, who did an Astrology reading for me, and we were talking about respecting our crafts. Sie didn’t feel like doing any astrology, but wanted to livestream, to which I said: “I can respect that about respecting the craft, Bella. I’m not writing fiction, which I love to do, because it requires so much. Writing fiction,” like “The Story,” “is closer to divination than writing essays which is just observing reality.”

Spoilers?: Minor [divining these characters]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW WRITING IS LIKE DIVINATION AND WHEN IT’S GREAT IT’S DIVINE? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] Love Between Friends

When I think of “The Story,” its thematic whole is the friendship between John and Trishna. They act as the rock around which everything else forms. There are nodes of considerations for other characters, like Sammohini in “Novel 01,” “02,” and more, but almost all of them interact with John and Trishna to some degree. What is that friendship based on except for a mutual respect and love – agape, or romantic – between two people with mutual interests?

Spoilers?: Minor [relationships between friends]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW THE WIDER THE NETS OF CONSIDERATION, THE MORE NUANCED THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!