Preface

me: what kind of question is that

Arvind: ?

a valid one

me: lol

i don't think you can say "all fictional airships can fly on water"

Arvind: wait

why

like

i cant see why a ship with wings cant sail

me: why is the word "fictional" in this question

i could always imagine an airship sailing on water

and that would be a fictional airship sailing on water

Arvind: fictional meaning the kind that are actually written about in fiction

not the kind that dont exist =P

like

i was reading this book

and I realized the flying ship

never lands on water

me: well

i will write a novel in which a flying ship lands on water

Arvind: hmm

might i suggest reading the novels without them first >_>

me: >__>

you are welcome to make such suggestions

however, i warn you

the list of things to do

before reading the aforementioned novels

is growing quite large

Arvind: what

what's on this list

me: hmm

1. write a novel in which an airship lands on water

2. die

3. read your suggested novels

Arvind: >_>

you sir are very ugly

me: i find it to be a rather concise list

Arvind: well for one its incomplete

it does not include watching the movie i mentioned last night

also the ordering is rather strange

me: you mentioned a movie last night? >_>

Arvind: err

w/e

me: lol

Arvind: some number of nights ago

it was

watch that

or read the brother's war

and you went and read shadow puppets instead

me: lol

shadow of the hegemon too!

Arvind: you finished them both?

me: yeah

Arvind: impressive

why not put those skills

to the tasks i have assigned =P

me: did you not see the list, sir?

those skills are presently occupied

Arvind: very well

just as ross managed joey's play writing

i will manage your book writing

title and main character name due by the time i wake up tomorrow =P

... And just like that, the idea of writing a book was born. Or forced upon me, depending on how you look at it.

I've never written a book before. The longest paper I've ever written was my Intel report, which sat around 25 pages or so. The subject matter, however, is not quite appropriate for a book in which an airship lands on water. To satisfy the inspiration of this book, I turn to fiction.

Writing a book is not something I ever considered before a few days ago. It's fairly odd that I am even considering it now. If ever there was a person ill-qualified to write a book, it is me. The most impressive work from my literary background would probably be Lord of the Rings. After that, there's a significant drop-off. No self-respecting author should ever have to list Harry Potter as one of the books he or she has read in the last five years.

In some ways I prefer it like this. I've always had a habit of writing in the voice or tone of the last author I read. If I didn't read at all, my writing would be pure, creative, and original. But it's more likely that I'm trying to justify my astonishing neglect of famous literature here. I will maintain, however, that my poor "preparation" for this book gives me a unique, if not immature, approach to writing that will be hard to match.

With my mind made up to write a book, I had to then ask myself why people write books at all. Sure, you can write a thriller that keeps people turning the pages, desperate to get to the plot resolution. This isn't my goal, and to be honest, I think I would be rather horrible at it.

I also had to take into account my unique position - no one else writes books for just their friends to read. This presents a unique challenge, in that if I just base all my characters off the people I know, it will become a rather useless (not to mention awkward) exercise. On the other hand, writing to such a select audience gives you an opportunity to write about the things that are important to all of us.

Because of this, questions of subtlety loom large. Subtlety has never been a strong point of mine. If I recall correctly, I wrote my 12th grade English play based entirely on my friends. Furthermore, I did not have the creativity of the subtlety to even name them in a clever manner - Arvind became Alfred, Eric became something else that started with an 'E,' etc. I would check, but it was such an unbelievably poor effort I don't think I want to read it.

Then again, at times I think subtlety can be overrated. Having a subtle message doesn't improve its quality. If anything, it might happen to obfuscate some details, or blatantly confuse the reader. It's nice for high-class literature, but that is also not my goal.

In the end, I settled on issues close to home. I wanted to create some fantasy world in which the characters faced problems analogous to the problems we face here, but after a brief planning session a realized how difficult that is. If nothing else, I have new respect for Tolkien.

So just like that, I had the message for my book and the medium by which to communicate it. The world the book takes place in is the same as our own, and the characters are facing the same dilemmas that we face. Maybe there won't be much of much-vaunted originality I claimed to possess earlier, but I hope to make it engaging enough that it does not become a chore to read.

While it might be Arvind who is "forcing" me to write this, I want to do a good job. Partly because I haven't posted in a long time, and there are a lot of things I want to say. I also kind of want to prove all those elementary school teachers who told me my writing was awful in comparison to my math skills wrong. Most importantly, though, I want to write something that makes a difference in the way people think, something that will raise valid points and promote interesting discussion.

This is all easier said than done, of course. In my experience, I have no problems writing up my solutions to problem sets, but when I attempt to read other people's solutions, I find myself disinterested. It's really easy to write a "compelling" story - almost everyone in the world gets sucked into an interesting romance, or a solid mystery. Unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, I don't think the ability to write either of these plots resides within my skill set.

I'll really have to do the best I can with ordinary life. But you know, every once in a while we're reminded that life isn't nearly as mundane as we think it is. Maybe this can be one of those reminders. Under the Weather, as I've chosen to name my story, is an attempt to show us that there's beauty in everything if you look closely enough. Even a really boring book. Hopefully.