![\"Pin](\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shapter-wall-art1.jpg\")
<\/a>Pin Board Memories!<\/p><\/div>\n
These snippets (so I thought at the time) represented my views on\u2026 well, life! Naturally, there were the obligatory dramatic snippets that represented my teenage homage to heartbreak (mostly poems by me or others). I was surprised by the amount of political stuff I had up there, some of it still topical today\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/a>Oooo \u2013 the passion of youth!<\/p><\/div>\n
But what interested me most were the literary snippets I so proudly displayed. I had poetry up there by Robert Frost,\u00a0John Agard and Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa; quotes from Jonson, Shakespeare and Henry David Thoreau; song lyrics and movie quotes; nerdy English jokes too, like this one:<\/p>\n
<\/a>The magic of language\u2026<\/p><\/div>\n
As a student, I loved anything wordy or bookish, and was awe-inspired by the great literary masters. I was also very intimidated and couldn’t imagine when, if ever, I’d be able to write as beautifully as they did. I decided not to even attempt publication until later in life. In retrospect, I have no idea whether I was right or wrong to wait. Now that I am more (ahem) mature, I can<\/em> write with a confidence I didn\u2019t have back then. But one thing that has definitely changed is my desire to write as beautifully as those I once admired… I don’t want to write like any of them anymore.<\/p>\n Yes, I want to create fantastically woven works of art that resonate with my readers. But it\u2019s okay if I never win the Nobel Prize in Literature or the Man Booker International Award. It\u2019s okay if my writing doesn’t get featured in high brow literary magazines or studied at university (oh wait, hold on \u2013 technically, it is! See here<\/a> and here<\/a>). What\u2019s more important to me is connecting \u2013 with as many readers as possible.<\/p>\n Humans can often seem disconnected as a race. We perceive and experience danger in different places \u2013 hence the phrase \u2018fighting over nothing\u2019. Survival itself means different things to different people in different countries \u2013 there\u2019s such notable division between styles of living. There\u2019s no interconnected global goal for us all to attain (though perhaps should be). And so I write to span the gaps, to connect and communicate.<\/p>\n Underneath all our differences, we are all flesh, we love and eat, we all die \u2013 and there\u2019s a commonality there that I value more than anything. So when I write, above language and prizes and exquisite writing, I want my readers to identify with my characters, to see a little bit of themselves in the story, and to not only connect with those characters, but with me and each other. The same is true of me as a reader. It\u2019s relatively rare these days that I connect with a story just because it\u2019s beautifully written, or because it so masterfully plays with language that it creates something you want to frame.<\/p>\n Okay, I still kinda like some of that really beautiful stuff too sometimes.<\/p>\n But what I absolutely love \u2013 any day or time of the week \u2013 is to connect. What about you?<\/p>\n