January 6, 2020

And it is done, my submissions for the Reading List Marathon are complete. I am not too sure I will fare better than what I did for the the submissions judged till date (four of them, only one was awarded an 'honourable mention'.) But then as a personal challenge, I consider being able to write them all out, within the deadlines, was sort of winning it too.

Now about this challenge, we were given pairs of reading lists and had to pick a title from one list and write out a story in the genre from the other list. That was interesting, intriguing and frustrating, especially when I accidentally gave a personal twist to the first pair and tried to continue the twist for the other three pairs.

It is said that there are two sides to everything...to a coin, ...to an argument, ...to a story.

Which is what I tried to show - the first story of the first pair (paranormal genre) was about  a synesthete, who smells his impending death. The second story (realistic fiction) dealt with his family, as to how the coped with life after his death. It flowed naturally, and I did write it out such a way that the stories could be read as stand alone tales, though linked.

The second pair was also easy, for me to write though the third one was tough (first one from the grandfather's point of view and the second from his time travelling granddaughter).

The last pair was a slight deviation - both written from the same protagonist's point of view, but set in a different perspective which gives her a different picture as to how she sees life and how it could be seen. 

I have had very few readers so I am not sure if any of them caught on to the subtle connection, but if you are one of those, do let me know how you found it and what your thoughts are on it.

Best
Nyna