Introduction to The Ink Road

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved to read. It’s one of those things that goes back and feels so much apart of you that you can’t imagine when it didn’t exist: like language or walking. Somewhere along the lines that love spilled over to writing and I guess that’s what brings me here today. Two summers ago, after my sophomore year in college, I all of a sudden took my commitment to the next level: I started a novel. It’s funny thinking back on it now because the initial name was The Adventures of Tim and Todd. I can’t remember what kind of book I originally had in mind, but I eventually dropped the Tim, crafted a story about an orphaned kid thrown into a parallel universe, and donned it with a more fitting name: Parallels.

It took me a year to finish the first draft at about 400 pages. I will talk more about the writing process and beyond (as that is partly what this blog is for), but finishing that draft—forget whether it was good or not, whether people would like it, or, God forbid, whether it could ever truly be published—confirmed for me that this is what I want to do. I want to write. And that’s what I’ve been doing.

Since then I have written a few short stories, gone through multiple drafts of Parallels, and completed full drafts of a second novel. This past year, my last at Stanford, I became interested in screenwriting and began to study this vastly different form of storytelling. I am currently working on drafts of two different feature-length screenplays with the intentions of moving to Hollywood in the fall to pursue full-time. Some of you may be scratching your heads by now, wondering how writing novels leads to Hollywood. Well, I love telling stories—in any form—but I also like being able to eat, go out, have fun and, oh, having a place to live and clothes on my back is nice as well. From what I’ve heard, Hollywood is a place where you both work your way up the ladder and, as an aspiring screenwriter, hustle your work out to as many people as you can. If I have not sold any of my writing after a considerable amount of years, I believe that I will still have moved up to a position that will reflect hard work and hopefully allow me to substantiate my creativity in some form. In other words, it’s better than living at home, mooching off my mother, and waiting for the ‘big break.’ That, and, I genuinely like writing screenplays, and seeing my work on the big screen (or the little screen) would be a dream come true.

So why am I starting this blog? Because it’s a journey and, like any good story, a journey should be recorded, told, shared. In this blog I hope to keep you coming back with updates on my personal progressions and struggles with my chosen career path (including details about my move to Hollywood and my life as a ‘starving artist’—and hey, who doesn’t like to read about other people’s strife?), insight into my writing projects, personal thoughts on life and literature, and—which I hope to be the most rewarding for both me and my readers—postings of my very own creative works. My wish is that someone finds the contents of this blog intriguing, entertaining, and even beneficial to their own goals and aspirations. I hope that you all enjoy my journey along the ink road. I know I will.