fiction |

Where do I even begin? There are so many thoughts and feelings I have about this book that trying to condense them into a post is very difficult. But, I shall start by saying: I urge every human being on the planet to read this.

Nora, the protagonist, has depression. And, feeling as though she has nothing else to live for, she chooses to take her own life. But, between life and death, there is a library. The Midnight Library – where every book is a chance to live another life that you could have lived, had you made different choices.

This book is not to be taken lightly. It covers deep, sensitive subjects. As per the synopsis, suicide and depression are two major themes, so do not expect to open this book and expect it to be a ‘light’ read. It’s an easy read, yes. But you must be in the right frame of mind to enter this book.

With sensitive subjects, as a reader, you can only hope that the author handles them sensitively. You do not want them to make light of these, brushing them off as though they are not genuine issues or pretending that they don’t affect as many people as they do throughout the world. While I don’t think they needed to be handled like they’re fragile, walking on eggshells or never overtly stating they are what they are, I do believe they need to be handled with care. Perhaps it’s because Matt Haig has been in Nora’s shoes, coming close to taking his own life more than once (something which he is very open about on his Instagram), but he approaches such issues beautifully and really puts life into perspective. Some things we think matter most, do not matter at all. And, some things we think matter least, are actually the most important.

I adored the concept of this book. It was so well written and thought out, and each chapter connects seamlessly to the one before. It is a book that will make you think and wonder, but it will also make you feel.

You may be hesitant to pick it up because you think it will be gut-wrenching and emotional. And yes, it is. But it’s also full of hope. I closed the book feeling more positive than I had done in a long time, and had the overwhelming feeling that I wanted to start living – truly living – because ultimately, that is what this book is about. Yes, it’s about depression and suicide, and all the other things in between. But more importantly, it’s about wanting, and choosing, to live.

✨ ‘It is easy to mourn the lives we aren’t living. Easy to wish we’d developed other talents, said yes to different offers. Easy to wish we’d worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee or done more bloody yoga. It takes no effort to miss the friends we didn’t make and the work we didn’t do, the people we didn’t go and the people we didn’t marry and the children we didn’t have. It is not difficult to see yourself through the lens of other people, and to wish you were all different kaleidoscopic versions of you they wanted you to be. It is easy to regret, and keep regretting, ad infinitum, until our time runs out. But it is not lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It’s the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people’s worst enemy. We can’t tell if any of those other versions would have been better or worse. Those lives are happening, it is true, but you are happening as well, and that is the happening we have to focus on.’

✨ ‘It is quite a revelation to discover that the place you wanted to escape to is the exact same place you escaped from. that the prison wasn’t the place, but the perspective.’

✨ ‘The only way to learn is to live.’

✨ ‘If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. Aim to be you. Aim to look and act and think like you. Aim to be the truest version of you. Embrace that you-ness. Endorse it. Love it. Work hard at it. And don’t give a second thought when people mock it or ridicule it. Most gossip is envy in disguise.’

✨ ‘Between life and death there is a library,’ she said. ‘And within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices…. would you have done anything differe,t if you had the chance to undo your regrets?’

✨ ‘I don’t think your problem was stage fright. Or wedding fright. I think your problem was life fright.’

✨ “What do I do now?’ ‘You open the book and turn to the first page.’

✨ ‘Never underestimate the big importance of small things.’

✨ ‘Because a pawn is never just a pawn. A pawn is a queen-in-waiting. All you need to do is find a way to keep moving forward. One square after another. And you can get to the other side and unlock all kinds of power.’

✨ ‘Three simple words containing the power and potential of a multiverse. I AM ALIVE.’

✨ ‘A person was like a city. You couldn’t let a few less desirable parts put you off the whole. There may be bits you don’t like, a few dodgy side streets and suburbs, but the good stuff makes it worthwhile.’

✨ ’We only need to be one person. We only need to feel one existence. We don’t have to do everything in order to be everything, because we are already infinite. While we are alive we always contain a future of multifarious possibility.’

✨ You don’t have to understand life. You just have to live it.’

✨ ’You’re overthinking it.’ “I have anxiety. I have no other type of thinking available.’

✨ ’And that sadness is intrinsically part of the fabric of happiness. You can’t have one without the other. Of course, they come in different degrees and quantities. But there is no life where you can be in a state of sheer happiness for ever. And imagining there is just breeds more unhappiness in the life you’re in.’

✨ ’Sometimes just to say your own truth out loud is enough to find others like you.’

✨ ‘Of course, we can’t visit every place or meet every person or do every job, yet most of what we’d feel in any life is still available. We don’t have to play every game to know what winning feels like. We don’t have to hear every piece of music in the world to understand music. We don’t have to have tried every variety of grape from every vineyard to know the pleasure of wine. Love and laughter and fear and pain are universal currencies. We just have to close our eyes and savour the taste of the drink in front of us and listen to the song as it plays. We are as completely and utterly alive as we are in any other life and have access to the same emotional spectrum.’

✨ ‘The thing that looks the most ordinary might end up being the thing that leads you to victory.’

✨ ‘It was interesting, she mused to herself, how life sometimes simply gave you a whole new perspective by waiting around long enough for you to see it.’

I know that for most of us, writing can often feel like a chore. It can feel like we have to have to sit down and write something otherwise we cannot call ourselves writers. Or, we think that we have somehow failed if we write nothing at all, or have not achieved the amount we had wished to write in a given period of time.

But, as most writers know, and I’m sure you are aware if you’re reading this, that sometimes we just lack inspiration. The metaphorical land where all of our inspiration lives has run out of food and water and is just sitting barren in our minds.

Or perhaps, we have inspiration for something – an idea for a script or a book that we desperately want and feel the need to write, but we have no direction as to where it is going to go, or how we are physically going to craft it into something readable.

If you are sitting there reading this, and you’re struggling with one or all of these problems, fear not. I have gathered together the following questions, to hopefully ignite the spark of inspiration once again, to turn those writing dreams into realities.

(These questions should be used as a foundation to build the world that you’re trying to create, and understand what it is that you’re hoping to achieve by writing a particular piece.)

All ideas are only as good as the characters that drive them, and all good ideas need to be dramatic.

What is the story?
What is the central dramatic action in your idea?
Do you have a compelling enough journey for the audience and character to go on?
If it’s a series or a serial, do you have enough story/stories to keep it going over a number of episodes or weeks?

Creating a coherent world is crucial.

What are the rules of your story universe?
What do and don’t we need to know/see?

Less is often more. The writer needs to know all the rules and background, but the audience only needs enough to stay hooked without being confused.

What kind of story is it?
Are you using a recognisable genre, such as thriller or romantic comedy?
If you are inspired or influenced by an archetypal story of old, what is it that’s different about your idea?

You need to bring fresh perspectives to familiar tales, worlds, subjects and genres.

What is the tone and feel of the story?
Are they consistent and coherent? There is nothing more frustrating than a slasher movie that suddenly turns into a rom-com or vice versa.

Sometimes clashing genres can work if they’re handled intelligently.

And the emotional response you are trying to aim for is just as important.

What physical reaction are you looking for? Something so poignant it makes the audience cry? Something funny it makes their sides hurt from laughing too much?

You need to know why this idea now is important.

Is it something that keeps you up at night and has really got under your skin?
What is it about?
What is the theme?
What are you trying to explore?
What are you hoping to communicate?

Don’t write anything you don’t care about just to be expedient, because it will only ever be competent at best.

Is it an idea that will strike a real chord with an audience?
Who do you think will want to see it?

If you have a burning desire to write, then it’s more likely to grab our attention.

I hope that these questions have proved useful to you, and have allowed you to break through the brick wall that some call writer’s block. And I can’t wait to read your masterpiece!