I realized how much hearing other people’s stories of loss and courage helped me heal, and inspired my writing.
"My whole writing career is based on making lemonade out of lemons” says Ariel Ng Bourbonnais. At 33, after losing her first pregnancy at 8 weeks, Ariel was diagnosed with Low AMH, meaning she had a low egg reserve for her age. To process her shock and pain, Ariel turned to writing. “I had heard that writing about your feelings could help. Next thing I knew, I was hooked” she says. While completing her Certificate in Creative Writing, Ariel wrote about her personal experience; she found it cathartic to shed light on infertility issues, which afect approximately 16% of Canadians trying to conceive, according to government statistics.
Ariel’s instructor and mentor, author Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall, played an important role in her writing, guiding her and providing an interesting male perspective on infertility. Meanwhile, Ariel and two friends co-founded The 16 Percent, an online community dedicated to providing a safe space for couples and individuals to share their infertility and pregnancy loss stories. “I realized how much hearing other people’s stories of loss and courage helped me heal, and inspired my writing” says Ariel, who recently published a book of essays with her co-founders titled Through, Not Around: Stories of Infertility and Pregnancy Loss.
“I wouldn’t have been able to edit a collection of essays without taking the creative writing courses at SCS. They taught me how to present and edit my work, incorporate feedback into my writing, critique others’ writing, and provide feedback” says Ariel. She also credits her Certificate in Project Management, which she obtained prior to her Certificate in Creative Writing, for helping keep her writing schedule and content planning on track. “My project management abilities helped me manage my time better, and break my writing into steps. This allowed me to write over 50,000 words within a year while working full time.”
Looking towards the future, Ariel has big plans. She is writing (and aims to publish) a personal memoir, and plans to take our Non-Profit Leadership for Impact Certificate to help her grow The 16 Percent. “I would like to develop a web series about infertility to be shared Canada-wide” she says. “Learning at SCS has sparked my creativity and there’s no turning back.” Ariel is however giving back; all proceeds from the sale of her book will be donated to the Pregnancy and Infant Loss (PAIL) Network based out of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.