The Singapore Series: SINGAPORE WRITERS FESTIVAL 2013 (Part 2)

One thing I missed out in my previous post is that the festival organisers have thoughtfully included a Festival Bookstore where you can purchase books by writers that featured in the festival. All Festival Pass holders can get 20% off books and you can even buy signed copies. I have not made a single purchase yet, but I am biding my time and seeing if the gnawing feeling will subside over the week. If I am still feeling ‘the gnaws’ by this Saturday, I will stomp down to the bookstore and BUY THE DAMN BOOKS!  

The Festival Bookstore is located at the Festival Pavilion, which is one of the white tents erected over the lawns (Campus Green) of SMU.

Note: Once again the pictures are really sub-standard.

3^rd November 2013

You Can Write Too!

10:00 – 11:00am

Binary Pavilion, SMU Campus Green

L-R: Vernetta Lopez, Jerrold Yam, Philip Jeyaretnam (moderator), Claire Chiang, Rodney Ee.

I woke up early on a Sunday to attend this. No regrets. I learnt a lot from the panellists – Vernetta Lopez who published her own memoir; Jerrold Yam, a young (and I do mean very young) published poet; Rodney Ee, who put out a book on his travels; and Claire Chiang, who penned Stepping Out (which turned into the Channel 8 drama 出路) and a memoir of her own.  Philip Jeyaretnam, who is also the Chairman of the SWF Steering Committee, moderates the session.

The writers shared their motivations for writing their books (Vernetta and Rodney are first-time authors), then some advice on writing a book, some tips to get over the infamous ‘writer’s block’, and how to get out when you have written yourself into a corner. My takeaway from this session comes in five parts:-

1. Writing is a lonely activity. You alone, your writing implements and your thoughts. It is an activity done in isolation, which reminded me of what Virginia Woolf expounds on in A Room of One’s Own (1929), where she famously states that, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”  You have to embrace loneliness to write.
2. Discipline is needed to write. Utter discipline. The discipline to just sit your ass down at the desk, the floor, the futon, wherever you work best, and start writing/typing/recording. Also, the discipline to stay there for hours on end till you have achieved some sense of fulfillment, when you finally feel the urge to stretch your bones (and hear them crack), release a long satisfying breath when you see, with utter satisfaction, that the word count has climbed or the number of pages written has doubled.
3. Stop agonizing over your writing. Let your words flow. Prevent yourself from stopping and returning to what you have just wrote. Editing comes later. Also, do not censure yourself in your first draft. Come on, it is just the first draft!
4. Writing is about humanizing one's experiences and observations. To give voices to thoughts and dreams, fears and joys, to share them with everyone else. Therefore, share your writing with a select few to get their valuable feedback.
5. Besides discipline, time is needed to write. A single solid block of time in a day, everyday. If you are busy, one productive hour solely for writing helps. Create or carve out time.

Note: These five tips comes from the panel discussion but embellished with my own personal thoughts.

These five tips resonate with me. They inspire me to act. That one hour a day will surely help me craft a complete novel. Now I just have to search for that hour, and an isolated area in the house. Plus a sugar daddy to fund me.

Two, Three or Four Stars?

2:30 – 3:30pm

Glass Hall, SAM

L-R: Wong Ah Yoke, Maureen Ow, KF Seetoh, Aun Koh (moderator).

I know Wong Ah Yoke. I sometimes chance upon his food review on The Straits Times. I know KF Seetoh. Who lives in Singapore, claims to be a foodie, but do not know KF Seetoh? It is near impossible. I, however, do not know Maureen Ow of Miss Tam Chiak fame (a popular food blog). I am attributing my ignorance to my lack of knowledge in Hokkien (‘tam chiak’ means greedy for food in Hokkien).  I researched her blog for this post and found that her writing style is short and simple, and seemed more like captions to accompany the multiple large pictures of food. The session is moderated by Aun Koh, who helms the popular food blog, Chubby Hubby.

I must admit that I attended this session purely to find out how to write about food, or at least a decent food review. I find that when it comes to food, I know how to eat them, but not write them. After all, there is only so much you could say about food. It is either good (which comes with words like delicious, tasty, full of flavours, etc.) or bad (which is just, well, bad or to be slightly more sophisticated, disappointing). I want to learn from these maestros of food reviews.

I feel that I gotten the most out of KF Seetoh. He mentions that he uses analogies to write his reviews, to make them more interesting and relatable to readers. He quotes an example of relating a food review to a football match. This style reminds me of someone who I admire very much, his writing and wit that is. I love watching this someone on television and reading his book. He is none other than Jeremy Clarkson! Click here to read my review of his book. He is adept at writing about cars in a relatable way, using analogies that readers would understand perfectly. It made so much sense! Why have I not thought about marrying everyday life to food? After all, food is part of daily life. It will save food reviewers the trouble of having to scour the thesaurus for new and interesting words to use!

Another tip that I got was from Wong Ah Yoke. When he writes his reviews, he writes with his readers in mind. He said to write it like how you would relate the experience to a friend. This keeps the review real and honest. Honesty is important in food reviews. Actually, in ALL reviews. He cautions against writing for the restaurant because they will not remember you after the review is out and readers will be able to tell if you are just paying lip service. So keep your reviews honest and real!

What can I say? This is a gem of a session and I learnt a lot from it.

[Part 2 will be continued in the next post.]