Borneo Post, 19 January 2009
Georgette Tan
See the following blog post for the extended judging tips, workshop details and other writing advice.
*Update, the 20th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited
Here are links to some
of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:
Golda
Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.
Preeta
Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day.
Chuah
Guat Eng, author of Echoes of Silence and Days
of Change.
Plus:
Five part Maugham
and Me series
Beheaded on
Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part
I
11 comments:
nice site... i haven't publish anything yet. hope to write good stuff in the near future that would attract editors. enrolled in a writing course last year but think my English isn't good enough. this stop me from even sending in my assignments. not sure about my future as a writer writing in English...but will try my best this year. hope to improve my English and my writing as well.quite interested in your workshop, but not sure whether i'm good enough to write in English.
Hi, thanks! All you need is desire and passion, and a willingness to learn. That alone will help you overcome any short comings along the way. Taking a writing course is a good first step, but if you don't submit your work, how can you improve? You need to get feedback on your work and then learn from it. So sumit your assignment. Don't worry about how good you are at this stage. Most beginning writers are much worst than they even think! But that doesn't stop them to get better, and then they really start to surprise themselves. Then there's no stopping them. So don't stop yourself!
If you go to my blog series, The Story Behind the Story of Lovers and Strangers Revisited, you can see how I put my stories together, what got them started and the changes I made along the way that led to their publications overseas. A good learning process. If you get a copy of the book and really compare them to the blog, you learn a lot about the writing process, and you may get inspired to write stories of your own. Good luck.
Maybe I'll see you at a future workshop. All the best.
Thanks a lot for the encouragement. I really hope to be a published writer writing in English, even though my English is not that good. I want it bad! Hope to join your writing workshop soon. Being a Sabahan, I'll be glad if you conduct seminars somewhere in North Borneo.
Hope to make it there myself someday soon. I was supposed to give a workshop at a conference in KK last year but had to cancel! I would like to climb Mt Kinabalu with my son, if not in 2009, then in 2010! All the best, and keep working to improve your English.
Ok, I never saw the post so now I'm intrigued! If it's about the short story contest, good luck!
don't know if I can really write.Juz writing bits of my own life at the moment.Short stories myb later.
Iad,
You can always turn bits and pieces of your life into a short story. I've done that a few times. Just don't limit yourself to the truth. (See Story Behind the Stories of LSR -- so far 14 are posted.) Push the edges a little bit for a larger fictional truth. As I've stated before in this blog, or in the Quill article, that most of my short stories for Lovers and Strangers Revisited were written for one contest or another. That was motivation, that deadline. Then later, I'd go back and clean it up and make into a better story. The important thing is, it got written! So you got two months until the deadline. This is my challenge. It worked for me, it can work for you.
Too bad you didn't come to my workshop today at The Spring. Had about 35, 36 who squeezed in!
All the best!
I&m sorry I deleted the comment. I&ve sent you several emails but both your email boxes were full.
Aw,
I seem to be having trouble with this eamil account. It is definitely nowhere near full. I even deleted all the sent mails and most of the folders a month ago. I tried sending myself some emails and they are still not getting through, so I contacted my website designers to see what we can do about it. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Ida,
I just saw this, that I wrote your name wrong! Sorry! As an update my collection of short stories, LSR is going French! ttp://borneoexpatwriter.blogspot.com/2011/02/lovers-and-strangers-revisited-is-being.html
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