Getting into the Game

You can't win if you don't get into the game. Of course you could spend your life watching others play the game from the sidelines, where it's nice and safe. But you'll never win. If you get into the game, you have a chance. More importantly you're competing; you're putting yourself out there and you're probably having some fun too. Yeah, you could look like a fool now and then, get some personal rejection, but at least you're in the game!

For writers there are many games that you can get into, whether it's a short story or a novel contest. Or you could play the getting an agent game or having your work published game. Of course you can always go back to the sidelines and whine complain about how you can't compete with the big boys (and big girls). But did you even try? Maybe you just gave up to soon.

Personally I love to hear those stories of how famous, best-selling novels were turned down by everyone it seemed, yet the author persevered by staying in the game and ultimately won. Sadly some couldn't handle the rejection and drank themselves into oblivion or even committed suicide. Had they stayed in there a little longer, they may have even won the Pulitzer Prize! Sound unlikely? That's exactly what happend to A Confederacy of Dunces, a novel written by John Kennedy Toole, and published in 1980, 11 years after the author's suicide. His mother eventually sold the book. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces).

For over twenty years I've beem drifting in and out of the game. It's easy to get discouraged, to lose confidence, to give up. I always kept writing, though, putting in my 15 hours a week, but I was still on the sidelines, putting in token efforts here and there to sell my work. Then an opportunity came to re-publish Lovers and Strangers, which I retitled Lovers and Strangers Revisited back in 2005. And now it's being published again in 2008.

This got me thinking, what else do I have that could get me back in the game beyond Malaysia? I have all these novels and screenplays. They will never sell if no one sees them. I knew they needed rewritten, but I wasn't rewriting them. Then the realization struck me, if I want to be a novelist, then I need to spend the bulk of my writing times writing novels. If I want to make some serious money as a screenplay writer, then I need to make time to rewrite my screenplays.

Then I need to start marketing my work to agents, entering them into contests, and looking at future ideas. Ideas from my past, too. Maybe the timing was not right before and now it is. So now I'm getting back into the game with a vengenace. I plan to make the year 2008 the year I turned it all around by getting serious about writing. The first five months have been extremely productive. Already I've resuscitated one novel and two screeplays and several short stories from the dead. They're out there now looking for a home.

If I can't take my writing, my craft seriously, why should anyone else bother? What kind of legacy do I want to leave behind, a file cabinet full of unpublished novels, unproduced screeplays? Or a few (preferrably twenty) books and several films? How about your own legacy? Do you want to remain on the sidelines or get into the game? What are you waiting for!

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

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 

Deadlining My Way to Success

I've been wanting to write this blog for three months, but I have three good reasons why I kept putting it off – three deadlines (four actually), and an even bigger want. When I decided back in January to start a second career in writing and this time to get serious about it, I had to set my priorities. Time is mutually exclusive. You can’t write five things at the same time, so if you only have 15 hours a week to write, which is what I budget myself and keep track of in a log book to make sure I have at least that, then you have to decide what will advance your writing career. What will take you closer to your goal? And, by the way, what is your goal? No specific writing goal means there’s no way to reach that goal! Being a “writer” isn’t enough. It’s too vague.

My goal is to be a best­selling novelist and award-winning screenplay writer. These are my new writing priorities. Yes, I also write short stories (mostly rewriting the ones I’ve already written), articles, and the occasional blog. But since January I’ve decided to put the bulk of my writing time on novels and screen­plays. Then something magical happened, I started to find more time to write because I had more reasons (or a stronger desire and a bigger want – I want to publish my novel!) and more importantly I have some deadlines. I started to squeeze in 25 – 30 hours a week.

Deadlines, over the years, have been my chief motivating factor. Self-imposed deadlines or deadlines for novel contests, in particular. Nearly every short story that I wrote for my forthcoming, third edition of Lovers and Strangers Revisited (MPH 2008), were written for one short story contest or another. The stories got written and entered and some even won prizes. Later, knowing they were often written in a rush, I would rewrite them again and again and they would get published again and again.

At the beginning of each year I think, okay, The James Jones First Novel Fellowship (http://www.wilkes.edu/pages/1159.asp) has a deadline on March 1st, and they only want the first 50 pages. 50 pages – I can mange that. Thanks to James Jones, I’ve started several new novels and I’ve resuscitated some old novels. Or I coax out yet another rewrite, as I did for this year’s contest. I took a hard look my novel The Lonely Affair of Jonathan Brady and thought, let’s do it. Instead of yet-another superficial edit, let’s see what I can add to it to make it better, stronger. The novel was previously written third-person, past tense. Two years ago, I made it present tense, which seemed to work. Then I started toying with the idea, can I make it first person, present? Would it work? What would I gain and what would I lose?


With the deadline getting even closer, I needed to make a decision fast. It’s not just a simple matter of changing “he” to “I”. Changing this led to other changes. I was rethinking each sentence, each paragraph, shifting paragraphs around (and between chapters), dropping a lot of wordiness and implied stuff along the way. I liked what was happening so much that when I finished those 50 pages I was itching to tackle the other 300 pages. But first, I wanted to apply this third person past tense to first person present tense to The Girl in the Bathtub, a novel-in progress that had been on hold since my move to Borneo. I still had time to enter that in the James Jones contest, too, thus doubling my chances to win, and more importantly jumpstarting the rewrite of that novel, too and then using that momentum to finish the novel by the end of the year, one of four major goals that I set for myself for 2008. If either novel makes it the finals, they’ll want an addition­al 50 pages, so I need to be ready for that, too.

After both entries were mailed out in time, and after I wrote a 1,400 word article on Kuching that I was under contract to write for a US-based publication with a mid-March deadline (thankfully, too, or it may never have gotten written), I looked at the next novel deadline, The National Writers Association Novel Contest (http://www.nationalwriters.com/) on April 1. So I wrote like crazy to complete the overhaul. It was important to reach this deadline, though more important for me than for them. Because if I can reach that deadline, one, I have a novel entered, and two, I have a novel in great shape for yet another print out and edit and rewrite for a third novel contest due on May 1, The William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition (http://www.wordsandmusic.org).

When working under a tight deadline, there are bound to be mistakes or better ways to write a passage, which I now had time to correct for this third contest (which I wouldn’t have had if I had not made the deadline for the second contest! Not to mention catching each “he” or “Brady” that never made it to “I”.

Being highly motivated and with both impending deadlines, I was focused and most every­thing else in my writing life fell by the wayside (including this blog). At the same time, I was also working with Janet Tay, an editor at MPH, who was suggesting needed changes in my short stories for various reasons to make the short stories even better. Editors, I’ve come to learn, are my friends. They want to help make my writing even better so I was glad to hear from her and together we dealt with the issues at hand, some give and take, too. (The proofs are already starting to come in and I’ll be working on the next batch as soon as this gets posted.)

So in four months, thanks to these three contests, I ended up submitting six entries and writing one new article! Two fifty-page beginnings for James Jones, one 340-page novel for NWA, one 340-page rewritten novel for Faulkner-Wisdom, one rewritten 50 page novel-in-progress (The Girl in the Bathtub), plus a rewritten short story. (My short story “Malaysian Games” was runner-up in the 2007 Faulkner-Wisdom Short Story Contest.) Plus, an article, “Kuching: A River town with a Romantic Past”. Not bad.

Now I’m itching to get back to The Girl in the Bathtub, but that will be on hold for one or two months because I’ve been planning to write this new screenplay starting later today (I have four days leave to jumpstart it, and over one years worth of notes that I’ve been collecting in a box) for, you guessed it, a screenplay deadline. Even though the new screen­play may not be polished enough to win, I’ll have it written and can re-polish it later. And I have these other screenplays that I already wrote that I’ll be going to clean up and enter, too, and this is how I’m deadlining my way to success in 2008.

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

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 

Starting Over: Career Part Two

It’s a new year, and I want a fresh start as a writer, so I’ve decided my old career as a writer has ended. Now I’m starting a new career as a novelist. Yes that’s right – call it Writing Career Part Two.

In my old writing career I published about 350 articles and short stories and a collection of short stories and a revised collection, which felt like a whole new book. I’ve also been the editor of an anthology of short stories. A lot of experience. Not bad. But by no means great. An awful lot that I did write – countless drafts of novels and screenplays – have never been published. My new career will be different, more focused; unlike when I began my first career, I won’t be starting from scratch. I’ll be bringing with me a new attitude and, more importantly, over twenty years of writing and publishing experience. So I have a huge advantage than when I first started out. I’ll also be starting with a lot of publishable work: dozens of short stories, over a hundred articles, four novels that I’ve written (not counting several others abandoned along the way), four screenplays, plus a host of ideas for other books, which will feed my new game plan – publishing twenty books in twenty years.

When I first started out as a writer I didn’t set any goals. Vaguely I wanted to write short stories and novels and eventually get my work published. Vague goals I have now found out (albeit too late for my first career) can only take you so far. It did bring me to Malaysia and now Borneo, but not to where I want to be, a best selling novelist.

So the old career is over – no point dwelling on that. Instead, I plan to learn from it. I’m grateful for all that I have written and published. Now it’s time, in this new career, to GET SERIOUS. No more wishing and hoping. Just action. I’ve already made specific plans, a business plan, if you will, and more importantly, I plan to follow it. Otherwise I may end up where I started with a lot more years gone by and little to show for it. If I want to be a best selling novelist, first I have to write that best selling book. Wishing and hoping will not write it for me, so that’s what I’ve been doing lately – rewriting! For the last three months, I have been rewriting a novel that has done well in several contests in the US.

Of course, a second career as a writer is nothing more than a second chance. I like the idea of second chances, which is also an important part of the novel I’m rewriting. I’ve experienced my own second chance when I got remarried and started a new family. Then I experienced it again, when I uprooted myself and moved to Borneo to shake up the complacency in both my life and my writing life.

To give myself the best second chance possible as a writer, I’ve been reading a lot about success – why people are successful (and not so successful). I figured, how can I be a success if I don’t plan for it? Or, if I don’t take the necessary steps? Or worse, shoot myself in the foot? There are excellent success mentors out there, and by just reading their books, listening to their tapes, you start to think different­ly. For me as a writer, I now take full responsibility for all that I’ve done and all that I did not do in my first career. I can’t blame anyone other than myself – I failed to apply myself in ways I now wished I had. I’ve learned from it and have begun to change the way I write and market my work – that alone will help. If I fail to change what was not working in my first career, then I’m doomed to repeat it, and who wants to do that?

Also, to get this new year and this new career off in the right direction, I’ve been reading – rereading – several books about writing and about novelists, so I can reeducate myself and re-convince myself that I too can write and sell my novels. For starters, I read E.M. Forster’s Aspects of a Novel, John Gardner’s On Becoming a Novelist, Stephen King’s On Writing, W. Somerset Maugham’s The Summing Up, and a book that I’ll be beginning soon, a Christmas present a couple of years ago, Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers. It’s hard to call yourself a novelist if most of your time is writing articles, blogs, and short stories. True, it’s all writing and it all helps. But time is mutually exclusive – I can’t do it all, not with a full time job and a family, so if I plan to publish my novels, I need to spend more time with these novels. They won’t get rewritten and published without me.

So for this new career, I’ve already set some specific goals, reorganized how I do my work (and my working environment so I have less distractions – mostly my distracting myself with other projects and temptations – which is why this blog entry is very late), and found new ways to stay motivated and focused. By taking action, I stand a far greater chance of achieving my goals in this second career of mine, than I did in my first career.

It’s also helps that in making this decision, I made sure that I ended the old career under a head of steam, rewriting a novel, which takes me in the direction I want to go. Thus I have momentum. Momentum in writing is everything. If you can’t maintain your momentum, then, from my experience, not much gets written.

I’ve also ended 2007 with a two-book deal in Malaysia, a jumpstart to my 20 books in 20 years goal. Of course I’m aware of doubters among my family and friends – hey look at my own track record? Have I come close to 20 books in my previous career? No! But that was my unfocused, goalless career. This new career is different. I got a plan. More than a plan, I have desire. And more than desire, I’m working hard to make this happen. I may fall short of my target goal, or I may overshoot it. Either way, I’m officially launching my new career. Psychologically, it’s a huge load off my back – the guilt, the self-blaming, and the regrets! That’s all behind me. This time around – this second chance – I plan get it right. Wish me luck.

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

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 

Networking to a New Book

I just networked myself to a new book. OK, the idea for the book wasn’t new. It had been on the backburner for about ten years, one of those one-of-these-days-I-want-to-compile-my-articles-into-a-book-but-never-found-the-time-nor-the-inclination-to-get-around-to-it. Sound familiar? This could apply to any creative endeavor including starting your own business, or taking an exotic vacation, or…

Two things need to happen when you network. One is you have to listen. We can all talk and share our ideas with others – that’s the easy part. But how well do we listen? How well do we act upon what we hear? That’s the second part of network­ing, the most critical part, too – action. Or as Jim Rohn, the success guru for an entire generation of world class speakers and self-help motivators would say, “take massive action”. Ideas are as common as clichés about ideas, starting with “they’re a dime a dozen”. But without action, they’re just that – ideas that can sit on the back burner of your life and follow you to your grave.

A sad thought.

I didn’t want that to happen to this book, nor to all the other novels, narratives, and screenplays that I have written and rewritten over the last twenty-two years. A ton of work, but little to show for it other than a collection of short stories.

When networking with others, sometimes fate can give you a nudge. Having made the move to Sarawak in order to shake up the complacency of my writing life (and to make my wife happy), I was starting to feel restless, and found myself procrastinating on a number of writing projects. So when Krista Goon, my blog­ging men­tor, ex-student, and website designer (along with her husband Nic) sent me a link to a blog by Lydia Teh, whom I haven’t met but whose book Honk! If You’re Malaysian was climbing the best­sellers list in Malaysia, I decided to check it out.

Lydia wrote in “What Sells Books” (April 30, 2007) the three things you need to sell a book and the most important, it seems, is having a good book distributor. You can have great ideas, great publicity (even great book launches), but if the books aren’t in the stores they won’t sell (not in the quantities you’d like). Lydia’s blog was inspired by a blog that a friend of mine, Sharon Bakar, had written “What We Need” (April 29, 2007), which I also checked out. Both blogs struck a chord with me, so I wrote on Lydia’s blog a rather lengthy comment-cum-article “Publishing Books in Malaysia/Singapore” based on my twenty years of publishing experience in Malaysia. I then started my own blog on writing with the same article, something else I had been meaning to get around to.

In the article I wrote about my frustration of getting my book Lovers and Strangers Revisited into bookstores in Kuching (mainly a distribution problem because of the additional expenses for getting the books shipped to Sarawak from Peninsular Malaysia). The publisher Silverfish was willing, but its distributor who would incur the additional expenses, was not. Lydia wrote in response to my article that she felt that her publisher MPH was doing a great job of getting her books into bookstores. (The fact that they have a lot of bookstores help; but sadly, at the time of this writing, none in Kuching.)

Either way, I listened.

Two months later, at the end of July, I was attending a conference in Penang to give a creative writing workshop, and while autographing books, I heard a passing comment from one of the book distributors that MPH was opening a new bookstore in Kuching. I listened and asked for more details.

Then while standing in the food line, Lee Su Kim introduced herself. Having written three books, including the very successful Malaysian Flavours, she had nothing but praise for Eric Forbes at MPH whom she worked with at her previous publisher, I believe, and urged me to contact him.

Again, I listened.

Since I was in Penang I met up with several Penang Players friends including Mary Schneider, the columnist for The Star who mentioned that Eric Forbes expressed an interest in turning the articles from her popular column into a book, but at the time she was unsure whether or not to do this – it would require sifting through over 500 articles and organizing them into various categories, a massive amount of work.

I listened and also offered some advice. Fortunately, ten years ago I had already organized about a 100 articles into various potential categories, so I had a head start.

That evening Mary and I and a few Penang Players friends had dinner with Joelle Saint-Arnoult and the subject of The Secret came up, so we all went to her place and watched it. That really got us thinking about our lives. The possibilities seemed endless, if only we learned how to ask, how to be grateful for what we do have, and to have faith in the universe by using the Law of Attraction. I listened very carefully – my whole future was at stake!

While in Penang, I attended the Little Penang Street Market to sell the remainder of my books so I wouldn’t have to carry them back to Kuching. As fate would have it, Penang Players was involved in reading some work by Beth Yahp, who also happened to be in Penang to conduct a workshop of her own. Although we had never met, as the fiction editor of Off The Edge, she had accepted my short story “Following the Cat” for their July 2006 issue. I attended the reading along with Mary and Krista (who decided to join me at the last minute since I was in Penang). After­wards, Beth mentioned in passing that MPH is bringing out her novel Crocodile Fury, which was originally published in 1992, a year before my own collection of short stories.

Again I listened.

The following day, back in Kuching, I took action. I googled Eric Forbes, read his blog, and emailed him about the idea for this book Twenty-Two Years in Malaysia: Movie Magic, Mysterious Musings and Melodramatic Moments. Being familiar with my work, he seemed eager to see it (or maybe he was just being polite.) Suddenly I had taken this ten-year-back-burner idea and moved it to the front burner. This now required massive action on my part since half of the articles needed to be retyped (written in my pre-computer days), and the other half needed some serious editing, plus some new articles that I had meant to write a long time ago needed to be written.

Had I waited until I rewrote, reedited, rethought the placement of the articles in the various categories (and wrote the new ones, too), I may have given up on the idea, or something else may have come up – life often gets in the way of action, not to mention success. Then once again on the back burner the book would go, and for how long? Another ten years?

Instead, I forced my own hand. Having committed myself to this book (and not wanting MPH to change their minds), I put everything else aside and made the time to complete the project, which took me two months of working in the evenings and on the weekends (sorry, no TV). For my efforts, I’ll have something to show and hold onto, and it all began by networking with some writers. So thank you Krista, Lydia, Sharon, Su Kim, Mary, Beth, Eric and even Joelle for sharing The Secret. If I hadn’t listened nor taken swift action, I wouldn’t have this new book coming out.

Oh, by the way, I managed to turn this into a two-book deal, an additional idea sparked by listening to Beth. Lovers and Strangers Revisited, featuring a couple of new stories and possibly a play based on the story “Neighbors”, will be reissued in 2008 by MPH. There’s even a possibility of a third book, a novel set in Penang, which again will take some more massive action on my part to take it off the back burner and whip it into shape.

Yes, networking with other writers does pay off. But it involves more than just talking about writing. You must listen, and more importantly, you must be willing to take action – massive action – and that will necessitate some actual writing. But isn’t that what we all want? Our projects being completed? Our work being published? So start networking and put your ideas to action! That’s what I did and so can you. Just let me know when your new book comes out.
    --Borneo Expat Writer

*Update, the 20^th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

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 

Don't Moan, Improvise!

“No wind, row!” barked Winston Churchill, no doubt to a group of hapless sailors bemoaning the lack of wind to fill their sails. Although I’m no sailor, I often apply this nautical advice to other facets of my life. When things don’t go according to plan, instead of moaning, I force myself to make a new plan by improvising. In other words, I do whatever I have to do to get what needs done and completed on time.

For instance, in Malaysia where I live as an expat, we occasionally have power shortages, so if I’m in the middle of writing, I’ll permit myself to groan a little, then I’ll say, “No computer, type!”

I’ll dust off my ever dependable manual typewriter and get the job done. If the typing isn’t urgent, I’ll take advantage of the down time by completing other
non-typing tasks, like editing or brain storming new ideas for articles, short stories,
screenplays or novels.

This is also the time to reorganize my writing notes, straighten out my files, update my non-computer records, and clear away everything that has been accumulating on my desk, so when the power – and especially my computer – is back on, I’m raring to go with a clear mind and an uncluttered office.

Then on those days when I have errands to run and my car refuses to cooperate, which happens a lot with my less-than-trusty old car, I’ll boldly announce, “No car, walk!”

By walking, I still get to my destination and pick up some much needed exercise in the process. If the distance is too far, as is often the case, I’ll take a bus or a taxi, or – if I feel truly inspired – I’ll ride my bicycle. I just do what I have to do to get wherever I have to go. Instead of complaining that I have no car and use that as an excuse, I get on with my life.

To make sure that I get to my destination or to my appointment on time, I’ll leave early to allow for delays, and will often bring along an umbrella in case of rain as well as a book or a magazine to read while waiting for the bus or taxi.

Every now and then when I go to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, I’ll make my rounds visiting magazine editors and publishers, and if I can’t make an appoint­ment ahead of time because the editor is out or if I just happened to be in the area, I’ll stop in and present myself and my work. If the person I want to see is busy, which is usually the case, and if coming back later or the next day is inconvenient or impossible, I’ll tell myself, “No appointment, wait!”

While waiting, I’ll browse through the publishers’ latest publications, go over my manuscripts, and rehearse my selling pitch – for articles, short stories, or a book proposal.

Invariably I get to meet the person whom I came to see, even if it’s only for a few minutes while they are rushing out of the building to make their own appoint­ments. More importantly I’ve put a face behind my words and have established contact, which later will lead to sales.

Now that I’m teaching writing full time and freelancing part time, I have these days, weeks, months, when there’s just not enough time to complete all of my tasks, so I think back to a time management seminar I once attended and say to myself, “No time, make time!”

So I’ll get up an hour earlier, shorten my lunch hour, cut out unnecessary breaks, limit phone calls, cut short e-mails, avoid idle chatter with colleagues, leave the TV off, and just try to work more efficiently both at work and at home.

Then during those intense periods of my life when I feel that all I ever do is work, I’ll use my final battle cry, “No life, get one!”

So I’ll go to a movie, play tennis, visit a beach, read a novel or just play with my son who’s always so full of life.

Now whenever I find myself in the middle of the sea of life and there’s no wind, I rarely moan or shrug my shoulders in defeat and say, “What to do?” I just do my best Winston Churchill imitation and get on with my life and gain a little life in the process.

                        --Borneo Expat Writer

*Update, the 20^th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

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 

Mottos to Live and Write By

As a writer I try to keep myself motivated. But it’s not easy when you’re working all alone and the only one around to talk to is the cat. So I resort to mottos – mottos haphazardly scrawled and strategically placed around my office.

Over the years, as my moods have changed, new mottos have replaced the old. Others have faded beyond readability, or have fallen behind my desk. The majority of my mottos are inspirational, like, IF YOU THINK YOU CAN, YOU CAN. This one got me into writing, and, hopefully, will keep me there.

Others are simple and direct, like, COURAGE! which I need to get through a tough chapter or a particularly trying day. Or CHUTZPAH – you got nothing to lose, so go for it!

Some mottos are downright desperate: STAY ORGANIZED OR DIE! Organi­zation has been a BIG problem.

Here’s a motto I borrowed from my management days: PLAN YOUR WORK AND WORK YOUR PLAN. FAILING TO PLAN MEANS YOU’RE PLANNING TO FAIL. This applies to most human endeavors, including my own – writing a novel.

Some mottos are nothing more than reminders: ENJOY LIFE ALONG THE WAY. Sort of like, “Stop and smell the roses,” which I don’t do often enough, especially when I’m in the midst of a lengthy novel that’s taking me forever.

Or, DON’T LET THE DISAPPOINTMENTS OVERRIDE THE SURPRISES. Too often I let minor setbacks, like a rejection slip, color my day and I forget all about the encouraging notes at the bottom of those same rejections, or a letter from a long lost friend praising my latest short story, thus giving me hope.

Other mottos are subtle: WINNERS FIGHT FOR THEIR DREAMS, LOSERS SURRENDER. My dream is to write a good novel (who wants to write a bad one?) which is why I left my regional manager position at Kinko’s and moved to Malaysia.

OTHERS HAVE DONE IT, SO CAN YOU: All novelists, I like to remind myself, even the famous ones, were at one time struggling, unknown writers. Another motto is for encouragement: FOCUS ON THE POSSIBILITIES AND NOT THE REALITIES, REALITIES CAN CHANGE.

For example, there’s a possibility that my novel will get accepted soon and published in the near future. (So long as I keep improving it and sending it out.) The reality is that the odds are over­whelmingly against it, so why bother? That reality can change quickly, if the agent who’s reading my novel (and my screenplays) decides to take me on as a client, this will increase my chances significantly.

Other mottos are purely motivational: DON’T WAIT FOR THINGS TO HAPPEN, MAKE THEM HAPPEN. I can sit around and dream all I want but the novel won’t get written (or rewritten) unless I work on it.

ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE TO SUCCEED: Write the best you can and keep at it – pure and simple.

WANT IT BAD ENOUGH! Be willing to work harder and smarter at writing than everyone else. Sort of like, “Go that extra mile.” Isn’t that what great writers, past and present, do?

And DON’T LET THE SIDESHOWS DISTRACT YOU FROM THE MAIN EVENT. It’s easy to get distracted along the way – temptations are everywhere and time is limited. Emails and surfing the Internet are fun but if you have “no time” to write, where are your priorities? So, as a reminder, I post my latest motto right on my computer: EMAIL OR NOVEL – YOUR CHOICE!

This leads me to my biggest motto: YOU ONLY FAIL WHEN YOU STOP TRYING (including failing to get around to it), SO NEVER GIVE UP!

*Update, the 20^th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

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 

Writing in Restaurants and Other Odd Locations

“I never travel without my diary,” Oscar Wilde once said, “one should always have something sensational to read in the train.” Or in a plane, I hasten to add. Nor do I travel without writing paper.

“Excuse me, are you a writer?” asked a Singapore waiter hovering over my table, my pages spilled everywhere.

“How did you know?”

“There’s no place to put your food!”

When I’m on the road, writing in restaurants and other odd locations is one of my many bad habits. Maybe it’s the long wait for the food, or the bill, or for the weather outside to change. Once while having lunch in Dubrovnik, it was still raining outside, so I shoved the dishes aside and wrote a sunny article about that centuries-old city. By the time I was done, it was time for dinner, so I flagged over the waiter who hours earlier had stopped asking me if I wanted anything else. Instead of paying the bill, I asked to see the menu.

In Jerusalem, while having lunch at the home of an American friend, she and her Israeli boy­friend had a tiff. Not wanting this quarrel to turn into an ugly threesome, I steered clear of the personal laundry they were airing by writing a funny story at their kitchen table. I tried not to let their shouting interrupt the fun I was having, though ­­I did keep an eye out for flying objects.

I’ll be the first to admit that when consumed with writing, hardly anything can deter me; I can be quite unsociable, too. For example, if the airline passen­ger next to me asks, “What are you writing?” I’m liable to reply, “See this pen? If you disturb me again I’ll turn you into a character that jumps out of a plane with­out a parachute.”

Of course I’ve never had to resort to violence, nor am I a violent person by nature. Yet once while in Penang, Malaysia, writing a lengthy letter to a friend between sips of shredded chicken soup, I noticed that this Chinese woman was not only watching me write but also glaring at me as if I were eating her soup. She came over to my table and demanded to know if I was writing about her.

“No,” I said, smiled politely, and went back to my letter. When she refused to budge, I wrote to my friend about the psychotic woman standing inches from me, praying that she didn’t have a fork behind her back, let alone a chop stick. I had just finished my soup when she grabbed my letter and ran out of the restaurant.

“Hey!” I shouted, and ran after her. The waiter then ran after me, no doubt thinking this was a clever ruse to avoid paying for my meal. So did several passers-by, amused by the sight of a wild-eyed Chinese woman running with a letter, a frantic tourist chasing her with a soup spoon, and a Malay waiter waving a bill.

By the time I caught up with her, a sizable crowd had encircled us. As I tried to explain what was going on, the woman, in an effort to conceal the evidence, stuffed it down her blouse. Since I dared not tread in no-man’s land in public, I appealed to others to intervene. After much prompting, the mad woman finally produced the letter, and then promptly tore it up.

Since I was on page four, I wasn’t about to start all over again, so I pieced it together, taped it up, and added a few lines to explain why the letter was crumpled, torn, taped, and wreaked of stale perfume. Naturally I wrote about the whole episode in my journal for some future sensational reading. Oscar Wilde would’ve been proud.

                         -- Borneo Expat Writer

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

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