I really struggle when I have to write any sort of "official" bio about myself. Even the About Me section on this website took a whole afternoon to painfully squeeze out. There have been so many times when I cringe at other writers' bios for either sounding so boring or smartass, and I really don't get why so many of them need to mention what breed of dog they have. There are so many blind spots when it comes to this thing called self-awareness, so all the more it's likely that you can sound … [Read more...]
Saturday
Feelings, whoa whoa whoa feelings
September 25th, 2010
"You've got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, when you have none of the technique which it takes time to learn. When, in short, you have only your emotions to sell."- F.Scott Fitzgerald Some signs that are pointing to the fact that I NEED to start … [Read more...]
Monday
The Homework Writer
February 22nd, 2010
I can write when: there's a deadline, there's some form of payment, there's a foreseeable end point, there are people who can guide me and believe in me (or breathing down my neck works as well). I can't write when: there's a blank piece of paper, I remember all the rejections and criticisms, I feel overwhelmed with all the other things I need to do. Still pretty needy and dependent and it's been years of pretty much sticking to this same spot. I wish I could say, "Things are going to change … [Read more...]
Friday
Time Tunnel
October 16th, 2009
I had to take the cab today with the car at the workshop and met a very animated taxi uncle who told me about the 12 accidents he's been in, a sort-of ghostly encounter and most interestingly, being stuck in a "time tunnel" somewhere along Jalan Anak Bukit where the scenery around him went "all-white white like that". He's convinced that he went back several years in time and that's why he couldn't see the highways. Or something like that. Anyway, I'm kind of wishing I was in a time tunnel now … [Read more...]
Sunday
Report Card
August 30th, 2009
A recent gathering with old school friends inevitably reminded me of how most of my teenage years in school were pure misery because they never fail to remind me about how I was the emo one. And I had a good reason to be a wreck, because I had pretty atrocious grades in secondary school and junior college. Always barely passing, always feeling that I was at the bottom of the food chain. I was the one who needed remedial or tuition in every subject possible, the one who burst into tears when I … [Read more...]