Thoughts on Winning Nanowrimo

So a novel?

Not really. A little over 50,000 words in a computer file. A sheaf of pages in a green ring file. A leviathan of a plot - in actual fact a number of subplots, too many to juggle, and ends pretty much untied. Unlikelihoods abound. Plot holes everywhere. (I ran out of words before I ran out of story.) And the writing is pretty cheesy. Melodramatic at times for sure. Certainly not the great step into litfiction I'd hoped for. So don't hold your breath that this is the next great novel that the world is waiting for.

So what do I have at the end of this month?

I have the knowledge that I can be disciplined as a writer, and this is the most important thing of all. I can stick myself to a chair for as long as it takes and get words down. I wrote every single day. I wrote when I was tired. I wrote on the days when depression swamped me and I couldn't think of a reason to get out of bed. I wrote when I had a sore throat and swollen glands. I wrote around all the family get-togethers of Hari Raya.

I learned how it feels to be so totally plunged into creating a piece of fiction that it takes over your life. When I wasn't writing I was thinking. Every time I picked up the newspaper fresh ideas leapt out at me. I am usually the biggest bookworm on the planet, but had to give up reading altogether - just couldn't cope with nayone else's words in my head. I even dreamt my story - and on one occasion had to get up at 4.50 a.m. to get started on the next scene. For one month prevarication,my greatest enemy, was totally banished.

And before this I always said I'd never write a novel. I haven't the energy for it, I said, I'm a miniaturist, content with short fiction and the very occasional piece of poetry. I've a short attention span, I argued. I'd lose interest. But having made an assault on writing a novel - however humble - I realise that you actually have a lot more freedom to explore themes and take interesting detours and side-trips. And when you write a short story, you can only give the reader the tip of a huge iceberg - so much "backstory" has to remain hidden. What I mean here is that you the writer have to know far more about your characters than you can ever put into the short story, which has to be pretty clipped and neat, so they are a great deal more labour intensive than they look. In a novel, much more of the "backstory" can be revealed, and that gives you a great deal more freedom.

The best thing to come out of the novel was the characters who appeared on my page. They dictated the story, made me laugh, sometimes brought me to the edge of tears. Minor characters took over, and I let them, wanting to see where they led, not having an idea about where the whole thing was leading anyway.

With this draft I've got over the feeling that as a foreigner I do not have the right to write about this very complex country and the political and racial issues no-one here likes to discuss too openly. My characters won't let me pussyfoot around: they demand to be heard.

Although I may chuck away this draft, I know now what it is I want to write. A piece of social satire about the city where I live, weaving in characters from every race and social strata. I want it to be scurrilous, and funny and true. Ihe great writers I'd like to invoke for inspirationj on the journey are Dickens, Victor Hugo and the Vikram Seth of A Suitable Boy: writers who could conjure a whole social landscape onto the page, juggle a huge cast of characters, and who could mingle comedy and pathos and incisive comment.

I'm very much at the beginning of the process, and very happy about it. I'll take a break and then rethink, research and next year rewrite.

Nearing the Goal

Article by my good friend and writing buddy Leah Ray on our local Nanowrimoers:

The Star Online: Lifestyle

Rani Manicka

The utterly gushing e-mail below was posted in two of the e-groups I subscribe to. It was honestly too much to deal with before breakfast and if I sent back a lees-than-polite reply, then I'm sincerely sorry, but it was a bit like holding a red rag up to a proverbial bull.

You see, I gave The Rice Mother a more than fair chance. I paid good money for a copy and pushed my friends in the reading group to include it as out next must-read. We must support Malaysian writers, I said. And I was frankly thrilled that a local writer had managed to make good.

But the book was a terrible disappointment.

As I remember (its's more than two years since I put it down) the characters were shallow, the storyline melodramatic, the plot sagged so badly about two-thirds of the way through that all of us found it an uphill struggle to finish, and for a novel that was supposed to be set in Malaysia, there was damn little local colour - it was clearly written by someone who didn't know the country terrbly well and hadn't bothered to engage a researcher to plug the gaps in her local knowledge. And the factual errors which littered almost every page - she even gets the name of the country wrong, the currency of the time wrong, species of wildlife that don't exist ... (I scribbled notes all over my copy - the first time I've felt angry enough to actually deface a book!). Our reading group meeting that night was hilarious, I don't think we've ever had so much fun rubbishing a book.

How did the thing get published? And how on earth did it get nominated for a Commonwealth Writer's Prize?

What sells clearly is exoticism. The West want to see Malaysia as a place of mystery and magic, and if a writer can pander to that, then so much the better.

And then this exoticism is shrink-wrapped and packed and sold right back to an Asian audience.

Better still if the writer looks suitably exotic herself (as we've seen with writer such as for e.g. Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri, great looks don't hurt when it comes to selling copies.)

Hmmmm .... all the above is of course sour grapes, particularly from a writer who has no hope of selling a book based on her exoticism 'cos she looks like the back end of a bus.

The one thing that I must not forgot is that she actually did it: she put in the slog and hardwork and she got her novel finished. She believed in it enough to submit it for publication, and she worked to pull the rabbit out the hat again with a second novel. Congrats are due for that certainly.

I believe that there are many much more talented writers in Malaysia ... but the talent needs to be grown and encouraged.

Truly happy for the Malaysian author Rani Manicka that her second novel,TOUCHING EARTH has been placed on Borders (Oxford Street),London branch's limited list of inspired Christmas gifts which means, her book is currently being displayed in steady piles, right up front on Border's celebratory showcase.
And her book is also on Waterstone Picadilly's listing of Christmas gifts. You also spot numerous TOUCHING EARTH book covers, first thing when you walk into Blackwell's on Charing Cross. I haven't been anywhere else yet. Just got here last week. But you can't miss these fabulous sights. Just how much an author in Britain would long for such coveted shelf space and our Malaysian novelist has got hers as easily and smoothly as a hand sliding into a fitted glove.
Besides, lots and lots of people in England buy books for Christmas stockings.
In fact, the shopping's started already.
Of course, Rani knows nothing of TOUCHING EARTH's delightful journey
skywards.
Or the fact, that she is doing so ok on the british book scene.
She is currently, on a remote beach in Malaysia, putting the final touches to her third novel, which commands a looming London deadline.
Recently, a profile/literary book review/photo story of Rani Manicka appeared in Waterstone's highbrow quarterly magazine (autumn'04issue) where the journalist welcomed her on board to its crowd of literary (literary AND NOT commercial/general)writers in London.
The book reviewer also good-humouredly suggested that the Malaysian Tourist Board consider recruiting Rani as its ambassador as she is recognished as the sole writing voice in Britain at the moment, from malaysia.
I'm glad the journalist pointed out this fact.
Some of us do tend to claim accolades that aren't there.
A couple of Malaysian authors who did try to make it on the British book scene a few years back appear to have quite significantly been snuffed out like hesitantly-flickering lamplight, sadly leaving a trail of ambers and ashes that (where even those remains) are quickly swept away, within months of a debut arrival. Not
surprising when you understand how excruciatingly competitive the publishing industry is, in England and Europe today.
I read that the the Malaysian author Aneeta Sundararaj of THE Banana Leaf Men had claimed in a portal for self-published authors called, Authors' Den that her book had met with worldwide success and had been sold out throughout the world.
I think allegations like these can prove highly dangerous especially if someone like me, decides to do a little detective work.
Let me clarify that if you're published in New York, your agent needs to sell the rights separately to the UK which happens consistently except that the period of publication differs.
Vice-versa if you're in London. Literary agents have twin offices on both sides of the coasts nowadays so this is easily done. They hire staff just to handle American rights while another one may handle foreign rights.
When you say, foreign rights, its often Europe or the Americas(South/Latin) etc. This is done at book fairs like the famous Frankfurt Book Fairs or the London Book Fair where european publishers come over to strike/negotiate good deals for british
publications. They deal with literary agents who would have set up booths at these fairs. This is how books get published in so many places, at one go.
So how can a self-published author (one-man-show) make such an outrageous claim?
It is a bit like the tale of King Solomon, trying to discover the rightful mother of an abandoned baby. Two women made the same claims.
So here in real life, how does it lend credibility and integrity to the authors whose books may really have been sold out throughout the world with regards to those who own self-published efforts but have yet to see the light of day beyond a few curious onlookers and loyal enthusiasts.
There should be a prominent distinction between one who avoided agents/publishers like medicine and the other who dared.
And with regards to this, I do believe that local journalists, should check on facts, before publishing such claims.
When I was in Australia, no one in Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide had heard of the Banana Leaf Men. The book wasn't stocked anywhere.
Also, in London, no prominent bookshop I know has heard of it.
I believe, to this day, Rani is still recognised as the sole Malaysian writing voice, fast making her name in Brtain and Europe.
THE RICE MOTHER has been sold in the USA and also translated into 13 European languages. TOUCHING EARTH which has only recently been published has already been bought by four european countries.
Where actions speak louder than words perhaps the safest line to draw credibility/integrity to an author's accomplishments where a certain distinction has been called is to let the journey/sale of a book speak for itself. And not for an
author to make claims without the right numbers, statistics, dates etc.
I'm glad for us as Malaysians, that the worldwide sale/display of TOUCHING EARTH as it was with THE RICE MOTHER before it, speaks louder than words to achieve a unique and successful identity here in Britain, even without the efforts or knowledge of the author herself."
By
Susan Abraham
Travel Writer
Current Destination:
London, England.

Nano Questions

My friend Leah is writing a piece for The Star on Nanowrimo and sent me this questionnaire. Fearless self-advertiser that I am, I filled it in.

Incidentally, am almost at half-way through.

1. Full name, age

Sharon Bakar 49

2. Day job, if any

Writer, teacher-trainer

3. How many times done NaNoWriMo? Finished before?
First time

4. Book title, genre, brief synopsis of idea

Working title = A General Malaise.

Genre - bonkbuster meets "Drama Minggu Ini".

Synopsis -

I began on Day 1 without any idea of what the plot might be. (Outlining seemed a very dull thing to do!) I hired (at great expense) a mob of improbably characters (including a couple of sarong party girls, a group of disgruntled Filipino maids, a distraught Mat Salleh wife and her philandering husband, a corrupt businessman and his ruthless TV executive mistress and the one pure soul who is the heroine of the piece). I plonked them down in a fictional city (Kayhell) in a fictional country (Malaisia), stirred them up and applied a little heat. Then I sat back with a mug of coffee in hand to watch what would happen next. So far there's been an attempted murder, an assault, a snatch theft, a burglary, a kidnapping and a significant amount of adultery. The next problem is how to tie up all these loose ends. I may need to bring in a natural disaster to finish everyone off.

5. What made you decide to do it?

In an e-mail a friend mentioned Nanowrimo and asked if I were going to take part in it this year. Hard as I tried, I couldn't think of a single excuse to hide behind.

6. What are your hopes for your book, besides reaching 50,000 words? What do you hope to get out of doing this for yourself, as a writer?

The most important lesson is that you can keep yourself sticking to the chair and producing in quantity day after day. So what I have already got out of this is practice in self-discipline.

Whatever material is produced this month is bound to be rough around the edges and full of flaws of all kinds. But in the following months I'd like to rewrite it, and push and pummel it into shape for publication. (Or at least so that it loooks better when I bury it in my underwear drawer.)

7. On a scale of 1 to 5, five being highest, what's your confidence level that you will reach 50,000 words?

5, because I have to have faith in myself or I won't get there at all.

If I don't make my target I give the readers of this newspaper full permission to laugh at my writerly pretentions forever (or until the next Nanowrimo at least).

8. What's the best thing about doing Nanowrimo?

The companionship of thousands of other crazy people across the globe. Here in Malaysia meeting lots of aspiring writers (of alla ges and backgrounds) has been very exciting.

Realising that Chris Baty (founder of Nanowrimo) is absolutely right when he says you don't need a writing retreat to turn you into a productive writer, you just need a deadline. I never dreamt I'd write so much in such a short time.

I like the way the Nanowrimo demystifies and democratises novel writing. And I look forward to calling myself a novelist in a couple of weeks time.


9. What's the worst thing, or the hardest part?

Forcing yourself to fill up those damn pages on the days you'd rather be anywhere else but in front of the computer and doing anything else apart from writing.

10. At this point, are you glad you decided to do it, or are you kicking yourself?

Very glad indeed. It's been an invaluable learning experience.

Finally, any tips for other WriMos who find themselves stuck and behind on their word count?

Tell yourself that you can order one of those lovely Nanowrimo t-shirts from the website if you make your target

Fiction and Friends

How nice - an article about our book group in the NST. The evening we did the interview (ending up at American Chillis) was a totally hilarious evening which we all enjoyed very much.

There are book groups all over the civilised world, but ours is one of the first and most successful in Malaysia, and I hope that this article gets more and more people thinking about starting one up for themselves and their friends. Malaysians generally don't read, and I think if we are encouraging readership, we're doing something very valuable indeed that goes far beyond whether we ourselves enjoy talking about the books or not.

I'm a lady with a book crusading mission!

The members of Fiction and Friends are a jovial lot who enjoy one another’s company as much as sharing a good book, RUHAYAT X learns.

A BOOK is a machine to think with,” Ivor Armstrong Richards proclaimed in 1928. His Principles of Literary Criticism helped kick off the age of modern literary appreciation, in which a book becomes like a loom “to re-weave some ravelled parts of our civilization.”

And suddenly, you think, the idea of book clubs and why the members seem to be predominantly female makes a bit more sense. In days of old, women in villages would congregate around a particular activity-like weaving, for example-which becomes the vehicle for bonding and keeping the fabric of society together.

With the coming of industrialisation looms went out of fashion, but the need to bond remained. So perhaps suitably contemporary ways of passing the time constructively, like dissecting books, stepped in to fill the void?

Who knows? Ask the people at Fiction and Friends and they don’t have a ready answer, either. You get the sense it does not really matter to them anyway.

“Why are our members mainly female? Maybe it’s because men don’t like to share their feelings about things as much as women do,” offers Sharon Bakar, 49, a writer and teacher.

She joined the book club in the second week of its inception and is acknowledged, by common consensus, as the main driving force whose enthusiasm has been keeping it alive.

“Men don’t read as much as women,” is the cheeky response from Animah Kosai, a 37-year-old legal counsel for a multinational.

“Or they are slow readers,” Uma Sivengnandass shouts out, to howls of laughter from the group.

Whatever the reason may be, the club has seen its membership rise and fall since it was formed in 2001, and although there is a nice mixture in terms of age and occupation, in those three years there have only been four male members, two of whom joined only recently.

“Well, those men who have not joined don’t know what they are missing,” says Krishna Kumar, the only male who turned up that night, with a hoot. “Why not? You are surrounded by all these lovely ladies and you have their attention for two hours.”

The engineer joined the club a couple of book readings ago with his wife, Uma, 33, a strategic sourcing manager. Sharon adds with a wink that Uma probably tagged along just to keep an eye on hubby.

This kind of easy banter is pretty much how it is most of the time, she says.

There have been the heated argument or two, but by and large they tend to respect each others opinions as readers.

But why discuss books at all, in the first place? Reading is a solitary activity, so what can you possibly get out of sharing what you feel about a particular book with a group? Is it the terribly modern need for validation? The desire to impose your thoughts and opinions on someone else, perhaps?

The answer is somewhat more benign.“We find out what other people think about a book,” replies Jessica Sidhu, 33, a paralegal. “We can compare our ideas and see more details than we would have if we read it on our own.”

“I think for a lot of us it is the act of reliving the enjoyment we had when reading the book,” says Kumar.

“Sometimes someone says something we haven’t thought about,” Shamala Palaniappan jumps in. The 29-year-old technical specialist is the most recent member, having just joined one book ago. “Something that makes you look at the book in a new light.”

Shamala did not have any expectations when she turned up for the session last month she says, but is now hooked enough that she is eagerly looking forward to the next one.

She had found out about Fiction and Friends through her friend Sandra Soliano who, with housewife Muntaj Begum, are the other two long-time members of the club.

Sandra credits Muntaj, 54, as another big reason why Fiction and Friends is still chugging along when a lot of similar gatherings typically disappear after four or five months. She is the de facto secretary for the club, volunteering to keep records of the members and their meetings. And, together with Sandra, she provides strong moral support for the group’s activities.

Through the grapevine is pretty much how the club has been picking up members as it rolled along after it got started by Caris Lim, a Swiss woman married to a Malaysian. She has since left the country, but three years on her legacy lives on and has even been picking up strength recently.

The original members had been wives of expatriates working in the country. As the years went by they have steadily dropped off and the core group is now local. Sharon is the only odd Mat Salleh in the group, as she puts it, but she is actually very much a local, having been in the country for more than 20 years and married to a Malaysian for much of that.

When Sharon tried out another recruiting method by advertising the club at an online literary website, they got such a good response that the regular members are now facing the possibility of having to turn people away.

“We have 38 members in our database but usually only eight would turn up at the meetings. But after I placed a classified advertisement in Kakiseni.com, 17 people came for the last meeting,” she declares. “But that could also be because of the book we were going to do, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, which is a very popular book right now.”

While they were surprised and happy with the response, the group agreed that 17 proved to be too unwieldy. Eight would be the optimum number, Sharon feels, and 12 the ceiling. So if the crowd remains large for the next meeting they may have to advise people to start up their own clubs with friends instead.

“It’s a lot of fun having a book club. People can get together and chat about a book they like and enjoy the friendship. It’s become like a social outing for us. We’d like to encourage other people to start their own book clubs. We are more than willing to help with advice on how to get it started and keep it running,” she says.

Fiction and Friends meets once a month, on a Tuesday, to discuss a book that has been assigned the month before. Sometimes they are given three months to finish it, if it is a particularly long book or difficult to get. There is no specific place for the meeting-usually it takes place at someone’s home or a quiet spot in a restaurant.

“Every book that is recommended by a member must be something they have already read,” says Sandra, although there were one or two exceptions, Corelli’s Mandolin that Sharon had suggested even though she had not read it.

Members take turns to recommend the titles to be discussed and the eventual choice is chosen by popular vote. This democratic method extends to their meetings as well, which is regulated by someone designated to lead the session to ensure that everyone will have their say.

The eight who turned out tonight are more or less the core group who turns up each time. What do they get out of the club that keeps them coming back for more?

“Friendship,” says Shamala.

“Satisfaction of reading a book that you don’t want to read, or one that we might not have read out of our own choice,” replies Jessica. “Sometimes I would start reading a book and I would think, ‘My God, what have I gotten myself into?’ But then at the end of it I couldn’t put it down because I’ve enjoyed it so much.”

Not that they always enjoy what they have to read.

“Sometimes we all mutually agree on a book we like, like Anil’s Ghost by Michael Oondatje and Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. Or what we don’t like. But we won’t mention what they are,” says Animah.

To date they have done 36 books, ranging from serious literature like John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, through classics like Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

But they are not so snooty as to decline popular bestsellers such as The Da Vince Code or even below-the-radar stuff like The Merlion and the Hibiscus: Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia. Usually, Sandra says, they spend about two hours discussing each book.

Two hours? Wouldn’t they rather be watching television, or just watching the film adaptation instead? That gets an enthusiastic, “No!” from around the table.

“I would never, never, ever want to watch Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (the film starring Nicolas Cage),” Sharon says, and you almost expect her to burst into sobs. “I am so in love with the Captain Corelli I have in my head.”

This is one group that definitely enjoys reading, and the friendship that the books bind them with is the icing on the cake.

The War on Words

Reading is a democratic activity, argues Philip Pullman, and theocracies discourage it. Khomeini's Iran and the Soviet Union had similarly degraded views of literature - and Bush's America is heading the same way.

Nanodon'tknow

First day of Nanowrimo and the idiocy thus engendered. Kept waking up in the night, itching to get started. Why do I need sleep?

Early dawn with first cup of tea in hand, reality set in. I haven't a plot worked out! I was sitting down to write this bloody novel and knew I had to get at least 1,667 words under my belt before I could even check my e-mail or speak to my husband (my own rules!) and I hadn't a clue where to start. Had thought vaguely of setting (the city where I live five years hence)and had one or two characters who had appeared in writing excercises I thought might make an appearance. But no plot.

And this morning the inner critic, whose voice I know, oh so well, whispered cruel words in my ear. You're not going to do this, are you? You should have prepared, made copious notes like everyone else ... but oh no, you thought you could just wing it.

The I began to panic, searching through all the half abandoned stories in my drawer, looking for something I worked on before that might give me a sense of direction. Found a story I'd abandoned after a couple of pages 'cos I couldn't work out where it was going (plot is not a strong point with me!) and requisitioned the main character to kick off my novel. Let her strut around for a while, and then another couple of women insinuated themselves onto the page. (How I'm ever going to bring these characters together though, I haven't a clue yet.) But ... well what do you know, it's moving! Clumsily and slowly, but moving forward. Finally got to 1998 words and am calling it a day for today.

Just trust in the process and all will be okay. (Till the doubts set in again tomorrow.)

I've written three percent of my novel!!

Hilaire Belloc on the short story

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Hilaire Belloc on the short story