2019 was a fairly challenging year, but every obstacle is a lesson. Below are some lessons I’ve picked up over the course of the year.
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12 Things I Learned in 2019
We’re looking for the next great Southeast Asian novel.
Do you have a great story that you’ve always wanted to publish? Why not submit your manuscript for the next edition of the Epigram Books Fiction Prize (EBFP)?
As an introvert, I was bewildered when strangers (i.e. neighbours I’ve never spoken to) started chatting to me. The reason: my newly-adopted, one-eyed rescue dog.
By Linda De Flavis
Two years ago, I got on a plane and went to Jamaica. It wasn’t the usual sun-and-sea vacation that tourists go there for: sipping cocktails with paper umbrellas in them, lying poolside within the high-security walls of a luxury resort. No, my trip was a literary pilgrimage, mostly taken on foot and local buses, journeying into areas described as ‘dangerous’ by the guidebooks. I wanted to see for myself the places of historical significance and revolutionary acts that I had discovered through the novels of Andrea Levy and Marlon James.
So imagine my excitement when I saw that Marlon James would be coming all the way to Singapore to speak at the Singapore Writers Festival—the mountain was coming to Mohamed!
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I Lost My Writing Mojo!
November is over and we are nearly at the end of 2019. November is also the month on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and many writers take on this challenge to come up with 50,000 words in 30 days. Congratulations if you took it on and survived it!
Regardless of your word count (if you took part), you might feel rather drained from all the writing you’ve done. It’s perfectly natural to feel that way. It’s not writer’s block, it’s writer’s fatigue. You get so sick and tired of seeing your characters, untangling your plot, reworking your scenes that you just want to throw up your hands and yell, “F*** it, I’m done with writing!”
If you have never felt something like that, lucky you. The rest of us mortals deal with such thoughts at different points in our writing journeys. Some authors feel the drop in motivation in the third or fourth or even fifth revision, while others (like me) may be fed up with our characters fighting against the plot.
We all have different strategies for coping with writer’s fatigue. These are my preferred means, so perhaps they could be helpful to you too.
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SWG Blog Call for Submissions
The blog team invites all SWG members to submit articles that discuss literature and creative writing.
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Hello World
This is the new website of the Singapore Writers’ Group! Many thanks to Alice Clark-Platts, founder of the Singapore Writers’ Group, and Simon Betts, who is spearheading efforts to improve the group’s reach. See below for more on how the new website serves the needs of the group.