diary

Twenty-five,

going twenty-six, is it too late to start a writing career, especially when you try to teach, and read, and draw at the same time?

I have not read Shakespeare or Dante (except for Hamlet). I have not read the two 'Bibles' -- Don Quixote and Ulysess. It has taken me more than ten years to learn art. How much longer would it take for me to learn how to write?

I had delved into the deepest recesses of my memory and imagination, and exhausted my reservoir of vocabulary and sentence structures. I don't think I can successfully portray what I wanted to express -- a certain effect, or a certain feeling...After all, a narrative is not just a story.

A good writing must stir the very depths of your heart and shake the very core of your whole being.

... ...

One must painstakingly paint a picture as would Tanizaki or Dickens, yet the writing must read smoothly and naturally without sounding too belaboured or contrived.

Garcia Marquez wrote in tears when he killed off the Colonel in 'One Hundred Years of Solitude.' In fact he cried for an hour or two after that. If I cannot even move myself with my writing, how can I move others with my writing?

posted by sin @ 9:23 AM