Well, not anymore. I've decided to blog again, and this time, I have a very real purpose.
I am a writer. I have been a writer ever since I was about 12 or 13, before I even knew it. I am 27 now, and counting. For much of this time, I was just playing around, experimenting with all kinds of genres and styles, and not really thinking about publishing, until last year.
In other words, I had been practicing the art of writing for 13 to 14 years, and I thought I could come up with that one novel that could be my debut piece. It was a novel for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2015. The deadline? 4 months away (maybe more, I can't quite remember). I sacrificed much for it - though I'm not afraid to admit it, I am a little ashamed.
I started writing two weeks before my final exams last year, around May, and even on the eve of my last day of exams. I screwed myself over - Too tired and too dazed, and I was late for my exams for something like 2 hours because I read my schedule the wrong way.
I spent the next 2 months after that, writing overseas in Brunei, and then another 2 months rushing the project to completion.
If you click that link, you'll notice who the winner of the EBFP2015 is, and no, I'm not O Thiam Chin. Although I found it suspicious that the only writers who benefited were all previously published authors (the competition is said to be for finding new blood), and I feel a little used to buff up the statistics (Hey, this author defied the odds and won against X number of writers!), but in the end, it truly wasn't meant to be.
My novel was rushed, especially towards the end when I had to crank out 2,000 to 4,000 words a day. It wasn't polished as I didn't even have the time to produce a second draft.
Ever since I was bitten hard by that defeat, I hadn't really been able to recover. I produced another 6 more drafts of the novel, only to be rejected (this would be my 7th rejection) by another local publisher, on grounds of differing stylistic/aesthetic opinions which divided the editorial team.
Pulau Purba was that novel. I'll introduce her to you guys on another day.
But back to the present day - I had been working on short stories since, hoping to produce an anthology that might have a better chance to sell.
I hadn't been able to write as much as I used to - to the tune of 1,000 words a day back in the day, because of a combination of my grinding day job, the lack of confidence from repeated defeats, and life just generally sucking in 2016 (long story).
But with this blog post, that will all change. I am committed - I will be putting up reports of my writing in this blog from now on, maybe daily, maybe weekly, but every single day will be covered.
I hope that you will accompany me on this journey... Beyond the veil of darkness.
Because you see, I do horror - Did my blog design give that away? It's too late to turn back now. :)
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