In Continuum.

Resumé

Scorpio,that is the title of my new book.It's funny how i already came up with that title,despite the fact that i have not finish the last book,now stuck somewhere in between the halfway mark and completion.I am a total failure when it comes to finishing a job that i started,but what can i do when the brain juice dont flow,right?I feel that i should shorten that story a little bit,and perhaps it might just work out better.Who knows,i might just get it published for real this time round.

Anyway,i was in general,inspired by Thomas L. Friedman,the author of The World is Flat.This man is the winner of three bloody Pulitzer Prize,and one of the winning books won,while dealing with 9/11 and related issues.He didnt write that book for the sake of writing the book though,but rather he compiled some of the articles and columns he ever wrote about the subject into one book,and for that he won a Pulitzer.Yeah,a Pulitzer because he was too lazy to come up with new material,or rather chose not to write new materials because he already touched on that subject a long time ago.

I admire this man's laziness,and to be honest that inspired me to start writing Scorpio.I intend to compile my blog entries into one book,about the same subject of course.I have encouragement from Kenneth Kwan,whom i deem as a rather suitable critic,and thus i might just start work on that book soon(Which i will elaborate on in the next entry).

But first,i'd like to give a little history on my book writing experience.I dont think i am in any way close to being a real author of books.I think i write out of interest,out of the desire to tell a good story.I've had this gift since i was a kid,to tell a story that entertains.Like Corinna said,it usually isnt the subject i talk about that is hilarious,but rather the way i tell those stories.I find myself especially different when it comes to that aspect,and i dont even go all physical when i tell stories.

Over the years i have transformed from an illiterate kid in Primary School to where i am now,capable of decently expressing my feelings,emotions,and experiences into words.I remember back then when we were asked to do compositions after looking at wordless comic strip,i wrote the most mundane and standard story ever.This is how it worked back then,just so those with weak memory capacity needs a little reminding.It starts usually with three boxes out of four,fully drawn with something happening.The last box is usually a question mark,for the student to fill in themselves.I remember writing the worst essays ever,and handing them up to the teacher with no shame whatsoever.Of course,as a Primary School teacher you shouldnt expect too much from us kids.It's one of those mental preparations you have to go through before stepping into the school compound,that you are probably going to read a dozen stories of the same main character,and same storyline because three out of four boxes were filled.

That stupidity lasted all the way to Secondary School.Although we no longer had wordless comic strips,we still had paragraphs with no endings,waiting for us to finish.I recall starting every bloody composition with an alarm bell,the school bell,or my mother waking me up for school somehow.It always involved school one way or another,and for some reason i was never sick of writing the same damn storyline.

Sometime in Secondary School that took a little turn around the corner.I guess subconsciously i realised that i was repeating the stories over and over.So i made some changes to the stories,by writing non-standard stuff,things you dont usually read in Secondary School kids' essays.Of course,i wasnt daring enough to write something like the work i've done in "Jamie Suicides",but it was a daring feat in the sense that i changed my usual plot route into something totally different.

I remember two compositions in particular that i shifted away from the usual mundane stuff.One of them was a prison escape piece,with the main character on a caged van,travelling down a long stretch of road through a wheat field.The van for some reason,flips over and crashes into the side,crushing the windows and the metal grills alongside those.The main character crawled out,and after being pursued by a busy-bodied farmer,gained absolute freedom.

Another piece was inspired,i guess,by Star Wars in a way.Back then i was not a fan yet,but i guess the idea of space battles fascinated me.Besides,i always wanted to attempt action as part of my writing resume.So i tried my hands on science fiction for one of the essays,writing it over at my Merawood house,alone at night over a foolscape paper on that short blue table,with the radio at the back buzzing away with static.I think it was about this princess or queen,leader of some empire trying desperately to fight the last battle against invading alien forces.I dont quite remember the space battle that took place afterwards,but perhaps i didnt take heed in remembering it,because it was so badly written.

My first attempt on exposition actually came from chinese compositions.We had to write numerous book reviews back then,and to tell you the truth i had no interest whatsoever when it comes to old chinese novels.They were boring,and Journey to the West was just plain dumb.Let's admit it,a story about a talking monkey,a monk,this other dude and a pig is really not going to appeal.It didnt appeal me,and probably never going to in the long term.

Anyway,so we were told to write a book review,and i wrote about The Lord of the Rings instead,making my own translations of the names of characters and places.I mean,it was for chinese lesson sure,but there is a translated version of the book as well,right?Anyway,so i wrote that and actually scored damn well for my examinations,and subsequent essay topics that requires me to write on some memorable book or movie,i would write The Lord of the Rings,recreating that same essay over and over again.I know,that sounds rather cheap,but then again if the formula worked once it is going to work again,right?Which also explains the special love for the classic in my life.

Further exposure to exposition was of course,in GP.I love GP,and the fact that i was relatively good at it,Mr. Yee the teacher couldnt give me a hard time even if he wanted to,considering how i scored fairly well for his papers.I loved to argue out my point,and learnt to express my thoughts and experience down in words,and at the same time structuring them out.I loved reading over my writings,and finding structures out of them,previously unthought of.It is a rather fascinating process,like reading through old blog entries.

So,with the love of The Lord of the Rings in mind i came up with an untitled project hat involved four children who had powers over the four elements of the world,and saving the imaginary world of Aros from the dark lord of Narathag with the help of King Caras' right hand man and a mysterious witch from the woods.Together they flew over lands and water over a flying ship,and battled deadly sea creatures and shadow warriors of the south,as well as giant wolves and flying bat-like creatures.Finally,the showdown between the forces as they clashed above the main city of Aros,with both forces unleashing their full strength,battling each other with flying ships and eventually coming to a tragic end for both sides.

I was involved in the story not really because of the story itself,but rather the twist involved in those stories.Secret identities,conspiracy theories,you name it.I had those written down somewhere in my computer,and it was truly mind-blowing.But the problem soo surfaced as i attempted to write the story.First of all,my descriptive writing was bad,and i hadnt got enough books at hand to write well enough.I mean,the characters were rather two dimensional,and the world was badly described as well.Most of all,the action was just plain bad,and they werent even real action.I prefered the world i created in my head and the dialogue,but never the way they interacted.Thus,i had difficulty leading the stories up to the major plot twists,and eventually the idea was left to collect dust somewhere.Another main reason was because everything had got something to do with Rowling or Tolkien.Every fantasy novel had elves,orcs,men,dwarves and dragons.It got to my nerves,the way i couldnt get past that and it pissed me off really bad how brilliant Tolkien was.

I moved on to more contemporary pieces,as my reading habits started to change.In Primary School my readings were the Goosebump series.In Secondary School i moved on to movie tie-ins,like the Aliens and Predator series,as well as other mystery novels by Agatha Christie,Conan O'Doyle and stuff.Also,i started reading Crichton stuff as well as Stephen King,the usual sort of bestseller books.

In JC i started reading other stuff,very random stuff off the shelves kind of genre.And i came up with a concept after watching Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.It is about this working class man,living a very ordinary life in the office.He has a wife but he doesnt treat her well enough.He doesnt treat his parents the way that he should,he doesnt treat his best friends as well as he would like to,and even his dog is deprived of usual animal rights.So one day after overtime at work,he drives down the expressway and for some reason,drove off the road after a moose appeared in the middle of the road and slammed into the woods.

He wakes up in a sort of terminal,like a train station of some kind.There is a guide,her name is Valerie.She explains to the main character Damien that he was involved in a car accident,and that because his head impacted the wheel of his car,he was then in a coma,with his memories all jumbled up in a mess.The only way to wake up from this coma is to find The Door.The door is like the light at the end of the tunnel,and through the memories you got to find five people that you hold dear to bring to the door.By the time you wake up from the coma,these five people would be the only humans you remember.Of course,Damien had to race against time to find the door because Death is chasing after him.

That was one of the concepts i was working on at one point.I guess the fascination with death went on a level higher when i started on the Dead Man Journal stories.I still find that flawed,and i might do a little editing work in the future.But for now,i have more interest in my Scorpio stories,which i shall elaborate later on.So,until the next inspiration hit.;)