'FESS UP FRIDAY | Haruki Murakami's Routine

I haven't been doing this for a while. But recently things have finally started to resume a sort of normality. I found some time to write a little. My recent London trip gave me some ideas. I'm not sure where I'm going with them, so I'm just writing to get the words out. It's therapeutic in its own way.

For writing tips, I offer: Daily Routines - how Haruki Murakami goes about his day:

When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 am and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 pm. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. But to hold to such repetition for so long — six months to a year — requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.

- excerpt from The Paris Review, Summer 2004

'FESS UP FRIDAY | Barry Lopez's

Haven't done this for a while because of my life has been taken over by the Dubai posting. Anyway, found this recently, and I thought it was worth sharing.

In his interview with Book Depository, Robert Macfarlane gave this advice to aspiring writers. It's taken from Barry Lopez's About This Life:

Once I was asked by a seatmate on a trans-Pacific flight, a man who took the liberty of glancing repeatedly at the correspondence in my lap, what instruction he should give his fifteen-year-old daughter, who wanted to be a writer. I didn’t know how to answer him, but before I could think I heard myself saying, “Tell your daughter three things.” Tell her to read, I said. Tell her to read whatever interests her, and protect her if someone declares what she’s reading to be trash. No one can fathom what happens between a human being and a written language. She may be paying attention to things in the words beyond anyone else’s comprehension, things that feed her curiosity, her singular heart and mind. Tell her to read classics like The Odyssey. They’ve been around a long time because the patterns in them have proved endlessly useful.

Second, I said, tell your daughter that she can learn a great deal about writing by reading and by studying books about grammar and the organization of ideas, but that if she wishes to write well she will have to become someone. She will have to discover her beliefs, and then speak to us from within those beliefs. If her prose doesn’t come out of her belief, whatever that proves to be, she will only be passing along information, of which we are in no great need. So help her discover what she means.

Finally, I said, tell your daughter to get out of town, and help her do that. I don’t necessarily mean to travel to Kazakhstan, but to learn another language, to live with people other than her own, to separate herself from the familiar. Then, when she returns, she will be better able to understand why she loves the familiar, and will give us a fresh sense of how fortunate we are to share these things.

Read. Find out what you truly believe. Get away from the familiar. Every writer, I told him, will offer you thoughts about writing that are different, but these are three that I trust.

"Read. Find out what you truly believe. Get away from the familiar."

This isn't just advice for writing. It's advice for living a life.

'FESS UP FRIDAY | Reading Mrs Craddock

I can't wait for things to settle down soon. Hopefully that will mean some breathing space to actually get words down on the page. Or am I just making excuses for myself? I could probably write more if I can just stay off the internet, off Facebook.

I decided I do have time to go to the library this week. On a whim I just decided I need to read Louise Erdrich's The Plague of Doves. I have been meaning to read her books for years. The reviewers always praise her language, her distinct voice.

I've also finally picked up A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, a book I have read about several years ago, but never found the time.

Most of all, I was seized with the need to read Mrs Craddock. For research, I tell myself. Mrs Craddock is Maugham's story of unequal love in a marriage.

How often do we fall in love - and realise the other party do not love us the way we would like them to?

'FESS UP FRIDAY | What Do the Characters Want?

Michelle Paradise wrote, produced and starred in the Logo TV series, "Exes & Ohs". She has a series of video blogs centered around the series, and recently she talked about the writing process behind "Exes & Ohs".

One of the things she talked about was figuring out, "What do the characters want?" - either personally or professionally - and how they go about achieving that. Once you have that figured out, the story falls into place.

Which is sort of my problem right now.

I don't actually know what my characters want. In fact, right now the two lead characters are at a crossroad romantically and professionally. I don't quite know how to proceed.

Yeah, this 'Fess Up is LATE.

'FESS UP FRIDAY | Work the Heat

I've finally finished reading Kitchen Confidential - which is fun for research, especially the chapter where Bourdain writes about one day in the life of an executive chef. It's practically a walk-through for me.

Now the real test is whether I can write a scene of a restaurant kitchen on full service convincingly. The chaos, the adrenaline, the heat and camaraderie and feuding between line cooks, their runners and all the while telling a story about these characters, their relationship with each other.

Why is writing this scene important? I ask myself. Because it sets my sous-chef in her natural environment. Here is a well-brought up young woman, educated - something of an artist and a thinker. She enjoys all the advantages of her upbringing, yet something made her choose to work as a chef.

I'm using this story as a way of thinking through one of those questions I like to think about: what leads us to the choices in our lives? When everything in our life points in one direction, there are some of us who would choose another.

But first - how to write the scene? I need to think this through.

'FESS UP FRIDAY | Random Anecdote

In lieu of an actual 'Fess Up, I offer something tangential - which is the way I function, really.

Several years back I was at the supermarket with my friend, Ana. A couple of us arranged for a movie marathon at her place and we swung by the supermarket for provisions. We were paying at the cashier, when Ana, looking through our purchases, expressed her surprise that I did not pick up any snacks for myself.

"Don't you eat?" she exclaimed, totally baffled.

"I eat," I replied.

"Just three square meals? No snacks? No junk food? Are you on some kind of diet? Are you anorexic?"

"I do eat."

"Do you know in all the time I've known you, I have never seen you eat, ever?"

"I eat," I insisted.

This minor episode found its way into my story about existential rock-star vampires. One of the character, Seth, would remark to a mysterious woman in leather jacket and sunglasses, that he has never seen her eat. Ever.

The mysterious woman in the leather jacket and sunglasses, who goes by the name, Noir, would reply matter of factly, "I eat."

Later in story, Seth and his friends would be attacked by two goth-punks infected by vampiric blood. Noir would tear through the throats of those goth-punks, and she would feed on their blood. Right before she collapses from her injuries, she would turn to Seth, and she would say to him:

"Told you I eat."

Which says something about how all the little things in our lives are fodder for fiction.

By the way, I did not work on my story about the sous-chef this week. Instead, I revisited one of my old stories, the one about the existential vampires (with the awful working title: "Orpheus Sings the Guitar Electric". Now you know the source behind the name of this blog)

I was in a morose state of mind the whole week, which is exactly the state of mind that would want to write a story about angsty vampires who also happen to be rock-gods. Since we are throwing in random information: the Dark Orpheus is actually a prized guitar used by one of the characters in the story.

Which might also tell you something.

'FESS UP FRIDAY | On Characters

I missed last week's 'Fess Up, and I'm late on this week's entry. But I want to do something vaguely 'Fess Up because if I miss two weeks, then it's easy to miss three weeks, then four weeks, until I stop doing it altogether.

Firstly, no word-count this week because I was too busy with work and meeting up with people. I read only a little, but The Making of a Chef is exactly the book I needed for researching one of my main characters. So, it's slow progress in the right direction. :)

I end with this little quote on writing your characters:

Frederick Buchner wrote:

You avoid forcing your characters to march too steadily to the drumbeat of your artistic purpose. You leave some measure of real freedom for your characters to be themselves. And if minor characters show an inclination to become major characters, as they're apt to do, you at least give them a shot at it, because in the world of fiction it may take many pages before you find out who the major characters really are, just as in the real world it may take you many years to find out that the stranger you talked to once for half an hour in the railroad station may have done more to point you to where your true homeland lies than your priest or your best friend or even your psychiatrist.

~ Quoted in Bird by Bird

This rings so true, because right now, one of my supporting character is threatening to dominate the narrative. I thought I knew what I was doing, but I guess I'm not really in the driver's seat here.

'FESS UP FRIDAY | Progress

I actually managed to bang out a few words this week. There is some forward motion on the story. I'm finally getting to the bit of the story where we meet Charlie's sister—the reason why Charlie and her father are no longer on speaking terms.

I didn't know quite how to handle the story behind Charlie's sister. The sister is a late addition to the story. At one point I thought she would be alive. Later I decided she would be dead but influencing the characters as a ghost (I have a gothic sensibility). I changed my mind once more – decided I wanted to try something more realistic. So now she's just dead. Her story will be told through Charlie's memory. This means flashbacks.

For a last minute addition, this character has quite a few changes.

Does anyone wonder how characters really come about? Do we write them, or have they actually been sitting in the dark recesses of our imagination for a long time – until the day we finally set words on the page, and they manifest themselves?

I haven't planned on creating Charlie's sister—but now her coming into the story adds a new theme of family.

I've been re-reading parts of Laurie R. King's With Child, to study how she weaved the intermittent flashbacks so seamlessly into her narrative. It is a joy anyway to re-read any Laurie R. King novels.

It's also amazing how you have been reading novels for so many years of your life, but it isn't until you sit down to try to write one—that you really start paying attention to how things are structured.

I wrote a fair amount of personal "essays" this week. But re-reading them, they feel more suited as journal entries. This is the real reason I write - not because I want to be published, but because putting things down in words sometimes help me sort out my thoughts.

Still reading Bird by Bird slowly.

Practiced yoga 3 times this week. I attended two Hotflow classes and practiced a bit of the Shadow Yoga poses in the morning, with some core-work.

I am so out of shape.

'FESSED UP FRIDAY | Don't Break the Chain

Recently, I crawled out of the rock where I live and stumbled on Lifehacker.

Since I discover it, I have been going back for more tips on how to organise my computer and maybe even my life. But one of the most interesting and relevant tip I found this week is the little friendly advice Jerry Seinfeld offered on how to motivate yourself to write everyday. He used the technique on himself, and it seems to work for him, so I'm going to post it here:

He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here's how it works.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."

"Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis.

It works because it isn't the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard "inch by inch anything's a cinch." Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day.

Daily action builds habits. It gives you practice and will make you an expert in a short time. If you don't break the chain, you'll start to spot opportunities you otherwise wouldn't. Small improvements accumulate into large improvements rapidly because daily action provides "compounding interest."

Skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next.

I've often said I'd rather have someone who will take action—even if small—every day as opposed to someone who swings hard once or twice a week. Seinfeld understands that daily action yields greater benefits than sitting down and trying to knock out 1000 jokes in one day. [ Source ]

This is a technique that actually works. I realise I have been using this method to track my yoga practice.

I have a moleskine diary that I use to keep track of my appointments. I also record the details of my yoga classes inside, so if I went for class today, I will note down, for example: 7pm, Power I, Michelle.

Since I open the diary everyday, at a glance I can see how frequently I practice every week. This has helped me maintain a 5~6 times a week practice for the past year.

It works.

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Report on things done last week:

1. Finished reading Comfort Me With Apples. I love how Ruth Reichl can relate food and life experiences so seamlessly. One of the best thing she wrote in the book was that writing about food alone is boring - it is everything else around that makes it interesting.
2. Followed someone's advice and started reading Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.

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The Literate Kitten's link to all 'Fess Up Friday-ers. Or FUFers.

'FESS UP FRIDAY | Back to Square One

One of the most difficult piece of writig I had to do last Saturday was my resume. I'm not totally satisfied with it. But I've submitted it, and it's done. Now we just wait.

What is a resume? It's really your sell-sheet/press release, where you are marketing yourself to potential buyers (employers).

My problem is: I'm the sort of person who hates having to explain myself. That makes it difficult in situations where elaboration is necessary - like writing a story.

For the past few weeks I was trying to write a scene between the two main characters. I'm trying to fleshing out the relationship - and power dynamics - between them in that single scene. I keep adding to the scene, because so much seems necessary and yet not enough is being said. Or am I trying to do too much in one scene, when I have an entire novel to work with?

*sigh*

I regret to report I have scrapped all that I had written. (Okay, I saved the Word file - just in case)

Word-count as of today is ZERO. Yes, we are back to Square One.

Wait, that's not true. There was something I salvaged: a single line from one of the character:

"I'm not the kind of girl you can hide from your mother."

I'm not sure what to make of it. It seems to say something about the character. I'm keeping it for now.

As for research:

1. Read The New Yorker's profile of Grant Achatz (He's chef of Alinea in Chicago. The guy has worked with some of the best culinary masters - Charlie Trotter, Thomas Keller, Ferran Adria)
2. Finished reading Tender at the Bone. Loved it!

3. Picked up the following books from the library:
   a) The Apprentice by Jacques Pepin,
   b) Making of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman,
   c) White Slave - the autobiography of Marco Pierre White.

   White is the youngest chef to be awarded three Michelin stars. He is also known as "The Man Who Made Gordon Ramsay Cry", and the first "Rock Star Chef". I adore these bad-boy chefs. Which may explain why my sous-chef is not a saint either.

4. Started reading Kitchen Confidential and Making of a Chef.

   I'm enjoying Anthony Bourdain, even if he's mean to vegetarians. I can afford to be forgiving; I have high self-esteem. Also I like how he makes chefs feel like pirates. In fact, while reading Kitchen Confidential, I started writing a scene in my head of a bunch of line cooks just squatting outside the restaurant trading barbed banters.

   Making of a Chef, I'm still reading the first few pages - still too early to form an opinion.

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PS: The Literate Kitten's link to all 'Fess Up Friday-ers. Or FUFers.