Writing Classes

OK sorry I think I am chatty today.

I wanted to share about writing classes. I attended one about 8 years ago in an art school. Prior to the writing classes I had also gone for painting lessons which, while I was horrible at, I did quite enjoy. I enjoy learning in general but with such classes I don’t think of return on investments or what kind of future money I can make from it.

However, I struggle with identity a lot (I still do but I’ve taken a less serious approach to it now that I’m almost 40). So I am Malay. Have I felt Malay? Not really. It’s not that I reject the culture or look down on it. I still speak Malay. I love Malay food. I have a few Malay friends. It’s something I just don’t quite feel anything about.

My mom had told me a few times when she held me when I was an infant that she felt if I ever got married I just wouldn’t live in Singapore. She said I would marry a foreigner. My mom would describe me as kelakar seram. (It’s funny but in a sort of creepy way?) So I asked foreign like Bangladesh or foreign like English or ang moh (white) cause foreign is 194 other countries you know. She said she didn’t know! She just felt I wouldn’t live in Singapore in my adulthood.

Well, I am still here.

So the writing classes were conducted by a published author based in Singapore. As I had a lot of time then I picked up some of his books to peruse. I didn’t like his writing style for some reason.. it didn’t hook me.. but of course as I am a polite human being I never brought it up. Why cause waves, right? There was absolutely no difference in the world whether I enjoyed his books or not and I was open minded about learning from him.

There’s peer to peer reading in the classes. I don’t remember a lot of it but I think there was a theme each week and I had to write portions of the work at home and bring them to class. Then we would hand them at the end of each class for his review.

Then he mentioned something like I wasn’t authentic in my writing. But how would you explain culture to someone else who insisted your writing had to include cultural éléments.. when you yourself aren’t/weren’t.. cultural..?

I do do Malay stuff like attend weddings and love karaoke (which I will pronounce the Asian way ka-rao-kay and not karaoke like Carrie Underwood in Before He Cheats) but other than that I think I am a bit of everything.

I want to write more of course. I just don’t know where to start.