Stupid Price Hike

We are currently rewriting "Candy Girl" with Pey's help. She is excellent to work with. She's very patient, and her comments are constructive (don't get why some people have to be so harsh, and it's worse when they can't come up with anything better).

The fact that we have to rush this a bit for the anthology makes me a little sad. I like to take my time revisiting work. Sometimes I put it away and look at it again after a couple of days, weeks or months even. But this time I'm not alone, so it shouldn't be too bad.

I know I should be writing my book review (Sorry Daphne) but I just spent a few hours stuck in the car (RM2.70 for petrol starting tomorrow, remember? Took me ages to get back) and now I just want to sleep. I hate this feeling. I feel like a slug, and not the cute kind, either. Now undecided on whether or not to drive tomorrow.

My publisher's been very quiet lately. He's making me worried. Though I'm sure he has his reasons. Please tell me he has at least one good reason. Help me out here, anybody...

Project OMG

I thought I was crazy but Reza is insane! We stayed up until 2am writing our piece and just before I sleep, he tells me he wants to change the whole thing. We spent the whole Sunday (today) writing and practicing but in the end, it was alright. We didn't suck too bad, and the British Project Connect kids seemed to like it (or did a very good job of pretending to). If Reza wasn't such a good writer I'd strangle him. But then again, he'd probably like that...

Our poem "Candy Girl" is about the relationship between a young girl (a nymphet, to be specific) and an older man. No prizes for guessing who played who. I personally love what we came up with. I was unsure about some stuff but I fought to keep them in the poem anyway. The highlight of my evening was when Hazlan said he liked that part and I was like, "Oh really? Reza hated that; he wanted to cut it out!" And I was this close to doing it, too.

I seem to be going on about this collaboration. Probably because it's my first time, and it's great to be able to work with someone who's more experienced and more mature in terms of writing. This is a lucky break. And I'd love to do it again.

Yesterday Today Tomorrow

If you're wondering why things have changed around here, that's because I decided to delete the entire blog. Don't fret. Why? Because prayers (notice I didn't say whose) have finally been answered and the book thing is actually happening so being the selfish cow that I am... Yeah. Anyway, fellow poet Reza Rosli asked me an interesting question the other day: How do you write your poetry? I never realised that I actually have a process until he pointed it out.

Now, I'm pretty sure it goes something like this:

Step One: Wait for something to write about.

Step Two: Get into character (as he calls it).

Step Three: Write.

Step Four: Look at it again.

Step Five: Rewrite.

Repeat steps four and five roughly a hundred times.

I am assured that this counts as an actual process.

Maybe I've been thinking about the whole thing too much but for some reason, last night I dreamt that I was writing. Sitting God-knows-where and writing. And it was frustrating because I couldn't see what I was writing. I mean, you never know... it might have been something worthwhile.

I must say, going for the poetry slam was probably the best thing I've ever done for myself in a while. Because that's where I met so many people who shared my interests and welcomed me to share theirs. Which reminds me, I need to thank Daphne again for inviting me in the first place. And George for inviting me to This Is Now, which pretty much opened up the windows inside my head to let the light in again (what an evening). I noticed I've been writing a lot more since then. And that's great, except it's been the cause of my getting up later in the morning.