22 Fun Facts About How I Wrote My Story

Photo by Panharath

It took me a while to get back to this. I have received another awesome review from my friend Pahnarath, who has finished reading my fiction story. So now I have two adorable book fans!!!

I don't know where to start. I think I'll just do it from scratch. I've put all my writing facts into bullet points, so feel free to read:

1. The idea of writing the HB came from a sudden urge between me and my bestie. She started it. So I followed.
2. I wasn't a big fat fan of vampires, but writing a story about vampires just sounded as a fun challenge to me, that's why I decided to write one.
3. Of course, I'd watched and read Twilight saga. So they influenced my writing in some way, but it's not the main factor to shape my entire story. And before I wrote the HB, I had quit reading them ever since I finished Eclipse. Still, I had no idea that my story was relevant to Breaking Dawn until my friend P mentioned it. I didn't mean to write a similar story to that, but too bad, people's minds are like calculators sometimes.
4. I usually don't plan the plots before I write, I just write it straight out of my head, which is really fun and adventurous (in literature term, we call writers like that, "the plasters").
5. I spend a maximum of 1 hour to write each time. But I don't write everyday. I could only write when I'm in a writing mood.
6. I'm a slow writer. It would take me days or even weeks to complete a chapter, that's why I had to spend almost two years finishing the HB. I wish I had a faster RAM in my brain.
7. I always dread getting started. It's just so difficult to get myself to begin writing. No matter how much I've written in the book so far, I still hate to start.
8. Writing fantasy is my favorite genre. I used to be so obsessive with realistic novels, and even tried to write one, but it didn't work. It seems like it's not my home genre anymore. But I hope to write one in the far future.
9. I think if you want to write a good story, you must have some background in philosophy. During my time of writing the HB, I was taking a philosophy course. So it had helped me to write with logical premises to support my theories. Sometime I laughed at how crazy it all sounded. No doubt, P said it's crazy.
10. In my book, I wrote about a bunch of genius girls. They each have different skills, all of which I had no idea about. I didn't even like physics or biology that much when I first started making up the characters. The ideas just appeared into my plots, so I had to dig into my worldly knowledge to write about them. 
11. But the fun part is that, I like to use my characters to explore and twist and bend any science theories to suit my own conclusions. And I feel like I'm some kind of a crazy freak myself.
12. I have warned my valuable readers that, the main character is no one but a total product of my imagination, but still, one of my readers likes to picture me as the main character, I just want to be sick. Sometime I think I should've waited until I'm 50 to write a book, so that no one would compare me to my 17-or 15-year-old main character. I know some writers don't mind being compared to their characters, but I do. A lot.
13. To me. writing is like playing God, you can create a new world and all. And just like God (with the capital G), I love my creation. I love all of my characters, even the bad guys. Because without the bad guys, or the twists and turns along the line, my story is meaningless. (Btw, I'm agnostic Buddhist).
14. I like to write about female protagonists. No wonder my book is full of them. One of my character Cammie is exactly what I want to shape as a female role model. She's strong and brave. But Alyssa became my secret weapon later in the story, she's just plain cute and also unbelievably smart. Jacques is another fun character to write. She always seems to know what she's doing, even when I don't. All in all, these characters make the best best-friends anyone could ever wish for in real life.
15. The hardest part about writing the HB is the romantic part. I had to rake my brain to think of what to write for those scenes. But I don't want to focus my story around love, because Twilight has done it justice already. Anyway, I hope Princip is an ideal crush for my readers, too.
16. I'm not good at writing dialogues. But the strangest thing is that, I often find myself writing what the characters speak. Their voices seem to arise from who they are in the story.
17. My second reader said she wanted to know how I could come up with the plots and stuff. I think it's a very good question. But I don't know the right answer to that, too. Sometime plots just popped into my mind. Sometime events that had occurred in the story just linked themselves to make a new plot. I think writing is like making crafts. The design doesn't seem to get anywhere at first, but at the end of the day, you've got your art.    
18. My first book fan said all characters' personalities must have come from only one source — me, the writer. I know that all characters have to have different personalities, but I think I don't have that many personalities to write from. So I just did the only best thing I could — imagine.
19. Because I'm not a native English writer, I never thought I could write something funny. But my friends who have read the story said it was full of humors. I am so overjoyed to hear that. And boy, I never thought I could make sad scenes so sad either! I just want to grab each of my readers and ask them, "REALLY?!! Did you really really find it funny and sad?!!"
20. I used plain English to write. Words are just like colors, and ideas are just like images. I would visualize the idea as a picture and then I would try to figure out how to use words to paint that pictures out. Let me tell you, it's so so so hard. 
21. I have mixed emotions after I finished my first story. One is a general feeling when you have done something you'd never dreamed of doing. It's like, "Oh wow! I wrote a book! I couldn't believe it!" And another feeling is that, when I think about what I wrote, I just want to throw up all over myself.
22. And fact 21# leads me to start a new story :D
    

You Are My Veggie Valentines!!!

Not my average Valentine's Day!
I had a date!
Well, this time is an exception.
Don't get me wrong, love applies to all, even your bloggie old ladies can be your dates too! (I know we are not that old, but each of us always tries to depress each other about aging. So there!) Besides, it was my belated birthday catch up, and Kunna also came along!!!

We made our Valentine's day full of colors, even pink was not present! We had trouble meeting up at first, but nothing can stand between our love!!!

Okay, I better stop and get my act together now.

Well, let me introduce our new member to the Veggie Table (though we ate fish fried that day). This is Kunna, the most outstanding extraordinaire in the Grandma Circle- both in professional and love life. I had never met her before, but we have been bloggie friends since ages ago. I remember I've found her blog and thought she was a sweet and innocent someone, but after I got to know her more, Omb! She's not just another pretty face!!!

Her veggie name is Slek Krei, aka lemongrass, which I am so proud to be the giver of it. And when Panharath and I were driving to the Royal Café, P even joked something like this, "Kunna is gonna be late, probably she's still busy combing her leaves."
I was like, "Hahahahaa!!! And make sure she has pretty roots!"

Here is when Lemongrass gave out her autographs to us, because I asked her to do so, but she insisted to give just her hand-writing of our names, which made me want to ask her, how she could make a living without her signature? But then I realized even her hand-writing looked artistic already! 

Cabbage and Garlic (Kelly) make a very healthy dish!

Kelly had to skip her evening class to join us. She even gave us roses! And I ate it all! I meant it was made of yummy chocolate, hello? Before we know it, we got an inside scoop about her jot-jot-jot thing too. How sweet!

So here is about me and MINE! That's my birthday present from Cabbage Panharath! It brought out the child in me. I was clapping my hands and laughed like a five-year-old when I opened this gift. It's a Pop Up children story. She knows I love children books. And the other ones below are also from P! She said the character of the books, Clarice Bean is just like me! She said the way we talk also the same, silly and so head-knock-able!

Isn't my date hot, everyone?

What Goes with Ice Cream?

Friends and some good books are my answer.

We don't just know each other through a tiny wire of internet, but we continue to reach out for each other and stay in touch in real life. Good friends are hard to find. If you see them coming, my first advice is to grab them by the necks and never let go, and don't forget to make fun of them as much as possible!! Because they never get mad at you, they will always get your jokes. That's what makes me feel lucky in my friendship. A million thanks girls, for making everything more beautiful just by being you.

I don't know why, but every time we have to go back home, I always miss this girl. It seems like there are things I wanted to ask her and learn more about her life, but couldn't get through. Maybe we both are the same, introvert and way too alike. I wish we could set aside our inhumanly busy lives and spend more fun time with one another.

Panharath: "Anyone want ice cream horn?!!"

You know, if I say it's not part of my nature to make fun my friends, I would be the biggest lair on earth. And you can't tell it through this photographic masterpiece! Yep, I took it, because this girl has a way of being my laughingstock. I just couldn't help admiring her silliness. But she is, without a slightest doubt, the most important person to color our moment together.

The Legend of Slek Krei & Spey Kdoup

If you are a first-time artist. 

But with a humble sense of humor. 

You can do a comic art like this to mock your friends when you're bored. 

Which is what I have done here. Well, it's just a tongue in the cheek joke, but I hope you guys enjoy it.

My bloggie girlfriends have been calling me by a veggie name "Khnei", because I did a comic story entitled, "Ginger", which is "Khnei" in Khmer. And as a person who likes to practice the law of Karma, I named them back with silly veggie names. 

So my friend, Kunna, the one who started it all, is now called, "Oun Slek Khrei" (Darling Lemongrass!). 

And Panharath, who is an enthusiastic follower, is now called, "Oun Spey Kdoup" (Darling Cabbage!).
Somehow, I find these veggie names suit them both perfectly!!!

Plus, they also gave me the inspiration to draw this mocking cartoon of them. In fact, it comes from our conversation regarding the dot-dot-dot subject. It's totally a Cambodian joke that you can totally get. And even if you don't, the cartoon version of them is still funny, right? 

Here is how they did it:  

Kunna said: "Eiii ya, talking about having babies already huh??? How about the big day? Soon, I wish!"

Panharath: "I've wanted to have babies yu hay!!! Min doch jea Neak Neang Slek Krei te!!! Ot jang upgrade tov Lok Srey te reu??"

Me: "You see? Kunna. She's more speedy than you are. You're going to lose a race to the Children Village in no time! ahahahaha...!"

Ginger, the Kindergartener

I made this comic book for my extra course at the university. It's about a five-year-old girl named Ginger. This story is a mixture of my childhood memories, and present-day experiences, but some are also fictional.

Well, I am a comic nuts. When I was a kid, I saved my allowance to buy a bunch of Khmer comic stories, Tum Teav, Soprorsith, Thon Chey, etc. I guess my childhood life had always been surrounded by stories and comics. And then I got a chance to learn how to make one of my own! I also received a lot of inspirations from the western cartoonists, like Jim Davis and Spiky, the creators of  "Garfield" and "Peanuts".

This one is more influenced by Peanuts. A group of children who seemed to have interesting childhood journey around their little world. And Garfield is a big fat cat, remember? He's my idol! I wish I could continue to make comics, but reality doesn't like to allow a person to do everything she wants.

Anyway, one of the episodes I dedicated to my beautiful prof. I hope you guys enjoy them. And tell me what you think. *Wink*