It is National Novel Writing Month, also known as Nanowrimo. I started doing this for two years as a teenager, coping with A levels and school during my first few years. I have finished writing 50,000 words. I didn’t find any of those early novels good or even editable, so they wound up in the trash. But what Nanowrimo taught me is that you are never too old or young to start. A writer’s apprenticeship is a long one, and even after being published, I still have a lot to learn.
But the most important thing here, I feel, is to start writing.
I think I wrote the very very first draft of Dragonhearted when I was in university. I was doing a creative writing module and I had made the main character a Chinese boy. Why were main characters always Chinese boys? I have always wanted to read books about kick-ass girls who saved the world, and so I wrote another story that had one. I wanted her to be smart and spunky, so I put that into my background work. Xin Long and Four Eyes had character sheets on the paper, and they were only that. I referred to my character sheets when I wrote the first draft. The first draft never made it to the final product, but it laid the groundwork for what I was going to write. I showed it to a friend, J, who commented that I had made her too smart for her age. That was a valid piece of criticism. It was something for me to work on, and so I did another draft. I fleshed it out and expanded it. I continued writing it.
There was other noise in the background that contributed writing to the book. Chinese myths and legends, the magic of childhood, and everyday school problems went into it. I continued writing and developing it. I spent the months after graduation writing and editing it while looking for a job and then I entered the Scholastic Asian Book Award. It later won the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award.
None of this would have happened if I hadn’t decided to write about Xin Long, the kick-ass Chinese girl protagonist I wanted to read about. I started writing it, and I kept on going until I finish it.
I have to do the same with the sequel. I have to start and then keep going. I can do this.
You can do this.