Shi Min Xie People in real life who resemble characters in my book
It’s quite narcissistic to think that the people I meet resemble the characters in the creative projects I’m working on, but I can’t help it. Usually, I design characters but…
Books I Decided to DNF (Do Not Finish)
There are books that I do not finish, but I don’t remember them. I only remember my favourite books, and those that are particularly wonderful. But I hate not finishing…
We are killing students’ creativity… and here’s what we can do about it
Note: The thoughts in this entry are my own. Before I graduated from university, I was teaching an incredibly smart Primary 5 (and later, Primary 6) kid. He was fascinated…
Su Dongpo got owned by a fart joke once, and it’s really funny.
There’s this post on Tumblr that details what happened. Anyway, Su Dongpo the writer had his own pretensions and wrote this poem to his monk friend, which looked like this:…
Holding Dragonhearted for the first time
Holding your first book in your hands for the first time is a strange and wondrous feeling. I remember rushing to the pop up store at the National Library that…
You don’t need to train as a “journalist” to be a writer
I wish I had known that when I was younger. Some of my readers and friends may know that I used to be a so-called digital journalist, but I don’t…
Bookish Worlds I’d Never Want to Live In
A few weeks ago, my colleague asked me which fictional world I would live in, and my response was none of them. In recent years, dystopias have been very popular,…
Writing is a privilege
A few years ago, I was at the Singapore Writers Festival at a panel of writers. If I get into anymore specifics, I will easily reveal the identity of these…
The Night Circus — A Book Review
The Night Circus is one of those books that made me excited about reading again. You know what I mean. You finish a book, and you’re in a slump. You’re…
I don’t like the question, “What inspires you?”
Sometimes, when I’m interviewed, I get this question. I actually get it a lot. I don’t blame the interviewer. As a writer who is relatively unknown, there isn’t that much…