Why Would I Write

  • A Book Affair

    A Book Affair

    As part of my room decluttering exercise, I’ve unearthed a ton of books I don’t read anymore. Before I give them away, I’ve decided that I’m going to try to get some money for them first. So, in a couple of hours, I’ll be attending A Book Affair – a pop up book market which takes place every Wednesday and Sunday in Taman Desa. I’ve never attended any of these events before but it seems like a pretty cool event, and a great way to pass on the gift of reading (and fund future keycaps lul). Hopefully there will be plenty of people attending today’s sale!

    This is only the first batch of books that I’ve found in my room, as I uncover more in the future, I’ll be sure to unload them at the sale.

    So if you’re in the mood to buy secondhand books at cheap prices, feel free to drop by.

    A Book Affair [Facebook]

    Multipurpose hall, Desa Permai Condo, Jalan Morib, Taman Desa, 58100 Kuala Lumpur [Map]
    2pm – 9pm

    And I thought I was done selling books.

  • Word Vomit

    I remember reading a writing tip a while ago – start off your day by vomiting out a page of words. I had forgotten about it until earlier today when I was feeling a bit stuck creatively. Out of the blue, the tip resurfaced and I decided to give it a shot. Because why not? It only takes a few minutes to do, and if it didn’t work, at least I could say I tried. I started Microsoft Word, and just started word vomiting. Initially there was a bit of resistance. It was challenging to find the words to say. So I decided to do what I do best – write about what I was doing.

    So I wrote about writing, and suddenly, one sentence lead to another, and another, and another. I just kept going and going until I had slightly more than a page worth of words. It felt good. I don’t know how to explain it. A lot of it was repetition and nonsense, but at least I was putting words down. I wrote about everything and anything that came to mind. It was kinda therapeutic. It was like the page was my doctor listening to me spew nonsense.

    Anyway, long story short – it helped. After I finished with my page of word vomit, I was unstuck. I could write much more freely and came up with a bunch of ideas for work. Not sure if it’s something I’ll do everyday (I wonder if it will lose effectiveness in the long run?), but it’s something new I have in my bag of tricks to revert to in the future.

    (No, I’m not publishing today’s word vomit, it’s not worth anyone’s time.)

  • Bounce

    “I can’t wait to see her again.” He smiled to himself.

    It had been two weeks since he had last seen her. She spent the summer break at her parents’ place out of state. So he had been looking forward to this day. He kept his feet on the gas pedal as he drove towards her house. Traffic was great this evening – it was smooth all the way. Less than ten minutes after leaving his house, he was at hers.

    He saw her standing outside as he parked his car. He couldn’t wait to tell her all about what had happened during his break. Elated, he hopped out of his car and dashed towards her. She had finished smoking a cigarette and was putting out the butt with her flip-flops.

    “Baby!” he greeted her, arms outstretched.

    While she was only dressed in a casual T-shirt and shorts, she stood radiating like a goddess under the moon light. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.

    A few paces from her, just out of arms reach, he saw the smile on her face straighten. Like a trampoline returning to its neutral state, it took the wind out from his step.

    “I’ve put all your stuff in here,” she said as she handed him a paper bag. Then she turned and walked back into her house.

    Writing Prompt from Reddit: Write either a genuinely nice story or a story that looks nice and then has an unexpected turn. Don’t let any people reading know which you wrote until the end.