In the past two months, I've written two short stories: "The Water Tower" and "Odd One Out".
"The Water Tower" is about two young boys who go exploring one evening, and they find a water tower. They try to climb it ("Imagine the view!"), but there's always something to hinder their plan. I have submitted this 3100 word short story to Silverfish Books to be included in Silverfish New Writing 6, but I will only know at the end of May whether the story is to be included or not.
"Odd One Out" is about a Malaysian father who has recently brought his son home from England. He sends his son to a Malay school so the son can reintegrate himself with Malaysians, but the father soon finds out it's not as easy as sending him to a school and letting things take care by itself. At 4700 words, this is by far, the longest story I've written so far. It was also the hardest. I think I felt like jumping off cliffs numerous times during the course of writing this piece. "Odd One Out" was submitted to the British Council to be included in New Writing 15. I have no idea when they'll notify me (if they ever do), nor do I have any idea whether they even received my submission!
I can't express how relieved I am to be able to submit both pieces on time. I hope they get accepted! In the meantime, I shall work on my other short stories. I've got two (used to be three, but I'll get to that in a mo') short stories in the pipeline: a story about Zeus in a Malaysian taxi, and the other I tentatively call Looking for Tchaikovsky, which is set in a music shop in Ipoh (where most of my stories take place).
The Zeus story's actually done, but I'm going through a rewrite (my second). Tchaikovsky's still plodding along.
I mentioned I was actually working on another short story. Well, I was, until I decided it would be too long too fit into short story format (which I consider between 3000 and 7000 words). So now, I'm planning to write a novel based on that idea.
Pretty busy, aren't I? I've got literary pretensions, I have! So gotta write, write, write!
"The Water Tower" is about two young boys who go exploring one evening, and they find a water tower. They try to climb it ("Imagine the view!"), but there's always something to hinder their plan. I have submitted this 3100 word short story to Silverfish Books to be included in Silverfish New Writing 6, but I will only know at the end of May whether the story is to be included or not.
"Odd One Out" is about a Malaysian father who has recently brought his son home from England. He sends his son to a Malay school so the son can reintegrate himself with Malaysians, but the father soon finds out it's not as easy as sending him to a school and letting things take care by itself. At 4700 words, this is by far, the longest story I've written so far. It was also the hardest. I think I felt like jumping off cliffs numerous times during the course of writing this piece. "Odd One Out" was submitted to the British Council to be included in New Writing 15. I have no idea when they'll notify me (if they ever do), nor do I have any idea whether they even received my submission!
I can't express how relieved I am to be able to submit both pieces on time. I hope they get accepted! In the meantime, I shall work on my other short stories. I've got two (used to be three, but I'll get to that in a mo') short stories in the pipeline: a story about Zeus in a Malaysian taxi, and the other I tentatively call Looking for Tchaikovsky, which is set in a music shop in Ipoh (where most of my stories take place).
The Zeus story's actually done, but I'm going through a rewrite (my second). Tchaikovsky's still plodding along.
I mentioned I was actually working on another short story. Well, I was, until I decided it would be too long too fit into short story format (which I consider between 3000 and 7000 words). So now, I'm planning to write a novel based on that idea.
Pretty busy, aren't I? I've got literary pretensions, I have! So gotta write, write, write!
Rather intrigued by the first story about the water tower. I can see it as a strong metaphor on life if you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, good luck with your submissions.
I suppose you could see it that way, but I have to admit, I wrote it with no symbolism in mind. Not consciously anyway!
ReplyDelete