| Like the students who entered this competition, I | | | | Imagine yourself in a place you don't know too well, |
| started writing when I was quite young. I wrote a lot | | | | such as someone else's house, a shop or a |
| of poetry in my early teens. I wrote a novel when I | | | | restaurant, for instance. You walk past a door that |
| was 18 and another when I was 20. Thankfully all of | | | | says "PRIVATE" in big letters. Would you go in? I |
| that was long ago put in the bin. Actually I lent the | | | | don't think so. |
| second novel to a friend - it was hand written and, | | | | Now I can understand that most of you have been |
| of course, the only copy. I lost contact with the | | | | reading Harry Potter and watching Lord of the Rings |
| friend and I never saw the novel again. Perhaps his | | | | and other fantasies. I read Lord of the Rings as a |
| aesthetic judgment was better than mine. | | | | teenager when it was a cult book, like Harry Potter is |
| One thing I have done since August 1973 is keep a | | | | now. So I can understand when most of you start to |
| journal. I am told that writers like to call them | | | | write you think in terms of fantasy worlds, elves, |
| "commonplace books". They aren't diaries.. They're a | | | | goblins, ghosts, griffin, gorgons, gargoyles and giants. |
| cross between a scrapbook and a notebook, like an | | | | But it's also worth remembering that you are |
| artist's sketchbook. You come across something you | | | | inventing a private world. A reader comes to your |
| think is worth recording and you write it down. | | | | work and finds a door marked PRIVATE. Sometimes, |
| Sometimes it might be a review of a book or a | | | | obviously, it works, but a lot of the time readers will |
| concert. You might be doing research on some topic | | | | not go through that door. It's private, after all. |
| and need a place to keep notes. And there might be | | | | I think that the way a really good writer works is to |
| just stupid things that crop up. Here's some | | | | meet you in your own world, your own experience |
| examples: | | | | or your own knowledge, and then by suggestion |
| A restaurant menu in Greece offers "stuffed | | | | gently takes you somewhere new, introduce you to |
| corsettes". And how about this for the importance of | | | | different ideas and different ways of seeing the |
| proof reading? What a difference one letter can | | | | world. This doesn't mean that all writing has to be set |
| make! A restaurant menu in Chinatown, London, | | | | in the here and now. No. for instance, from our |
| offered - Braised crap with ginger and spring onions | | | | history lessons we all know something about the First |
| and Chicken in spit. More seriously, a proverb in | | | | World War, though it is unlikely that any of us in the |
| Kikamba that I noted when I lived in Kenya reads: | | | | room experienced it. But as a writer you can set |
| "Nyamu inynugaa kitheka ki ikomie - An animal smells | | | | your work in that period because it is common |
| of the forest in which it slept." The man who taught | | | | knowledge. Your reader will be with you from the |
| me the proverb said that it would always apply to | | | | start. A very great English writer, for instance, called |
| me and my memories of Kenya. | | | | Pat Baker has set several of her novels in that |
| And then there's a section where I describe an old | | | | period. |
| madman who used to hang around in the market | | | | So if I have any advice to offer budding young |
| place in the town where I lived. One day he cursed | | | | writers it's this. Try to find your own roots as a |
| me so that I would change into a snake. Ten years | | | | writer, as a person and as a creator. Try to relate |
| later he became chapter five of my book, Mission. | | | | your ideas to a time and place you know or know |
| When I lived in Brunei, I was invited to meet Queen | | | | something about. And draw the reader into your |
| Elizabeth when she made a visit there. I have saved | | | | world by starting on common ground, not in a private |
| all the documents telling me how I should address | | | | world. |
| her, how to bow and how we should not worry | | | | And how do you do that? You ROT. R - O - T. |
| because she was good at putting people at ease. Sir | | | | Read, Observe, Think. |
| Ivan Callan introduced the woman to my right as Jan, | | | | R is for read. Read, read, read - and when you read |
| saying, "This is Jan. She's about to set off on the | | | | something, review it. And say more than just what |
| Chay Blythe Round The World Yacht Race". Mrs | | | | happens in the book. A student of mine once offered |
| Queen immediately said, "You must be mad!". Sir Ivan | | | | me a review of a book called Ali Goes to Market. His |
| smiled and moved on to me. "This is Phil, who | | | | review was, "It's a book about Ali. He goes to |
| organises all the concerts for Brunei Music Society". | | | | market". I rejected his review. So read and review |
| "Yuk", said Mrs Queen and moved on. It's all recorded | | | | and write your thoughts into your journal. |
| in the commonplace book. | | | | O is for observe. There's a world out there. We |
| The real use of the journal is to support you when | | | | inhabit it. Look at it, describe it. If you come across |
| you get an idea that needs fleshing out. OK, you | | | | something of interest, make a note of it and how |
| have the idea, but then with luck you have hundreds | | | | you felt or how it affected you. In our world, giants |
| of snippets of information, observations and | | | | don't change into mice and lizards with red eyes don't |
| background that can be woven together to make it | | | | fire laser guns. But millions of other things even more |
| more interesting - and it's all real! It takes time and it's | | | | surprising, more interesting and less predictable do |
| hard work, but the results are wonderful. | | | | happen. |
| I have read all of the winning and commended entries | | | | And T is for Think. Take time to think, to reflect on |
| and I do want to say a very big "Well done" to all of | | | | what you experience and, if you think it's interesting, |
| you. I thought the stories were exciting and very | | | | write it down. |
| well written. Those of you who have a real interest | | | | So to conclude, make public worlds and not private |
| in writing should try to develop it because you are all | | | | ones and ROT in your commonplace book, read, |
| talented. I do, however, want to offer some advice | | | | observe and think, and then make your notes. As |
| on how you might develop that talent, and I think | | | | writers it is our aim to communicate and to do that in |
| that this advice applies to just about all of the | | | | a public, not a private place. |
| entries. | | | | |