Writing is what I go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. I have been writing since 1980, and I have been publishing since 1996.
While being a university student, I was a part-time scriptwriter. While being a lawyer, I began to write for newspapers, magazines and online media.
I do not resist change. Simply, I do not want to change myself—writing so becoming a part of my life.
My 15th book No Time For Hello (怕打招呼) is recently released. The publisher is again my great supporter Cosmos Books (天地圖書). This reputable bookstore was founded in 1976. Its establishment in Wan Chai is not an only place that sells and publishes books, but where book lovers can meet and talk about books. Their old boss Mr Chan Chung Ling (陳松齡) who passed away a few years ago is an honourable man that we love, and he lives on in our hearts forever.
No Time For Hello is a collection of essays and short stories written by me. The book is an openness of my soul. Sincerity may not help me get more readers. It will hopefully help you who have read my books to understand me.
Career development takes place in stages because it is a lifelong process of erring self-exploration. “Writers are not born, they are made.” There are 4 stages of one finally turning into a professional writer. What activates each stage in the determination to set goals. What walls off different stages is obviously the lack of his discipline. It is too tempting for a writer to be slacking, especially when writing is an expendable business nowadays. This is why it is so invigorating to suddenly find an article with style and substance.
- Talent is the beginning of all creations. You write what you desire and imagine. People encourage that you have written well. You thus want to bring more of your talent into being. Often, talent falls apart when you do not persist. Nothing in the universe can stop your gifted skill from letting go if you give up.
- You then continue to write despite tiredness because you have the interest to express in words. Love what you write and write what you love. “A true passion that burns within your soul is one that can never be put out.” This 2nd stage is all about your wholehearted eagerness.
- Soon, your passion metamorphoses into a commitment. When you are good enough as a writer, media and newspapers will ask you to write as a routine job. Your tasks have to be performed regularly or frequently. They may be on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or yearly basis. The consistent order ironically lacks the flexibility which a writer often desires. If your writing cannot make the deadline, you will be fired by your clients! The duty to write is no longer about the mere passion to do so.
- Ultimately, writing continues to haunt a writer’s destiny. Writing is stuck in his fate and he cannot get rid of it from his life. A writer may feel bored or exhausted. Yet, he still has to write as there are always many undertaken commitments ahead of him.
Every day starts with a need to write and that is surely not a very pleasing appetiser. I will not last a day without thinking about what to write. A writer is hungry for the best idea to come out and yet it is often like getting over the rainbow. We will not appreciate water until the well runs dry. In spite of the lack of inspiration, a writer nevertheless must keep writing. If not, decades of effort will have been for nothing. One love, one enemy, one heart, one destiny…
There is no pleasure or enlightenment so lasting as reading. There is no friend as good as a paperback book－I always feel contented and secure with it by my side. Reading as our cultural values are no longer respected and sometimes being degraded in Hong Kong. People think they can get enough nutrition from social media or mobile messages.
Do go to support me, Cosmos Books and the surviving culture of Hong Kong by getting a book from the following address: 30 Johnston Road, Wan Chai. Do you remember the beautiful and romantic tramway outside the bookstore?
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