YIPPEE! I have finally managed to get the 10th
episode up, on the very last day of the vacation — not bad timing huh?
It all started off with a casual proposal by some colleagues when we were on a MRT train one fine evening. I thought the idea was quite fun, and I thought the story would be a short one, maybe 4 installments at most. God knows I got carried away (as usual) and ended up cooking up 10 parts, with each longer than its predecessor, stretched over a period of 2 months. I even ended up writing a theme song for it, something which I had least expected. I've written many Chinese songs but only did a handful of English one, so this will add to my little collection.
At this point, I must, once again, say sorry to those who might be upset with the liberty I took in borrowing their quotes. This goes especially to 2 guys — both enemies of Garf, but friends of mine in real life — Wern Chau and Turkey. I feel so bad that I decided to poke fun at myself in the last episode, taking revenge on your behalf. That serves me right. Maybe after this nobody will dare to send me e-mails, or write in the bbs, for fear that I would lift their quotes again. Oh, you can have my assurance that this will be the last of such kind of nonsense from me.
Writing this story really wasn't exactly an easy task for me, though I must admit that I found pleasure in doing it. Firstly, I wrote the parts on the fly. There was no master plot; for each part I just put down whatever that happened to dart into my mind. It wasn't possible to amend an earlier part once it had been posted. Secondly, my English is crude. The main reason I dare chose to write a story based on lots of quotations from others is that I can then use as little of my own words as possible, a way (I thought) to get around my language deficiency. Thirdly, my mood had a great deal of influence on the things I wrote, and on the development of the story. As a result, the style (if there is any at all) and tone was not consistent.
As this can be considered my first attempt in English story writing (though I put up one before this last year; but that was a true account which cannot be counted as a story) I am interested in your comments. All comments will be appreciated, including queries and flames.
Allow me to talk a little bit about the story. Although the main purpose was to have fun, I did try to, at appropriate junctures, inject some serious notes on life, study, friendship and of course, love relationship (which takes up most of the later part of the story), albeit superficially. In fact, while screening through the personal names for selection, I came across many good ones that have touched me. And I believe they will stay in my heart for the many more years to come.
Before I wrote episode 10, a handful of you came or wrote to me and asked for a happy ending. I wonder if YOU are happy with the ending I offered. Maybe you are not. In writing a story, the writer has the power to choose the kind of ending he likes, or at least he has some freedom in choosing among possible alternatives. Life, however, is more dynamic and is full of uncertainties. Sometimes you are not in a position to decide, at other times you are. Let's make the best out of both situations. As my 'brother' told me two days ago, "one should be the controller of one's own life". How true. But there are also times when one must be brave enough to face reality (and more often than not, the reality is harsh and cruel). In short, IMHO, neither a pure pessimistic, nor optimistic mentally is healthy; a good balance is desirable. But alas, there's no hard and fast formula to achieve that balance. We learn along the way.
And before I get too carried away (I already am), I'd better stop here.
And some more final words (sorry), I enjoy reading the stories by YONGSHUH (@dingbat@) and TEHTORNG. Hope to see more contributions from our own people.
And welcome to Term II!
H.U.G.
Aaron
Posted on: 17th November 1991
Copyright reserved © Garf 1991