Perspective

I'm not feeling particularly brilliant tonight so very briefly, let me reintroduce Intersection to you once again:   

First up, meet the stars a.k.a main characters: 

Audra's tale is about holding on and being reluctant to let go; the loneliness of (possibly) being the only one who remembers, while everyone else has moved on. 

As for Radhesh, his is an elaborate exercise of avoidance, though ignorance doesn't always prove to be bliss. 

Meanwhile,  Chen Hao's adventures raise the question of significance, and whether endings are truly final, or just new beginnings in disguise. 

Lastly, Mastura's endeavours prove that logic isn't always the best rule of thumb, and that everything can become unpredictable in an instance. 

And then of course comes my secondary cast, bringing along with them a touch of romance and a healthy dose of fierce friendship: Dahlia, Darryl and Wei Yin, Terence, and Alfian and Putri, amongst others. 

Lastly, spot these essential themes in my very Malaysian story: Fillial piety, death and loss, delectable cuisine, lots and lots of hantu, quirks of living in a third world nation and not forgetting, a touch of magic and/or the supernatural. 

Okay, that's all my brain has to offer for now. 'Till next time, toodles! 

Climb

It's been hard trying to delve back into writing and polishing this novel. There are only so many hours in a day and plenty of other things demanding my attention. 

It's not that my mind hasn't been on Intersection at all, it's just hard carving out moments to actually put words on a page or to tweak the legions of unrefined prose that had been previously haphazardly strung together. 

Add to that the fact that the longer you stay away from the source material, the harder it is to get back into the right frame of mind and to carry on wherever you left off. And I've so much I've neglected lately, thanks to a copywriting gig that had eaten at most of my creative juices of late. (Not that corporate gigs are all that creative; it's just whenever you have to focus on these kinds of tasks, it leaves little brain left for producing original content, which is what you're after when it comes to your own personal/passion projects). 

I suppose these all seem like excuses to you, dear Reader. Truly sorry to disappoint. This aspiring author here isn't quite as prolific as she'd like to be. 

But well, I haven't 100% given up yet. So I guess that's at least one good thing. 

Although seeing the many successes of other people is disheartening. I mean... not that I am not happy for them. I'm glad for them, and I'm sure they deserve every bit of whatever they've accomplished. But it's just... it'd be nice if my life wasn't always in such stark contrast to everybody else's. That for a change, it was I who was the one reveling in a highly illustrious writing portfolio. One that consists of the things I desire to achieve, not the paid work that I am obligated to complete. 

Anyway, there's some time to spare tonight, even if just a little. So let's hope the dawn brings with it something significant to show. 

Chen Hao's been making good progress in his ghastly journey lately. I guess I should too. He and I, we're pretty similar in many ways after all. 

See you guys in the pages of the story. Hopefully sooner rather than later. 

 

Checkpoint

Heya! 

I realised that I haven't said anything here since 2025 began so here I am to say Happy New Year! It's almost Lunar New Year so there's going to be another round of distractions coming right up. I hope I'll be able to chart more progress before then. 

Just so you know, I have still been working on the novel, though the amount of time I devote to it each day varies. But I think I have been returning to it pretty consistently, and it's like I would have at least reviewed something I've written every day or added some new material to it. 

My ghost main character (MC), Chen Hao's story arc has been challenging to figure out in many ways. First of all, I am not really that clued in with regards to what's typical/accepted/expected of characters who are ghosts. I am also not that knowledgeable about Malaysian folklore on supernatural beings such as ghosts. So I've had to delve a little into these things and hope that good old Google will not fail me.  

I also wanted to be a bit careful about how deeply I dived into anything spiritual/superstitious since I do have my own set of personal beliefs about these things. Although this is a fictional tale, I guess I didn't want to veer too far off from what I am personally okay with. However, for the sake of a good story, I'd also not want to ignore or leave something out just because of my own inhibitions. So it's been a fine balance to keep. 

Another thing I'll still need to review/refine about Chen Hao's part of the novel is that it was meant to be more humourous/lighthearted compared to the somewhat sombre themes that Audra and Radhesh carried in their respective story arcs. This started off fine in the opening scene for Chen Hao, and it did carry over into several other scenes, but I found in the later ones that my mind wasn't as focussed on making something entertaining/funny. Maybe that's because it's been hard enough as it is trying to iron out plot points and make everything believable and engaging enough for you guys to read. 

Ah. I still fret over what you all will think of these whimsical spaces I've created for Chen Hao. I've done what I can to relate real-life incidents/superstitions/lore to the story I wrote for him so that it feels authentically like an experience that a Malaysian ghost might have had, assuming such beings exist in the form that we ascribe to them. 

All in all, writing a story about a ghost in this manner is definitely a first for me. So I suppose I shouldn't be too harsh with myself on it. 

I certainly hope you will grow to love Chen Hao and relate to his journey of coming to terms with who he is and how seemingly commonplace things can have an extraordinary impact. 

Okay, I've still got some time to spare right now and I'd like to devote it to actually working on the novel rather than chattering away here. Haha. See you again real soon!