Have You Ever Thougth About Writing A Book About Your Life In Thailand?

[AA1]

Many of us expats in Thailand now have time so why not write as it does stimulate the mind and provides us with a constructive challenge.

Not many have the skills to write Best Sellers like "Thai Girl" but we ALL have different stories inside us based on our own experiences.

Garro, you have yours which could be very helpful and supportive to those going through what you have been through.

Many years ago, when my son was about 13, we met up with an old childhood friend of mine who I had not seen for about 20 years. Afterwards my son said to me "Dad. You did have fun when you were little"!! So now with time available I am writing of My Early Years on a Norfolk (England) farm just after the 2nd. World War for him (and my daughters) to learn what life was really like then. WOW - it really makes me realise how much things have changed. It is a fascinating experince for me as well as being hopefully interesting for them. I am thoroughly enjoying it and have also learnt a lot about myself!! I am not writing it for public publication but just a small number of copies for the family BUT you never know!!

Write and enjoy it. It will help you - It may help others - It might even become a Best Seller.

You just don't know till you have tried!!!!

[Andrew Hicks]

I wrote a very long blog about my experiences at a Thai temple where I went to detox. It ended up over 46,000 words but when I re-read I realised that it was very dry and boring. It was my first attempt at writing. I am now totally re- writing the whole thing.

It may never reach a stage where it is publishable but I would like it to end up the best I can make it. I have enjoyed the experience and it is nice knowing that I can write a book (even if it is only me who wants to read it). I can also now type a lot faster

In answer to your original question, I'm just finishing a book about my experiences meeting my Thai wife and setting up home with her in Surin. Most of all I enjoy the actual writing but now I think I've got something I'd like to share with a wider audience. The flavour of it can be found on my blog on Thaivisa.

I've read your blog too about your experiences and I found it utterly compelling. You have a nice spare style that reads well and is potentially publishable. My upcoming book's a feel-good story while yours is more dark. Even so, Thai prison stories are equally so and sell very well, so you're in with a chance.

There might even be a specialist publishing niche via one of the societies that assist with the problems of alcoholism because I'm sure your insight into the Thai experience would be of great interest to them.

A typical novel is 100,000 words and I'm looking at about 130,000 for mine, so yours is quite short. But that could suit the topic, unless your sthe develops further dimensions.

Like me, you write for pleasure and find it therapeutic, though publication is always an ultimate dream.

I hope it happens!

Best wishes,

Andrew

Thanks a lot Andrew, it must be nice to have so many of your books in print.

Have you ever seen anybody reading 'Thai Girl'? I imagine that it would be a nice experience.

After I finished my blog I was a bit dissapointed with it.

I forced myself to write at least a 1,000 words a day and this was at the same time my son was born.

I was often rush to get it finished.

I showed it to other people and they said that it had far to much tell and not enough show.

They also said it had too much passive voice.

I am slowly re-writing in first-person present tense. I am not sure if this will work or not. The main thing is that I am learning a lot. I want to teach English full-time next year and writing has re-kindled my interest in words.

No, Garro, I'm still waiting for the day I come cross somebody reading "Thai Girl", but then living in the rice fields of Surin, it's a bit of a forlorn hope. It's been a good moment though on meeting people who say, 'Not the guy who wrote the novel?" They've always been complimentary but then I always seem to meet nice people.

Yes, writing is a craft and one you can learn. Kinokuniya in the Emporium, Phrom Pong has a remarkably good section on creative writing.

Using the active voice is one of the standard rules as is 'show not tell'. However, the application of that is limited in your case as you are telling your own story in the first person singular. On reading your stuff, I don't think that was a valid criticism. You were telling like it is it from inside and you do it very well.

One small tip... use a thesaurus. There's an awful lot of words around. Bad writers pile on the adjectives but generally you want one word that really is the right one. If I'm stuck, I try Roget and invariably it helps me out. It's an amazing book.

Good luck with the teaching. The writing will certainly make you a better teacher.

Choke dee khrap!

Andrew

[PeaceBlondie]

We all have stories, and some of us have had far more experiences and stories. I doubt, however, that each of us has a novel inside our brain, or that we have the skill to put it down on paper well enough to make a best-seller. Write it out anyway!

[garro]

Any more budding writers out there?

[hawaiianeyes]

Any more budding writers out there?

I would like to write a book about this whole "Bonnie Killed Clyde" Dubie story*.

(* sorry in case you have not seen those TV threads, this is the case of Daniel Dubie's murder by Margaret Crane in Chiang Mai in July 2006 going to trial sometime in 2008. This story is also the focus of an upcoming America's Most Wanted episode as these folks are being looked at in relation to more than one open case and have been linked to predatory scams to lure young women into their weird world for years.........)

I am not a writer per se even though I enjoy writing. What I write seems to have too much baggage or some type of awkward weight when I read it back.

Any professionals out there want a author/co-author this kind of book? I know the story from many angles and it is all still in the present tense! It certainly covers many "novel" type aspects of plot, character development, world travel and life in Thailand.

I don't think I could write it alone as it is all so close!? How do folks write about their own experience without it sounding like "turgid prose"?

Aloha,

HE

Edited October 14, 2007 by hawaiianeyes

[Gary A]

I could write a VERY accurate biography of my life in Thailand but no one would believe it and if anyone ever read it they would consider it a comedy fiction. I would be offended by that so it is better to just keep it to myself. Ah, the memories! Mostly good.

[ilyushin]

For sure!