Amos Kwok

Amos Kwok is the author of the Crossroads Series, a set of four novels about teenagers facing life-changing problems. The four are Walking the Balloon, Skive, Elevator Food, Skive and Nearest Available Chick Syndrome. He won the second prize of the 2001 Singapore Broadcasting Authority Scriptwriting Competition with a script entitled "Ceciliation". You can find out more about Amos at:

http://sg.geocities.com/amoskwok/index.html

 

Writers Belvedere (WB):

What makes you decide on the Crossroads series (with Federal Publications)?

WB:

Which of your four novels (Walking the Balloon, Skive, Elevator Food and NACS) gives you the most satisfaction? And, why?

 

AK:

I would say that my last published novel, whichever that may be, would be the one that gives me the most satisfaction. For the moment, this happens to be NACS. It's the longest of my novels, the one with a higher level of English and quite sophisticated in terms of emotional depth. However, Walking the Balloon, being my first published novel will always be special to me.

 

WB:

NACS has a lot of appeal because of its universal theme. Do you see the prospect that you may upgrade and write a resounding romance novel someday soon?

 

AK:

I'm very keen on writing books that focus on fractured relationships. And I'm interested in how men and women, meet, fall in love and break up. I do want to write a book about this but I won't necessarily call it a romance because it wouldn't be in the same vein as a Nicholas Sparks or Mills and Boon story. More like say an Anita Shreve novel.

On Writing

WB:

You have gone great distances (literally) to pursue writing as a profession. What were some of the great lessons you have gleaned from your lecturers and mentor?

 

AK:

When you're surrounded by creative writers and creative people, your own world view and work grows exponentially. Being exposed to different writing styles and ideas certainly helped me to explore my imagination and it certainly improved my technical skills with English. The most important things I've learnt from my lecturers are that writing is 90% re-writing and that editing is what turns your lousy first draft into literary gold. I've also learnt how to take criticism and learn from all comments, the good and the bad.

 

WB:

Are you bothered that a professional writer, from an economic sense, does not seem to be as highly rewarded for their talent in Singapore viz-a-viz other professions like medicine or law?

 

AK:

That's not a fair question to ask. I think the reason why writers are not as well-rewarded financially is because writers cater to the heart and soul of people. Doctors tend to your body; lawyers tend to your legal needs. These needs are quantifiable. But how do you measure love, longing, anger, passion? How much would you pay for someone to move your heart? These things are impossible to measure. Writers write because they have to. They can't imagine anything more important than writing. And getting heard or getting an audience or reader and moving them is payment for a writer. If someone writes thinking it's a way to make money, that writer can never truly reach the pinnacle of his or her craft. But if you write because nothing else appeals to you, you will move a reader's heart and that is the greatest payment of all.

 

WB:

Did you choose to be writer or do you write in response to a compulsion from within (i.e., writing chose you)?

 

AK:

Like I said above, I write because I have to. There are a million stories racing around in my mind every day and I need to share them with others. That is why I write. I write also to keep sane because the inner voices only quieten down when they are shared with others. So in a sense, all writers are crazy--their minds are filled with voices and imaginary characters that are fighting to be heard, fighting for life, fighting to get out.

 

WB:

How would you defend the need for keeping English literature as a required subject in secondary schools?

 

AK:

Literature gives us a soul. Literature is the heart of any society. Literature is the collective mind of a people. Literature encapsulates our hopes, our dreams, our history and our future. Literature touches the heart in a way that other subjects cannot. If we are to nurture a society of caring, feeling and thinking people, you need to have literature in schools.

 

WB:

How close do you think Singapore is to having her first international bestseller published?

 

AK:

Ten years. It's not that we don't have writers who are capable of writing international bestsellers. It's because we our local publishing industry is not only small, but has few ties with the publishing world at large. Our writers don't get a chance to be heard beyond our shores. How many literary agents are there in Singapore?

 

WB:

How would you define a successful writer ?

 

AK:

A successful writer is one who can move a reader from laughter to tears and back again. A successful writer, through his book, has such a powerful hold on a reader that the reader will give up food, rest, and friends just to carrying on reading.

 

On Other Writers / Writings

WB:

Is there any particular writer(s) whose style of writing appeals to you highly?

 

AK:

Martin Cruz Smith, Anne Tyler, Anita Shreve, Anita Diamant, Michael Ondaatje, Graham Swift.

 

WB:

What are some of the most memorable stories that you have read?

 

AK:

Novels that have stayed in my mind are Gorky Park (and the other Arkady Renko Novels), The Pilot's Wife, Resistance, Last Orders, The English Patient, The Accidental Tourist, Saint Maybe. All by my favourite authors as it turns out.

 

Ceciliation

WB:

Congratulations for winning the second prize of the SBA National Scriptwriting Competition 2001. Tell us, how did you come up with Ceciliation?

 

AK:

Ceciliation was meant to be a drama series so I had to think of a character who would have something challenging happen every week. I didn't want to do the regular doctor, lawyer or police officer character so I decided to make my main character a counsellor. This way she would get to meet new people each week and be confronted with fresh problems in each episode. I wanted to write about a woman who was strong on the inside yet fluffy on the outside and that was how Cecilia's character slowly formed. I started with her and slowly build her family and her workplace and colleagues. A lot of this took place in my mind over the period of half a year before I started to take notes on paper.

 

WB: 

Aside from the format, how different is scriptwriting from the novel?

 

 

AK:

First of all, writing for TV and writing a feature length film is different. Film and novel writing are not so different but the novel and the one-hour drama are vastly different. In a one-hour drama, you are limited in story scope because you only have 45 minutes to tell your story so you're limited in the size of your story canvas. You also have to factor in commercial breaks and the viewer's expectations of what to constitutes an hour-long show and so on. With a novel, your storytelling options are limitless. You can have multiple viewpoints, you can tell your story with a thousand pages, you can switch from first person to third person and back again all within a page. These things are all hard to do with television.

 

WB:

What's your take on the screen adaptation of Ceciliation?

 

AK:

The screen adaptation was both a pleasant surprise and a bit of a shock. Shock because I'd played the scenes over and over again in my mind and though the director and actors were faithful to the script, it still turned out different. The actors moved differently from the characters in my head, the lines were delivered differently and the sets looked different in my mind. But it was also a pleasant surprise as the production was well done and it was enjoyable to watch on the second viewing, after the shock of seeing everything so different wore off.

 

WB:

What are some of your favourite movies and what do you like about them?

 

AK:

My favourite movies are Cinema Paradiso, The Three Colours Trilogy, While You Were Sleeping, Jerry Maquire and One Fine Spring Day. I guess what's similar with these movies is that each of them has a longing story as part of the film. In each of them, there is a special kind of love story where the boy should meet the girl but doesn't or the boy meets the girl then loses her. Those kinds of stories are my favourite to watch.

 

Parting Shot

WB:

If you are now addressing a group of aspiring writers, what is the one message that you would like to bring across to them?

 

AK:

Write every day. Write even when you don't feel like it. Write even if you're tired. Write even if what you produce is drivel fit only to be burnt. The only way to be a successful writer is to write and write some more. Just as a marathon runner runs many many miles to build his muscle and stamina, so a writer must keep at his craft in order to get better.

*** THE END ***

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