What I Wish I’d Known is a regular series where we ask some of our favourite people in the book industry to reflect on their careers. In this instalment, we asked writers at Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2023 to share some of the unexpected and useful things they’ve learned along the way.
Image: Eka Kurniawan signing books (2023). Source: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
Rebecca Makkai – I Have Some Questions For You
Early on, I had to learn to lean into my own idiosyncrasies. Most writers go through a literary adolescence where they’re trying to write like everybody else, in the same way that a thirteen-year-old wants to dress like everybody else. That’s in terms of style but also in terms of substance, you know, what kind of people are you writing about, what kind of stories are you writing, where are you setting them.
I don’t think I realised the extent to which I was doing that, but one funny thing when I look back: I’m not from New York City but I would set a lot of my short stories there because I felt like that’s where short stories ought to be set. It was a long process of learning that the things that I might have been embarrassed about—you know, you don’t want to write about people like yourself, who you might see as boring—are actually the most interesting things you could be writing about.
Eka Kurniawan – Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash
When I write stories, usually I have no kind of big idea. I just write the first sentence and then another sentence, and so on. More ideas come from the process. You just have to write. You have to sit down with a piece of paper or computer and just write anything—anything! The more you just think about the writing is not good. Like everything, you have to experience it. Your hands have to touch the pen or the keyboard. Writing is something you do again and again, and from there you become the expert.
Tracey Lien – All That’s Left Unsaid
The thing I wish I’d known when I started out is that there is no one way to do it. Do whatever that is that works for you. Whether you are a binge writer or someone who has the write a little bit every day, whether you have rituals, whether you don’t care for rituals! It doesn’t matter. So long as you can manage to show up and write, that’s good enough.
Antony Loewenstein – The Palestine Laboratory
I’ve been a journalist for over twenty years, and if you write about political issues, works that are critical of state power, you are going to get a lot of backlash. You get all the hate mail, death threats—a lot of praise as well from some circles. It forces you to grow a thick skin. You may get attacked a lot, and that’s something I’ve been forced to get used to.
The best piece of advice I’ve received is to not give up even if you do get attacked. Your instinctual reaction would be to withdraw, to curl up in a ball. If you feel that you’re right, and hopefully other people agree with you, then don’t give up. Don’t give up if people are attacking you because often the most powerful have a good incentive to silence those who are criticising them. And they might give the impression of being powerful, but they’re actually very insecure.
Intan Paramaditha – The Wandering
Not to rush. I wish I’d known that it takes years and years sometimes just to revise a draft. The real process starts after the first draft is done, and what’s more important is the revision stage.
Susie Anderson – The Body Country
When I began writing poetry, I thought the most important thing to write about was love. Having it, not having it, seeking it, revelling in it or recovering from it. And I found myself stifled or lacking inspiration when I didn’t have any romantic interests. But my writing started to settle when I sunk into my depths, hidden parts of me, or what I found hard to bring up.
I wish that I had known to embrace the fullness of my self. Grief about the death of my father, how that created dis/connections between me and my Aboriginality, the journey to connect with culture, place and family. For a while, I clung onto ideas about style, emulating trendy authors, skimming the surface, instead of trying to write things that interested or challenged me, or taught me things about myself. Some of it was classic imposter syndrome that we all have, and other parts I knew were because of the experience growing up Aboriginal in Australia: you were either invisible, assimilated (not Blak enough) or you lived in a remote community (too Blak). I hid myself.
What I deeply wish I’d known was not to be embarrassed about those hidden parts, because I think that’s what other people connect with the most. Not that you have to write something revelatory in order to be relatable, but I think readers connect with a sense of seeking. I wish I’d been more proud, and known I didn’t have to be a voice of authority on anything, that just as it is, my voice is enough. Mostly, I have moved away from the limitations I placed on myself. I think.
I’ve recently been given the advice to ‘follow the heat’, which is something I wish I’d heard as a much younger writer, but it is something I think a writer at any stage can use to light the way forward.
Virginia Helzainka – Unspoken Poetry Slam
I wish I had more exposure to Indonesian literature. To learn more about the structural elements of poetry, because right now everyone is about freedom of expression—not so much about being lyrically right, not using proper grammar. It’s nice in a way, this freedom to express—I don’t feel limited in what I can write.
But I also want to learn what people thought of poetry in the past. Right now, it’s more just about free writing and letting out all my feelings. But it would be good to know the essence of poetry from the beginning.
Pip Finkemeyer – Sad Girl Novel
The best advice I’ve seen is from someone who has been cancelled. I was thinking, does the advice still count, because I think it’s really good? It was something like, instead of studying creative writing, if you’re a young person, don’t be in any rush to do anything. Just go out and have life kick the shit out of you and then start writing. I found that very consoling because I couldn’t afford to study writing and spent my twenties working. I found that really helpful. I felt like I wasn’t upset that I had to wait to start writing because I knew once I started what I wrote would be better.
I wish I’d known that the chances of success weren’t as slim as I thought. Because when I really decided to commit to writing a novel, I thought it was a project that I was doing for myself that wouldn’t turn into anything, and there was no chance of financial reward or interest in my book. We get told constantly how impossible it is for young writers to be successful. But if you’ve actually written a novel, and taken the time to redraft and make it better, I think your chances are good—if you do the work.
Michael Pedersen – The Cat Prince & Other Poems
To read more literature, to listen to more literature, to debate more literature, to talk about it and only once it’s ready to burst out of you do you sit down and write this stuff.
The best advice I’ve ever received is: Michael, your writing probably ends one stanza before you think it does.
Norman Erikson Pasaribu – Happy Stories, Mostly
I wish I knew that it may take time to find the right friends. That writers are actually people—they can be good, or not good.
The best writing advice I’ve ever received…get a job (laughs).
