China: A Writing Inspiration + The Birth of "I Want To Be A Turk!"

And hello again!

From the beginning of this blog's birth, I've been wanting to talk about my China trip. And so I shall!

Back in early 2011, I promised my father that I'll visit him in the June holidays (yeah, our holidays are in June). He is working in China and he suggested that I fly over to find him alone. So to keep my promise, I dropped my schedule in June (which was full of dance rehearsals and the like) and flew to China to visit him.

I thought I'll be more sulky about it because I'm missing out almost a month of rehearsals, but I wasn't. It was really because I was getting really tired and worn out from the daily practice. The trip did me some good; a short getaway. Most of all, I brought my laptop along because I thought it would be a great opportunity to write.

At that time, I was beginning to write again. If you remember, I mentioned in my writing history that I went on a very long hiatus in the middle of writing "Their Memories of Fukinara High". When I wanted to continue the story again, my old readers have left already. Still, I continued to write. I knew that I had one reader who was still waiting for me to finish that story and I knew that I can't let her down until that story is finished.

So anyway, I thought it was a good time to clear my head from the busy day-to-day schedule and write instead.

I've been to Nanjing a few times. However, in this trip I did not have many pictures (because my dear father accidentally deleted them all). All pictures below are taken from good ol' Google. Here, let me show you some pictures of Nanjing and the places I was in. I've been in other places while I was there but I thought I'll just show you the place I was in most of the time.



This is Hunan Road, Nanjing. It is one of the most popular eating streets in the city. Yup, you've heard me. I reside in a hotel that is filled with FOOD. (I was obviously in heaven.) Food prices ranging from USD 1.60 for a large bowl of noodles, to USD 100 for a highclass restaurant, you have your variety right here! This is one end of the street, of which it is right next to a departmental store...




This is the other end of the Hunan street. See that huge-ass hotel on the left? Nope, I didn't stay there. I stayed in a small motel on the right. It was opened by a friend of my father's, over the last 15 years it had been a place of accomodation for my father whenever he's in China for business.



While I was there, he brought me to this tower above, which boasts of one of the nicest daytime cityviews of Nanjing. Indeed, Yuejiang Tower was gorgeous.

Okay, so that's how my four weeks were like. In the weekdays, I'll follow my dad to his company, where he works and I sit by his table and write. In the evening we would return and have dinner. Then I would return to my room and continue writing. Did I mention that I was writing like a mad woman, as if I don't have much time to live and I wanted to write everything? Thinking back I felt kinda bad for leaving my father alone sometimes. Sometimes he hangs out with his friends, but sometimes he leaves me be and watches TV.

On the weekends, if I'm game for it, he'd bring me to tourist attractions, like the tower. I went to the zoo to look at pandas and then we took a train to our ancestral hometown, Hunan, to attend my cousin's wedding.

Honestly? That's A LOT of time to write. So there I was, writing my "Their Memories of Fukinara High" happily. Blogspot and Facebook are banned in China, by the way, leaving me with nothing to muse about. So apart from writing, I was reading fanfiction. I was reading some Final Fantasy VIII fics and then suddenly, I was reading Final Fantasy VII.

Truth is, I knew nothing about FF7 then. I remembered playing it in secondary school, but I can't remember much, except that Aerith died and that my freaking chocobo wouldn't turn gold. So guess what? I spent my time on finalfantasy.wikia, reading up on FF7. Yup, dear readers, that was how I eventually became the expert on FF7 :P The formula is just 'lots of time' and 'finalfantasy.wikia'.

While reading one of the FF7 fics, "From Slum to SOLDIER" by UnchainedMelody94, there was a sudden thought in my head: Yeah, this story looks cool. Maybe I should have an OC like this, but she'll fall in love with Reno instead. (I fell in love with Reno after watching Advent Children... yes, it's 'cause he moved from hooligan-looking to smexy!)

The idea was profound to me. After FF8, I've never ventured into anything apart from Samurai Deeper Kyo. Do I dare to take the plunge? What if my characters were out of character?

Then, as I was reading Samantha Sheffield's "Storm", I was paranoid that our stories will be too similar, and I shared my doubts with her. Thankfully, she encouraged me to give it a try. So, even while finishing "Their Memories of Fukinara High", I began my first chapter of "I Want To Be A Turk!"

And the rest is history.

Of course, I had two weeks to play with, when I began "I Want To Be A Turk!". I was writing like a madwoman who had a burning secret to share. I would eat, sleep, dream and wake up thinking of the story. There was once that I wrote until 11 PM and I was so tired I fell asleep. But my brain was still thinking... I automatically woke up at 5.30 AM, with the only thought in my head: I must get that into the story. Now.

Gee whiz.

Amazingly, it was the fact that I had nothing. Absolutely nothing on my schedule, no facebook or blog to wander around, that my mind cleared and plot ideas just couldn't stop coming. I could focus on writing and enjoying the beautiful China. It was one of the happiest four weeks of my life. I've accomplished a lot, in my opinion.

The stories I've written while in China were:

- Their Memories of Fukinara High (Chapter 41-44)
- Dress Off!
- Brotherhood
- I Want To Be A Turk! (Chapter 1-5)

It was quite a feat for four weeks.

So guess what? Perhaps someday I'll run to another country for four more weeks to write and write only. Alas! My job is not going to let me have that luxury...

Taken from:
- http://www.visitourchina.com/guide/hunan_road.htm
- http://farm1.static.flickr.com/194/482597031_7caabb5a6d.jpg
- http://www.panoramio.com/photo/59861499