{"id":1329,"date":"2013-05-13T02:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T02:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web02.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters2\/archives\/1329"},"modified":"2015-05-24T07:06:58","modified_gmt":"2015-05-24T07:06:58","slug":"treasure-found-in-hong-kong-book-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/archives\/1329","title":{"rendered":"Treasure Found in Hong Kong Book Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Hong Kong Book Fair is famous for its great diversity and stunning transaction value of book-related goods and services. \u00a0Although it is quite business-oriented, it manifests the intellectual and literary sides well. \u00a0This year, a talk about short story writing and appreciation, \u201cGuide to Hidden Treasure \u2013 Short Stories\u201d was given by three renowned writers, William Waters, Hilary Heller and Richard Ryder.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first speaker was Mr. Waters and his theme was \u201cbriefness\u201d. \u00a0\u201cSome people describe writing a short story as composing a cantata. \u00a0However, I totally disagree with them. \u00a0The latter requires inspiration while the former needs calculation. \u00a0The former is easier than the latter,\u201d he said. \u00a0Being awarded for Golden Pen Prize and Diamond Ink Prize, he is in a position to make fun of short stories. \u00a0In his sharing, he mentioned that writers should calculate the number of words of a short story extremely carefully and delete the redundant information to keep the piece brief and pithy. \u00a0Later, he cited his award-bearing short story \u201cA Lone Wolf\u201d as an example to show the audience how to appreciate the writer\u2019s effort put in words, rhetorical devices, and plot, for instance. \u00a0Mr. Water\u2019s sharing was an admirable lesson on reading and writing short stories. \u00a0He proposed that every word should be written with great care. His serious attitude and humorous remarks make this part educational as well as amusing.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a 15 minute break, Ms Heller came on the stage and greeted us warmly. She is known for her romantic short stories. \u00a0The theme of her sharing was \u201cpicture\u201d. \u00a0She gave us many extracts of classic short stories, focusing on the descriptions in the settings. \u00a0\u201cExcellent writers draw a whole picture with a few lines. \u00a0The whole story then stays in readers\u2019 mind.\u201d \u00a0Later, she invited some members of the audience to compose a short story with her spontaneously. \u00a0It was a precious chance for me to witness down the stage the birth of a story from the hand of a professional writer. \u00a0This on-the-spot demonstration helped me to understand more about the writing skills of a short story. \u00a0Watching a writer writing up something itself was enough to grab my attention. \u00a0It was amazing.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the lunch break, the last speaker Richard Ryder entered. \u00a0The first utterance of his was \u201cI want to give every one of you a kiss.\u201d \u00a0This could arouse the audience\u2018s interest and even give them a shock. \u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t think too much. \u00a0This kiss is the tip of writing short stories. \u00a0Keep it simple, stupid and sweet.\u201d \u00a0He mentioned the foremost element of a compelling story is a simple plot. \u00a0He mentioned that too much detail and development would make the story boring. \u00a0He is an authority in plot development for sure because his latest thriller has become the best-seller for a whole month. \u00a0Later, he even showed his first short story. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s exemplary to show how excess elaboration kills a plot.\u201d \u00a0His courage of revealing his unsatisfactory old work to readers did remind me of a key characteristic in common among great writers: face failure. \u00a0I could not help laughing all the time at his jokes about his own writing, though they were a bit mean.<\/span><\/p>\n

The three speakers are great in different ways. \u00a0Mr. Waters stressed the importance of calculation and analysis. \u00a0He also showed how concise a masterpiece should be. \u00a0His serious attitude to his work is worth learning. \u00a0Ms Heller demonstrated other ways of writing, breezy and free. \u00a0Through viewing the production of a story, I felt I know more about a story and the beauty of descriptive paragraphs. \u00a0Mr. Ryder\u2019s dry sense of humour was remarkable. \u00a0Besides, his courage of facing his past failure made him admirable. \u00a0It showed to me that a writer should be able to learn from his mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\n

A short story is not only a genre. \u00a0From Mr. Waters, Ms. Heller and Mr. Ryder, I realize it is an attitude, a style and a virtue. \u00a0No wonder why it has been popular since many years ago and is still so.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hong Kong Book Fair is famous for its great diversity and stunning transaction value of book-related goods and services. \u00a0Although it is quite business-oriented, it manifests the intellectual and literary sides well. \u00a0This year, a talk about short story writing and appreciation, \u201cGuide to Hidden.........<\/span><\/p>Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":8474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","language-en","schoolyear-34"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3167,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions\/3167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}