Probably The Writer with the Lousiest English in Singapore who is trying to publish his book

On 27^th May 2007,

I posted the first chapter on a story I wrote on my blog and threads in some forums.

There were quite a few good reviews from the forum as well as the readers that came to my blog. A few of them tagged on my tag board and said many good comments about my good writing skills.

5 months later, I had completed 3 love stories with the longest of them close to over 50,000 words. There were more readers and ‘supporters’ as they tried to add me through msn.

We chatted over the story plots and the main characters build up.

“Hey Anntonii, I think you are a great writer!”

“Have you considered publishing your stories on a book?”

I was asked a few times when by those who’ve read my work.

“Wow, surely that must be a wonderful feeling to have a book with has my name on it”

That was really my first thought as I to lay my first bricks on my sandcastle.

“I wonder will I become a celebrity because of my stories.”

Second thought and I laid my second brick.

All these good comments beamed self confidence as I began to seek more opinion on the web.

I post my work on more platforms and of different level of readers.

Reality sink in as rational comments was put up on the various threads that I’ve posted.

“I think your English is really bad! I felt terrible and had to stop instantly”

“Did you realize that your grammar and English sentence structure is somewhat funny?”

“Oh my god… did you failed your English in school?”

You would have imagined how it felt.

It’s like a person with self confidence with thoughts of ascending to heavens being brought to the depths of hell, Ditto many times.

I flipped through my secondary school report card one day and realized that person was right; I did fail my English in school. To top it all, I only barely passed my English for the final exams before I left school.

I surf the web to look at writer forums and society and looked at the way they expressed themselves. Really remarkable, there are many words and phrases I’ve never seen before let alone knowing what they mean all together.

My confidence was crushed and diminished through the thin air.

My hopes of becoming a writer were certainly never going to happen.

It took me a long time to write my current story and so many times I had to stop writing due to the negative thoughts within me.

Humans are generally looked at the things on the surface.

When someone with a lousy command of language tries to write a story, it’s as if oversized women trying her luck at ballet.

“If you don’t have the quality, don’t even try to reach for something beyond your means”

That’s what the old folks would advise.

If anyone asked me about writing and publishing a book ten years ago, I would probably laugh at them and myself.

But now, I would still want to print my own book.

It’s a form of commemorate my ability to finish writing a story.

Not to print a huge quantity but just a couple hundreds of books.

So that I can tell people I was once a writer, I had some genuine supporters who really tear and shared their beliefs in my story.

So that I can tell people who failed their language, it’s not really the end. If you have a good story base and plot, you too can become a writer.

There will always be people who appreciate your work and people who don’t.

You just need to find them…

Wedding Montage Services

Recently I had a coffee session with a friend. We were talking how busy we had become and were trying to update each other on the work that we are currently doing.

“I’m actually doing wedding montage services now…” I began.

“You know those slideshows that’s screen before the wedding couple’s first entrance?”

I have to explain further to ensure he knows what I’m talking.

He gave me a stunned look.

“You are married right? You don’t know what it is?”

I was rather surprised by his look.

In my heart I was expecting to see his response as

“wah.. this kinda of services got anyone will find?”

“No lah, you should have told me earlier man!”

“How come?”

I was taken aback by his response.

“You know, my wife and I had a hard time trying to do our wedding montage during the dinner. We don’t know much about the software and don’t know what we want to show our guest”

I was nodding my head in his agreement.

“If I know you are doing this, I would have engaged your services!”

“Actually I don’t quite understand that there will be a demand for montage services you know”

I told him.

“Why not?”

“I mean, who would spend a couple hundred of dollars for the less than 10 minutes kind of outcome? Furthermore couples usually will want to do the montage themselves, or the groom would have to do it for his wife. ”

“Anntonii, you just went through your wedding right?”

My friend asked which I nodded.

“You know how busy it is to plan a wedding? Especially the last 3months before the actual day? Who will have the time to sit in front of his/her computer and do something that takes a long time?”

“But there is easier software to use mah. PowerPoint, Photostory, windows movie maker.”

“Easier software will result to lousier outcome mah… Imagine people already spend $1000 per table in a grand ballroom but when the montage comes out, it’s lousy and crap. A lot of people will surely say a lot bad reviews behind their back.”

“You as a Montage designer, what’s your take on a wedding montage?”

I paused to think for a while.

“A Wedding Montage is like a short story, something to tell the guest about how the couple met and get together. It is not just a collection of photographs but also a flow of storytelling because most of the guest will only know either the bride or the groom.”

“So that’s not important?”

He asked me back.

“Nope. It is important… it is something which bring out the wedding couple. That’s why I learned the software to do for my wedding as early as 9 months before. It was really a lot of hard work though. ”

“There you go, I tell you.. there will be people who will appreciate your work”

“Yeah… maybe there are”

I told my friend that even my own brother commented my work after he returned from a few weddings.

“People already spending a few thousand dollars on other stuffs… why would they think two three hundred dollars is a big deal?”

I agreed with what he said.

“Bro, how much you quoting people?”

My friend was curious.

“$188 - $238, if you got any friends who are interested can refer them to my website.”

I replied.

“Aiyoh, so cheap. Are you crazy or what? “

He laughed.

“I’m new and want to be competitive in the market, so have to develop an ‘Entry Price’ loh”

I replied confidently about my market knowledge.

“But I think you earning more for your full time job leh… you know how much effort you have to put in for every montage?”

I nodded.

“Bro, you and I are married. We know a lot of couples are very tight in their budget for their wedding. There are a lot of monies being spent of every single item and maybe that’s the reason why I don’t really want to raise my price”

“Besides I’m still a newbie in this line. Who am I to command $300 or even $400?”

I continued.

“Ok, just make sure you are happy doing it. It’s all that matters.”

He advised after sipping coffee.

“Yeah… perhaps until the day when I’m not happy”

Starting up is always difficult.

There will be a lot of self doubt and obstacles waiting to trip you.

You will do a lot of cold calling to strangers whom you don’t know to tell them about you.

You will experience a lot of people rejecting your services.

You will fall when people tell you that you aren’t good enough for them.

You will spend so much effort to improve yourself so that you will deliver a better service for them.

You will even come to a point to realize that you are really not fit for this business.

Successful business men always tell you that money isn’t everything in a business, interest is.

If there’s a love story waiting to be told…

I will show them how it’s done in 10mins.