Our Writing lives

Four writers: Jaime Santirso from Spain, Dace Vigante from Latvia，Xiao Bai and Lu Nei from China talk about “Our Writing Lives”.

Jaime Santirso: My beginning writing is not by accident and some correct ideas hit me. My first challenge is looking back my own works. I dissatisfy and criticize previous works, which makes me uncomfortable. However, reading previous works helps improve my writing. The second challenge is related to livlihood. In Spain, people often say if you play football well, you can earn your lunch. You can earn your lunch but not dinner through writing.

As for me, writing and life are both meaningful. I am more eager to write than work. Some writers spend eight hours one day on writing and they may not be disturbed by other work, in this way that their inspiration may be exhausted after a long time. I think that a good writer needs to keep in touch with the world and knows what has happened to the world. In addition, writing is a highly professional art. During reading, writers require readers to use their own experiences and imagination to construct the world in the book. If readers can get good sensibility when reading a book, it will be the best gift of literature.

I believe that a writer’s writing style cannot be gotten by imitation or pursuit, but it happens naturally. Once I wrote poems, Collision. But I don’t think I am a poet. Poetry is a new writing experience for me.

Dace Vigante: Writing is my dream since my childhood, but my parents think that people should be realistic and find a good job after they grow up. Writing is only a pastime between life and work. At that time, I listened to my elders. Until I became a lawyer, I reached the pinnacle of the work, so I felt empty suddenly and my writing dream was reawakened. Writing changes my attitude towards life. After the publicaiton of the first novel, my happiness is beyond words. Writing, just like my handbag, is my most intimate thing.

As for a writer, if he wants to maintain good writing status, it will be important to keep healthy. Some people call writers “sitter at home”, so adjusting the relationship between life and writing is fundamental. When I was young, most of my time was spent on dressing up. Now I spend a lot of time on writing and I am more concentrated on the wrting at home. For example, the logic of the story and the blend of emotions are significant for me to get into the flow of writing. My family sometimes complains that I spend less time with them. But basically I balance my family and writing and sometimes I prepare an elaborate dinner for my family.

Xiao Bai: My writing opportunity is not found by myself. An editor invites me to write something, then I begin writing and never stop. I write every day and there are no difficulties in writing. I wrote a novel, Concession, of 70, 80 handred words. It took about one year from conception to completion. For several months before I wrote, I tried writing in different ways. One structure was so simple and I change another structure. Later it was only four months to finsh after I really started writing. Every day, there are more than a dozen manuscripts on the deskup of my computer, and I would like to choose one of them to write, like ordering dishes, based on my interest.

I believe that writing is not changing or creating the world, but writing is performing or stealing other peole’s time, just like a man from primitive tribe, who climbs from one mountain to another and comes back to tell others about it. Besides, I think what’s important is the accuracy rather than writing style. A writer in his fifties or sixties still pursues changing the writing style, which means he gets lost. In my opinion, using the least words to tell precise content forms a good novel.

Lu Nei: A Chinese writer should a born person who could write stories in Chinese. I began writing stories since I was 10 years old. My writing includes difficulties and resistance. But as a professional writer, continuous writing causes me to lose the enthusiasm. I don’t know reasons. Maybe I am tired of writing or I am old. If writing is regarded as a pastime, or a job to earn royalties and gain glory, it will not literature itself. Literature links with some sacred things, which is unknowable.