Some months back Noel Wong from FMT send me an email saying that he wanted to interview me for World Book Day. The result was a compliation of his interview with 3 authors which I’d posted earlier.

I quite enjoyed answering his questions and I thought you might be interested in the full in-depth interview. So here it is:

1. Tunku Halim, can you tell us how your writing journey began? Which authors would you say left the greatest impact on you growing up?

As a young man working for a condo developer, I was struck that how so many people weren’t asking the right questions before they made such a huge investment. So I wrote a book on how to buy apartments and that was published more than 30 years ago. 

Around that time, I was writing short stories. My favourite author then, and still is, was Stephen King. So my stories were spooky ones. The advantage I had was that in Malaysia we have so many myths about ghosts, spirits and demons, that I could write about. So I managed to write not only a collection of short stories but also a novel, Dark Demon Rising. Luckily, there were hardly any local writers in the 1990s and I managed to get my writing published.

2. What is your writing process like? How does a book start in your head and how does it end up on a shelf?

What starts is an idea. A small idea often leads to a short story, a bigger idea may become a novel. Sometimes a small idea can become a big idea. Sometimes a big idea can become a small idea. Or an idea may lead you nowhere!

What’s important is to allow the imagination to flow unimpeded like an ever flowing river. It might end up in a swamp or to a big great ocean, it doesn’t really matter.

From the idea then comes the writing. The marvellous thing is that writing leads to other ideas, which leads to more writing which can give birth to yet new ideas. Writing is actually rewriting. So there should always be a few drafts to a novel, short story collection or work of non-fiction.

Once the manuscript done, I’ll submit it to my publisher who will then edit it for publication. Going through the edits can be a laboriously process and I must admit that I’m quite lazy here and I’ll agree to almost all proposed edits.  

The publisher then proposes a few covers for the book. It’s a sad thing to say that the cover is them most important part of the book. Most people, unfortunately, do judge a book by its cover. So the book cover is vitally important.

The publisher uses a distributor to get books to the shops. If you want readers to see your book on the shelf, let alone buy it, getting your book properly distributed is critical. So many good writers have unsold copies because book shops are not carrying their books or only stock their books for a short while. Book shops tend to focus on what is new or what sells.

Authors religiously use social media to publicise their books. Many authors prefer not to have to market themselves like this but, sadly, this is how things are. As a matter of principal, I’m a social media recluse so this is something I don’t do. I don’t write for sales or money. It’s just something I do.

3. From your point of view, what is the contemporary Malaysian writing scene like? Are we an untapped well of potential or has the golden age of Malaysian penmanship long passed?

I don’t follow the writing scene much so I couldn’t tell you. But I can talk about the reading scene. 

Most Malaysians don’t read. I’m going to guess that not more than 25% would regularly read and, when it comes to fiction, that would probably be less than 20%. And I’m probably being too generous. Many of us blame social media and we’re so hooked on it that we barely have the time for anything else, let alone read. But this sadly low reading level has been with us decades ago and so I won’t point the finger at social media. I think we just haven’t created a reading culture in this country. We can address this not only by cultivating a reading culture at school level by creating neighbourhood libraries nationwide.

4. Suppose someone you know would like to write a book, for the first time. What is one thing they should know beforehand?

They should, of course, learn how to write! Writing is a craft and the only way to improve our writing ability is to write regularly. 

The next thing is what do you want to write about? If it’s non-fiction than it’s got to be something that really interests you, that your point of view is so original and compelling that readers can truly benefit from it. If you’re doing it for fame and money then I suggest becoming an influencer or YouTuber. Writing, especially locally, does not pay nor will it make you famous!

If you want to write fiction then what’s needed is imagination. Then learn the craft of writing. There are lots of resources out there. And keep practising. But don’t write with the idea of wanting to get published. Write because it truly is a wonderful way to spend your time. It is an enriching experience. It is a great hobby and all you need is pen and paper.

But if you really want to write, one tip I’ve always given is that you must be alone. You don’t have to isolate yourself. You can be in a cafe and not know anyone and so, in truth, you’re alone.

As long as your phone is turned on though … you’re not truly alone. It’s always there demanding attention. So turn it off, put it out of sight. At least for the half-and-hour or so you’ve devoting to your writing. Very hard for most of us!

5. World Book Day is also known as World Book and Copyright Day. And copyright has been a matter of discussion lately due to the rise of Generative AI programmes, which have been accused of unethically copying and mimicking the works of living and dead authors without proper accreditation or permission. What are your thoughts on AI? Is it a tool to foster creativity or a threat to creatives? Should the government update copyright laws to protect local creatives?

The question of whether there should be laws preventing AI from mimicking a famous author is a difficult one. Current copyright laws protect content but not writing style so, on the face of it, mimicry would not be a breach of the law. But if the writing and works created so resembles that of an author, it might devalue to author’s books and reputation and so new laws might be necessary. It would be interesting to see how the situation unfolds.

When it comes to new writing, AI is amazing, captivating but very dangerous.

Imagine yourself as a new author but the trouble is that you can’t write well. You can now easily use AI to not only generate story ideas but to write them beautifully and your prospective publisher wouldn’t know if it was AI generated or not. You can, in fact write, an entire novel using AI.

So this creates unfair competition between a would-be author who cannot write and a budding one who can.

Publishers will now be quite dubious, not knowing if the manuscript they receive is AI-generated or not.

This is going to massively affect authors and the books publishing industry.