Don't Copy, Don't Steal

Artists create. It's not just our job, it's who we are: authors write, performers perform, illustrators illustrate, painters paint, singers sing... it's who we are.

If you love our creation, thank you. You have given us the greatest joy ever.
If we manage to inspire you through our works, then it's a triple plus, a bonus. It's the thing that makes what we do worth it.

But please don't copy. It's not inspiration, it's stealing.
Don't copy, then claim it yours, and then sell it for money. It's worse than stealing.

We want you to be inspired, yes.
Be original, be loud, be brave.
Be yourself.
Don't steal other people’s work.
You are better than that.

Don't Quit Yet

Alright.
I'm blogging about praises I've received for MY LEA. Yup, you're right, this is me showing off, not gonna deny it.

I have every right to, I guess. Who wouldn't be proud of their own children, right? Our creation is our kid.

My Lea is special to me because of many things :

- it was my debut novel.
- it was written in English, and English is not my first language.
-  I've written it with blood, tears, frustration, fear, rejection, insecurities, also love and pride for three long years.
- I taught myself how to write by reading lots and lots of books, articles, reviews, blogs, anything I can get my hands on, and following authors I admire. I never had any formal education in writing. My background is faaaar from writing. Far, far from it.
- My Lea's rating is not so bad for a first-timer. Teehee!

So please excuse me while I dance for me. I kinda need that, because as you know, writing is a lonely business. And it's a tough business. If I don't stop once in a while to smell the roses, it'd be too easy for me to forget why I write in the first place.

Also, this showing-off post is for you - aspiring writers, dreamers, beginners... 

Don't quit just yet. The journey is complex. I remember whenever I was thisclosetogiveup, I would stop, distract myself from my writing and find something else that could inspire me.
So I'm paying this forward. I hope this post inspires you. I hope My Lea inspires you.

Don't quit just yet. Break down the goal and deadlines into smaller portions. It's easier to manage that way.

Don't quit just yet. Don't let others define - or worse, belittle - you, your passion, or your creation. You are not competing against other people. You're competing against yourself.

Don't quit, okay. Because if I can do this, writing a bloody 90K words worth of a novel in foreign language, so can you.

And now... have you read My Lea ?

Amazon  Kobo  B&N  iBook

Kartini Day

Being a Kartini means I can be myself. 

I can be a girl and a lot more. 

I'm good at what I do, and I do what I love. 

Skirts and kebaya are not there to confine me, they're a part of who I am. 

I respect everyone, but most of all, I respect myself.

This is me and I love every moment of it.

Selamat hari Kartini, sisters.

*Kartini was an Indonesian heroine. She was a pioneer in the area of women's rights for Indonesians.

Fifty Shades of Grey Valentine's Day

I'm in the middle of writing the sequel to my novel MY LEA, and because it's Valentine's week, and because I'm so enamored with this Fifty Shades movie phenomenon, I decided to make my fictional characters a part of this too. 

Here's what happened when Lea and Andrew meet Christian Grey :)

Andrew picked up the Fifty Shades book Lea had left on the coffee table. He turned it over and read the synopsis. Then he flipped the pages the way a guy would flip a Playboy magazine looking for pictures. 

Lea counted mentally. One, two, thr--

"How come a twenty something guy became a billionaire in such a short time?" he asked, raising his eyebrows mockingly at her as if she was the author of Fifty Shades of Grey. Yeah, she wished.

More flipping ensued. "Does this author know anything about business?" 

Lea shrugged. "She does know a lot about sex. Last time I checked, sex outsells business books."

There was a pause. 

Lea lifted her head. 

Andrew's shoulders shook with silent laughter. 

***

My friend: You really believe life is unfair?

Me: Of course I do. 

My friend: Give me an example.

Me: Fifty Shades of Grey. Average writing, bad prose, one-dimensional characters, no story plot, bestsellers.

My friend: You forgot hot sex.

Me: Yes. Hot sex. Lots of it.

My friend: Then it's fair. 

Moral of the conversation : hot sex = bestsellers = life is fair.

***

A rare Valentine's Day conversation I have with my husband this week :

Hubby: Wow. This Fifty Shades thing really kicks ass, huh? I mean... look at this.

(he shows me ads from Amazon and other medias) They offer a set of Fifty Shades handcuffs and flogger as a Valentine's gift as opposed to the usual flowers and chocolate.

Me: (impassive)

Hubby: It's a big deal, honey. Not many people has the ability to rewrite a (Valentine's Day) history.

***

THAT'S IT FOR TODAY, GUYS.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO YOU. 

XOXO,  mellyberry

Creating

Where does inspiration come from?

I got this question a lot. To be honest, I don’t know the answer. Even if I do, my process of getting there may differ from yours.

Nevertheless, I can tell you this. Always start with something that’s important to you. It doesn’t have to be grand or out-of-this-world proportions. You can get inspiration from the tiniest thing around you. And creation can take many forms. Since my medium is words, I’m creating stories through writing. My daughter’s medium is visual art, so she creates her stories through 3D diorama. My friend’s medium is music, so he creates his stories through songs. You get the idea.  

My son and I had this bedtime routine years ago when he was still a toddler, that each night we would create our own story out of nothing. The story must be original, directly from our heads and not from books or movies. We can be as creative as crazy, because well, it is my story and I can do pretty much anything I want to it. The other great thing is that I was able to get my son’s interest to create along, adding this and that to my totally-just-made-up story. Boy, did we have fun.

In order for me to hold my son’s attention long enough, I must talk about something that I know, something that I have passion for. I need to be convincing. I cannot change the world, but I can influence how my son thinks with my story. No, I’m not talking about the writing part yet. I haven’t even written anything at that time. Growing up as a minority and often subjected to race discrimination, this equality issue matters to me a lot. It still does now. I don’t want my next generation to have to go through this again. I want to teach my kid the meaning of equality—and by default, inequality. I wanted him to learn about harmony and balance. As the result, Rainbow, my first children book, was born that night many light-years ago. As with Big Eyes, my other children book, my emphasis is on similar theme. Being different doesn’t always mean bad.

In everything that I create, I always ask myself, what do I want to say? What’s important about it? And because I’m a parent, I can’t escape this “what kind of message I want to convey” habit. “There’s always going to be a message, isn’t it, Mom, a morale we need to figure out?” I’m quoting my kids here. They say it with sarcastic tones directly to my face.

Ha-ha! Adorable. Not.

Notice that when you talk about something that’s important to you, you’ll turn passionate, you’ll be honest, thus making your voice more genuine. Don’t worry about the technicality of your creation at this point. Don’t worry about lots of things at this point. Just look inside of you and get what you want to talk out in the open.

For me, that is inspiration.

 *Follow my blog for a weekly post about writing stuff that may—or may not—be useful to you J. If you think it’s useful, come back next Friday, okay?