Interview with Neil Humphreys

Recently our school held a writer's fortnight in school which had a lot of guest writers coming in to talk about their writing. One of the writers which particularly inspired me was Neil Humphreys. He is a travel-columnist-humorist-jounalist writer and he was hilarious but at the same time got some inspiring points across about writing through his talk. I also got a chance to mail him and further talk to him and also got a chance to take his interview. Here it is.

 Neil Humphreys is the man who first came to Singapore and mistook a Chinese funeral ceremony as a local coffee shop and went on to write a book about it. He is the man who has made millions laugh through his books and his articles and now he is touching lives in schools.

He has written various books about Singapore like ‘Notes From an Even Smaller Island’ (2001), ‘Scribbles from the Same Island’ (2003) and ‘Final Notes from a Great Island’ (2006) and writes articles for the Strait Times Singapore. He was brought up in London but now permanently lives in Singapore with his wife and his daughter in an HDB in Toa Payoh.

He is one of the many writers who contributed for the Writer’s fortnight held in our school to encourage and nourish young creative talents. Here is a short interview with him.

1) What does writing mean to you?

Call me naive and clichéd (I’ve been called so much worse!), but I subscribe to the pen is mightier than the sword stuff, to a certain degree. I’m not going to say that a piece of writing stops wars (though it has), but it changes lives, profoundly and deeply. When my wife read the book Why Elephants Weep, she became a vegetarian that day and has been one for 15 years. When I wrote an article about bird flu and the ridiculous gassing of thousands of chickens in Singapore, I felt that I was being a hypocrite to continue eating meat so I, too, became a vegetarian. When I read Bill Bryson's travel books, I was inspired to do something similar in Asia (some might say rip him off! Luckily, Bill Bryson doesn't say that!). My first book about my life in Singapore, changed my career, and my life, and by extension, that of my family. Good writing determines the future of individuals, families, countries and, yes, even the entire world (think of Al Gore's speeches on The Inconvenient Truth). Emotive writing, when manipulated, can have a profound impact, both negative and positive (think of Mein Kampf).

2)What was your first thought when you came to speak in our school? How did you feel about the writer's fortnight held in our school?

Every school in the world should have a writer's fortnight. More speakers/teachers should take the time just to explain the POWER of writing and its emotional pull upon people. That makes writing sexy. Focus too much on the commas and the colons - though these things are important - and students' eyes will glaze over. Students should be inspired to write, not compelled to write. So whenever I speak to students, I try to give a writing lesson, but give anecdotes, stories and examples that demonstrate the power of writing, what it can do, and how much fun can be had with it.

3) Do you have a solution to writer's block and how to make school writing work interesting? How do you usually find your ideas?

Discipline. There are days when the writing flows like a tap, other days it's blood from a stone time. Sometimes, infuriatingly, it can be the same day (lunch can be a real creativity killer, I find). I try not to apply any hard and fast rules on my time at a laptop. If the writing is flowing, I keep going until the well runs dries. If I'm struggling, I force myself to keep writing, even if there is some rewriting required later. That way, I still get to A to B. I find that if I hit a tricky spot, and leave it for a while, I often lack the inspiration to come back to it - because it's a tricky spot! and days can pass before I return to it. I'd rather write something, anything, and then edit later.

4) What is the best part of being a writer?

Occasionally, not as often as I'd like, but sometimes, the writing will take over. I'm just a conduit. My fingers are moving, but that's all I seem to be in control of. This stuff is pouring out, funny stuff, poignant stuff, analytical stuff, whatever, it just keeps coming. I'm not really doing anything; it almost feels like cheating. In those rare, very rare, moments, I sit back later and read back the content, and there is a pride there, a high better than any drug.   

5) Would you like to give a word to aspiring authors who might be struggling to make decisions between having a ‘real job’ and their passion for writing?

As I said in point 1, there is no job more 'real' than writing. President Obama is a charismatic man, and his charisma helped to make human history, but so did his speeches. What are his speeches if not gifted writing? I have had so-called real jobs, and what did I do? Spend all day dreaming up ideas and writing possibilities. Follow your passion and the money will come. Follow money for its own sake, and you'll never truly be happy.