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This is the official blog of Winna Efendi, author of several bestselling Indonesian novels.

Rabu, 05 Agustus 2009

Everything about writing, I learn from Roald Dahl

I do, indeed.

When I was eleven, I read my first real novel in the school library. The book title was pale yellow, with an illustration of a long haired girl sitting on a stack of books. That was the story of Matilda, one of Roald Dahl's bestselling books, also my all time favorite. I remember photocopying the book to document it, and then buying an English copy for myself. When I lived in KL, I bought most of his books and read the rest in my school library. Oh, how I loved his stories.

I read a book he wrote about how to become an author, excerpted in his Chocolate book (which really smelled of delicious cocoa). He mentioned a good writer should have a good sense of humor (don't take yourself so seriously), and you must be a perfectionist (edit, edit). Plus, the discipline to do it all. I think he's right.

I was older when I read his anthology of short stories, the Umbrella Man. It was so beautiful. I lost the book when I lent it to a friend, though. The stories were very weird, in some way, but just so amazing. They were quirky, they were fun to read. I could practically see the man's logic being twisted this way or another, creating something jus simply... brilliant.

The man is brilliant.

I was rereading Matilda the other day. I loved every second and bit of it. I practically had some lines memorized without meaning to. Till today, he's still my most favorite author :)

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