One of the things that’s been on my todo list for some time is to write a memoir. I’ve been wanting to do it for over a decade, actually. But the time finally feels ripe to actually do it. I have some life experience now, which I want to make sense of, and a perspective that I think is interesting (which I think has been reasonably validated by my Twitter followers).
I already have an idea for its theme and title– Naughty Boy: Under-Table Scribblings Of A Recalcitrant Joker. I already have a handful of essays written – Under Table, Make Some Noise, Rogues and Vagabonds. What’s next? I need to write the rest of the essays. Before I can do that, I need to know what exactly it is that I want to say, and how exactly I want to say them. How do I want to structure it? What do I want to emphasize, what do I want to leave out? How do I want to frame everything?
For inspiration, I’ve purchased Neil Humphreys’ Notes From An Even Smaller Island – which is clearly a reference to Bill Bryson’s Notes From A Small Island, which I’ve bought too. I like the format – a collection of essays.
What else do I need to know? Who I’m writing for. In the beginning I was thinking that I’m writing primarily for a Singaporean audience, mainly because I didn’t have any other audience to think about. Now I also have my Twitter audience, which is quite international. But my memoirs will be about my life, which has been mostly in Singapore. So the book will necessarily be about Singapore. But will it be *for* Singaporeans? Loosely, I think yes.
A thought experiment – what if this were the only thing I could ever publish? What would be the message that I want to put into the world? I think I’ve captured that in the title: the importance of being naughty. I recently sharpened the branding of my company, JIBABOM, to emphasize this – our tagline is “The Courage To Be Naughty”. I think there is value in cheekiness and irreverence that is often lost in Singapore, and I want to make something that functions as a rallying point for other naughty people.
I already have an essay about my experience in the local music scene, and I think I may want to write more about that. I’m also sitting on a draft of an entire novel about that, so I don’t need to emphasize that too much.
I definitely want to write something that’s like, an oral history of my experience as a “sociopolitical blogger“. “How to criticize ministers” will be one essay. “When I Met PM Lee” deserves an update. I think something should be written about social activism in SG, particularly about the gay community. I think something has to be said about domestic workers. What is the current state on Kiasuism? What is the current situation with the tuition-industrial complex?
I want to think about issues that nobody else is going to talk about. I think I have a relatively unique perspective on race relations in Singapore, and social class, and “being Gifted” (in the Gifted education program). I would talk about marrying young in SG. An essay about Yishun.
Friends from overseas are always asking me about Lee Kuan Yew, so I should do an essay about that. I already have a loose Twitter thread.
I want to do a deep dive into wild news stories and parts of Singapore’s history that people don’t talk about much. The Great Penis Panic. Hello Kitty queues. I will have to talk about my National Service experience, and about Junior College and school in general.
I think at this point it’ll probably be wise for me to pause my search, and then write wordvomits about all of the above – which I can then further edit and repurpose into the essays that I intend to include in the memoir. For my research I’m going to re-read more memoirs and autobiographies – I like Richard Feynman’s, and Steve Wozniak’s.
There are some things that I’d like to do for fun, that probably won’t make it into the book. An oral history of the video games in my life, of the books I’ve read, movies I’ve watched. I’m doing those things on Twitter instead. I can basically use Twitter as a sort of testing ground for potential essays. I actually have a twitter account called @vvmemoirs where I retweet things that are memoir-related.
So anyway. I got distracted and started watching a bunch of old videos and listening to old songs, generally going on a nostalgia trip. What’s next? I’d like to publish this before 2020 if possible. Or maybe 2020 is the right year to publish it? Hm. Doesn’t matter – the important thing is to get the essays out. I put together a Scapple board of interconnected ideas, which is going to help me get a clearer picture. But the important thing is to get the essays out.
Who am I really, really writing for? I think I want to be very focused about this. I want to write for a younger version of myself. I think I’m going to spend almost a full essay or prologue articulating that as clearly as I can, and write the rest of the memoir for that person in particular. This idea seems a little crazy, but I think it’s a good thing to start with. Better to be “overfocused” than “underfocused”. I can always “broaden” it later if I need to. But as my mind starts to put this together, it’s starting to make sense. I was thinking “Naughty Boy” as a way of describing me, but maybe I should be thinking as who it’s for. A field guide for naughty kids. I’ve mentioned in many conversations with many people over the years that I want to do more for those kids. And I absolutely want to focus on them. Typing this is giving me a bit of energy and excitement. The prospect of hearing more from those kids – particularly those kids – is something that feels wholesome and nurturing to me.
Let’s do that, then.