Sunday 20 November 2016

New Shoots Writers Festival

       On Oct.23, I went to Granville Island for a literature event. The event was in the morning, and took place in a studio. Before the event, I was expecting something totally boring and non-understandable; however, I found it a bit interesting, or at least comprehensible.

       The general environment and atmosphere were very satisfying, and very suitable for the event itself. I was surprised by the ages of the main characters of the event. Some of them were students at the same age with me. I was not attracted by the poems the first man and the second young girl gave out, nor was I attracted by the stories written by the lady at last. Indeed, I was attracted by the story of the narrator, who was the third presenter, and her grandfather. 

       I am not a big fan of fancy writing. I prefer those vivid descriptions of the complexity of relationship and emotion, which were a wonderful attribute of that girl’s short story. By simply describing a dialogue, she portrayed the love between the granddaughter and grandfather and the latter’s nostalgia for the days of yore. In addition, she has spoke out the story in a raucous tone, which was totally suitable for the story she was giving. 

       However, what I have realized the most from this event is the gap between my writing and theirs. Even though I admit that I do not fully focus on my literature subjects, I still tried very hard to improve my writing. But just by listening to their writing, I see countless flaws in my work. It was kind of disappointing, but not fully frustrating. In this event, I not only experienced the fantasy in literature world, but also discovered some interest of writing inside of me. 

       The only thing that I found not very comfortable with was that after their presentation, the host man interviewed them many boring questions. I will be more interested in how did they learn to write or how do they get their inspirations, instead of why they are interested in literature and how will they deal with this hobby in the future.

       After all, it was a wonderful event, and most of it was enjoyable.