Gregory Payne on Writing – well-known author shares his tips on technique with Blooming Club members (14/08/2010)
| Venue | ： | Blooming Club Corner Causeway Bay Book Centre 9 Yee Wo St. Causeway Bay |
| Speaker | ： | Gregory Payne |
| Organiser | ： | Blooming Club |
Review
On 14 August Gregory Payne's talk on writing delivered to our young members was a great success. Both our adult and young members walked away with a great appreciation of Greg's sincere sharing of his experiences and to Blooming Club for introducing Greg to them.
The fact that Greg, a lawyer by profession, had spent a few years researching and writing this book especially for children was rather intriguing for our attendees. So it was much to their delight to learn that this is actually his debut (very first) book. Chase to the Brazen Head aims to give young boys and girls not only an exciting adventure story but to educate them on the history and culture of China about which he has a great interest. The years he has spent in Hong Kong since his teens helped nurture his understanding of the place and its people.
Greg stumbled across a copy of the journal of The West China Border Research Society (a history club for adults which was popular in China before 1949) at the HKU library and it was this that led to the creation of his story Chase to the Brazen Head. The scene is set in Shanghai; an American and a British teenage boy both at Shanghai International School team up with their young Chinese martial arts instructor to recreate the China Exploration Club's adventure to stop the villain from getting to the Brazen Head, an ancient bronze statue that can predict the future. Right from the beginning, there are a mass of enticing tricks with Chinese martial arts, ancient weaponry, fighting crickets, archery and stink bombs all to capture the reader's attention.
The self-taught author shared with us how he grew up to love books and also some his writing tips with his audience of aspiring young writers including how he came up with a concept, how to research it, to classify and to select material and the importance of capturing the reader's attention with a really strong beginning; from each chapter he gave us examples to illustrate his points.
Greg encouraged our readers to write about what they know because that will make their story much more credible. So it is not surprising that Greg was a record holder for a junior archery champion in Australia as the description in the book clearly shows his knowledge on that subject.
The audience also learnt that the lawyer has always wanted to become a writer and had written a couple of unpublished books when he was very young. Writing remained as "unfinished business" for him even after he had become a lawyer so he took some time off to just focus on it again. His message to be persistent in whatever goals one has set to achieve in life was very well received by our young members.
