Inspirations

Went on Architours for the 1st time. I've been wanting to go for an Architour for years, but for some reason, never registered. It was serendipitous that E was one of the architects involved in the first site, Singapore Life Church. I think I'm intrigued by industrial design and architecture because of the balance between functionality and aesthetics.

Links to writing

Singapore Life Church: The architects had purposely created a narrow corridor that opened up into a large auditorium space with a high ceiling for the main sanctuary, to create a sense of awe and smallness. A middle-eastern-looking architect in the group compared it to the design of old cathedrals, where most of the building is dark, except for the natural light coming in from the steeple or stained glass. In architectural terms, the building serves to compress, before expanding. I wondered how that would translate to writing. Compression --> opening. 

House at Victoria Park: Only 1 thing stood out for me at this house. It was so massive that it had 1 floor for entertainment, and another 2 for the family area.  The entertainment floor looked like a hotel lobby, with a show kitchen, infinity pool and a small gym at the end of the garden, while the family area looked like a 5-room HDB flat had been transplanted there.

Chiltren House: I was fascinated with the attention to detail at this house, which was built by a couple who owns an architecture firm. I'm using off-form concrete walls in the setting of the corporate story because of the walls from this house, as well as a conversation I had with E later on the pros and cons of off-form concrete. The house reminded me how much I used to like hiding in nooks and corners in my house -- the wife purposely created a long low baywindow that guests could tuck themselves in.  

Reading 

Reading has been terribly slow. I only finished the Japanese tales book.

Writing

I've been waking up at 2 plus each morning to attempt to work on the corporate story. I'm at 4500 words, out of 8000. It's a personal challenge to see if I can sustain a long short story, especially the ending portion, which I always have trouble with. This time, I attempted to write the ending just after I wrote the introduction.

I attended a writing session yesterday by a colleague. For one of the activities, we were told to pair up and face each other. 1 person had to keep asking 'who are you?' in as neutral a tone as possible while the other person rambled on. The point of the activity was to bring out the personal voice of the writer, but I found it too touchy-feely. I generally dislike these kind of bare-your-soul, tell-me-about-your-childhood kind of sessions. I'm sure there are other less psychoanalytic ways to explore one's voice as a writer. Over Summer, there was a session where we listened to a recording of Proust and shared what we thought about it. That was okay. Then there was another session where we closed our eyes and imagined our childhood home. That did not work for me because I've lived in the same house since I was 2 or so, moving out when I was 8 and moving back in when I was about 17.

Submissions   

I missed 2 deadlines this week, but I've been concentrating on that corporate story anyway, so I guess I can go a bit easy on myself this time.