Hello, this is Celeste. I have been writing poems since 2017 and my low-fantasy crime novel Project Dylan since 2022. Letters for Creatives is the place where I share my thoughts on writing, creativity, resources for creatives, and interview creators and authors.

Back on the path | #115 May 23 Read full story

R. F. Huang’s interview on her book Yellowface got me thinking about the permission to write about topics we want to explore in novels.

My first thought before I started to write stories was that the beginning of the brainstorming process got me going like nothing could because I could write about anything.

Huang pointed out a great point, “if I could not write about different things, I would be writing autobiography.”

I am not writing autobiography books as I have already exposed myself quite a bit in my so-called poetry (yes, I am thinking if they are poetry, or are they just little quarantine instagram poems, if you know what I mean…)

Since I started Project Dylan in June 2022, I have asked the question of ‘Can I write a book with British characters when I am 100% Asian?’

After letting the question sit with me for weeks, I decided to give myself permission to write anything. If you think about the question more deeply, you would realize that you will face criticism no matter what.

Agents would read part of your manuscript and decide if they would request to read the full manuscript. People would see the book cover, read the blurb (and maybe the first chapter) to decide if they would buy it.

But countless amount of books have proved that we, as writers, can write anything. Take a look at Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and her long research process on gaming. Donna Tartt is another great example.

An interview from New York Times describes Tartt’s book The Goldfinch:

The Dickensian sweep of “The Goldfinch” has its roots in Ms. Tartt’s childhood in Grenada, Miss., where she began writing and drawing her own books when she was 5 years old. Taking copies of National Geographic, she would cut out pictures of a zebra or a child, and write a story about the picture. “I wrote books in this way, around images,” Ms. Tartt said, something that didn’t occur to her until “The Goldfinch” — a book that surrounds an image of a luminous yellow-tinged bird — was complete.

I hope that I have proven the point that you can write anything, create various kinds of relationships between characters and any problems that they would encounter. Make your writing project exciting!

Am I still writing Project Dylan? Yes. Maybe I would change the characters from British to Asian but I can’t imagine them being Asian just yet. Maybe they would stay British when I announce the publication date.

Another thing is that I have been seeing more and more Asian American authors getting their book deals and their book babies into the bookstore, even a female author from Hong Kong, living in the USA. So I would just keep going.

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Prompt #10

Write a poem, short story, outline or chapter where it is not set in your birthplace or where you resides. The foreign setting may bring something completely different to the table. I really can’t imagine something more perfect and exciting than exploring new topics in creative projects.

Check out the creative challenges from 2023 and 2024.