Ryan

Craft with Ryan Hui, interviewed by Wong Tin Lok

To begin with, what motivated you to write this CNF?

Ryan: I wanted to write about something personal or more like a blog, so I went back to a personal experience. I chose to write about travelling.

And where did you get the raw materials to work with?

Ryan: I was trying to find ways to have the CNF echoes with my personal history. And I chose this particular incident cause it’s a unique experience.

Perhaps I should backtrack a little. What do you think are some possible angles to draft a piece of CNF and what prompted you to choose the angle that you’re using?

Ryan: Well, there are several ways to do a CNF; commentary, reflections, or critique, etc. In my first draft, I wrote it like a Reddit post. It was very informal and rudimentary but it is also a way that leads to self-discovery. Then I decided it was too informal. So I looked up websites like trip advisor, to reference how other people talk about their travel experience, to make it more formal.

So formality is crucial to your delivery?

Ryan: Exactly.

Speaking of travel experience, your piece actually mentions quite a few of your travel experiences outside of Greece, like being in Paris with your dad or learning yoga in Jordan?

Ryan: Actually Krav Maga is a self-defense technique, and by Jordan I mean the one in Hong Kong, but the country.

See, I wouldn’t have known better if you didn’t tell me. (Laughing). But why would this particular time in Greece interest you to write about it?

Ryan: Just because the crime rate in that place is high and that trip has many places that I have to pay caution to. Also if I have to write something that appeals to the reader, I have to include more narrative actions.

While you were writing this CNF, did you realize anything that surprise you? Did you change your thought on trusting strangers?

Ryan: I don’t think I’ve changed how cautious I am, but writing about it helps me come to peace with the fact of being betrayed. Right now I still hope people would be okay to be trusted in, like doing little acts of kindness.

What material or object guided you to write this article?

Ryan: I don’t know; I didn’t think about it. I guess because I study history, so I am trained to write in a truthful manner, so I tried to make it as authentic as possible. Maybe the dialogue helps glue the details together. Because when I think about the incident, I don’t remember every single detail, but the dialogue is always memorable. They help me to be real.

So are you saying that dialogue is your tool and authenticity is your goal?

Ryan: Yes. If I can write this in 100% truth, I’ll write it in 100% truth.

Which part of your CNF is calling you to revisit in the future?

Ryan: It’s hard to say. Maybe the twist, that feeling of betrayal. Whenever I think about the event I always think about how things might have ended differently. What if I punched that guy? What if I ran straight to the hotel and ignoring him?

So you would expand on the betrayal part, okay. What about extending it? Do you see how this story could have ended differently or it could continue to develop? Right now you end with “Hey you – the man was gone” which is a very abrupt ending. I can see this being a stylistic choice, but do you want to keep going?

Ryan: I’ll be drafting the final version of it over the weekend. I’m thinking maybe I can shift to commentary, after “That man was gone”.

So the narrative action ends in here and you would switch to critical commentaries. Great. Then, Is there anything that led you away from where you wanted to go while writing? Anything you edited out?

Ryan: Well, it doesn’t lead me away because I have a plan of what I’m going to write first in my mind then look for material. That being said, writing it like a travel blog was something that didn’t come to me at the very beginning. I thought why not make it more official?

The format changed the tone of your story, didn’t it?

Ryan: It’s a nice detour. After the first paragraph, when I have finished it, I thought it was too informal, so I went to travel blogs and I just skipped to their main points.

That’s interesting. Because when I first read your story, I thought the line that separated the first paragraph from the rest was meant to make the first paragraph a hook of the article. Something that bloggers use quite often.

Ryan: Oh it was used to indicate that I would add some more details within that section because I’m only giving an excerpt here. But now that you talk about the hook, it does lead me into thinking whether I should do that?

Would you consider your article formal/informal?

Ryan: It’s a hard call. You know blogs are always in-between the boundaries of formal and informal. And when I first write the article I write it like the Reddit’s shower thought thread that I follow.

Shower thought?

Ryan: Yeah, it could be some random thoughts like why do birds chirp so loudly that came up suddenly to people.

So it’s like the vatic state practice that we’ve tried.

Ryan: Yes, you can say so.

Any image or detail that speaks to you?

Ryan: Maybe not a physical image but a mental image has anchored my story. It is me with a backpack walking on the street. No matter how far people go or how much they love to travel, they always carry their belongings. So in a way, they are bringing a part of their home with them when they travel. When you lose your backpack, like I did in the story, you end up losing a part of yourself. So this is also about how can one be exposed to other cultures without losing their own.

What about the Chinese-ness? Your first paragraph shows that you have a disagreeing attitude to the way how the Greek government tried to sell European citizenship to wealthy Chinese. But doesn’t it go both ways? It’s not only about Greece selling their citizenship for money, but also how Chinese are willing to pay for foreign citizenship to escape from their country.

Ryan: Right, I didn’t think about it that way. I guess then the article is also a reflection on my home culture.

What about the structure? How would you define your braids of contradiction?

Ryan: I’m not so sure about the braids.  I guess they are like contradiction put into structure. It might be clear to some readers what the contradiction is but might not be the case for other readers. So I just wrote it in chronological sequence. It makes sense for the reader to read the story in a complete chronology.

But you do have jump-cuts like flashbacks that help to highlight particular details, like the gypsy children in Paris.

Ryan: Yes, they do not follow the chronological pattern. But these flashback can generate empathy from the readers about the event.

Let’s switch our role here. Is there any question that you’d like to ask yourself, or ask me since I’m your reader?

Ryan: I’d like to ask what is the best way to balance narrative action and reflection?

I don’t think narrative action and reflection diverge that much. Maybe the close observation that we talked about for CF could also be applied here. But of course, we cannot design every single detail in the narrative of CNF, otherwise it would become too fictional. But I do believe that the thing that captured our attention in real event can capture readers’ attention too. We just need to dig deep enough to find out what that is?

Any further research you need to do?

Ryan: Maybe I’ll look further about my love of travel, or how cautious I am in a foreign culture.

Sure, that’s it. Thank you for talking with me.