Senior Indonesian journalist and author Leila S. Chudori, who was born in 1962, has been writing since an early age.

Her experience as a writer can be traced back to when she was still writing short stories for children’s magazines, such as Si Kuncung, Kawanku and Hai, when she was just 12.

As an adult, she joined the weekly magazine Tempo as a journalist in 1989, while penning a number of literary works, including two novels — Laut Bercerita (The Sea Speaks His Name) in 2017) and Pulang (Home) in 2013 — as well as two short story collections Nadira in 2009 and Malam Terakhir (The Final Night) in 1989.

Her two novels centered on the 1965 communist purge and the tragedy leading up to the 1998 Reform Era. In 2012, her novel Pulang won the Kusala Sastra Khatulistiwa award (then still known as the Khatulistiwa Literary Award before its name was changed in 2014).

Having been a writer for a long time, Leila has many practical fiction writing tips that she would like to share with aspiring young writers.

The Jakarta Post had a chance to sit down with her at a fiction writing workshop that she facilitated during the first anniversary celebration of Comma Books — a division of the Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia publishing house, which is part of the Kompas Gramedia group — in early December. Here are some of her suggestions:

1. Keep an eye on the details

When writers research their characters, they have to be observant of the little details of how real-life individuals on whom these characters are based conduct their day-to-day activities, according to Leila. “You have to pay attention on whether they like to socialize, talk a lot or are very efficient when using words,” she said. “Also, pay attention to the type of music or food they like.”

According to Leila, one’s music or food preference might seem trivial but it can oftentimes spark conflicts — or symbolize conflicts — between different characters. “For instance, when someone gets mad at her older sister, instead of serving her older sister’s favorite nasi uduk (steamed rice cooked in coconut milk with side dishes), she suddenly cooks fried rice for her,” she said.

2. Derive your individual characters from an aggregate of real-life individuals

If you copy and paste real-life individuals’ biographical details into fictional characters, then you are not writing fiction, you are writing a memoir, according to Leila. When you also model your character based on someone you know in real life, that is also not fair for the person concerned, she asserts.

“Like when [the late novelist] NH Dini was asked whether the character Sri in her 1972 novel Pada Sebuah Kapal (Aboard a Ship) had been based on her own life, she said that while around 50 percent of the character was based on her personal experiences, the remaining percentage had been made up of so many different people she knew,” she explained, adding that writers could camouflage the true identities of their characters by altering their ethnic identities, family and religious convictions.

3. Investigate how the characters’ formative years have formed their psyche

According to Leila, when one writes about a person, the writer cannot turn a blind eye to how the character’s formative years, comprising childhood and adolescence, have formed them as adults, as well as how their relationships with their family members have shaped their psyche.

“For instance, it’s almost impossible for an orphan to grow into a happy-go-lucky person as a young adult without questioning his or her origins. Therefore, as part of researching my work, I always talk to psychologists to understand how different family dynamics form a person,” she said, adding that she also asked the psychologists how a person could come to terms and make peace with their difficult past as an adult.

4. Divide your story into three main parts

“People like Virginia Woolf or James Joyce, who could write without planning a plotline, jumping among different events in their prose, were exceptional geniuses,” Leila said. Therefore, she advised beginners to plan their novels or short stories based on the three-part dramaturgy division: beginning, conflict and climax as well as resolution.

“Keep in mind that you don’t have to tell the story in a chronological order or end your story with a definite resolution,” she said, adding that despite shuffling the plot into different parts of your story, by adhering to the three-part dramaturgy, it would be easier for you to come up with a strong story arc.

5. Go analog, keep a notebook

As you collect this information, whether by interviewing or observing people, write them down in your notebook, Leila said. “Some writers say that they keep all the details in their head, but I don’t believe in that kind of nonsense. Unless you write them down, you tend to forget the information you have collected,” she explained. By going analog and carrying a notebook everywhere, you will find it easy to jot down important information once they come to mind, according to Leila.

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Thou shalt read these books — Leila’s recommendations

Are you interested in learning from the best authors how to construct strong characters, laying down vivid settings and creating poignant conflicts? Author Leila S. Chudori says these four titles are great learning tools for aspiring writers:

* Franny and Zoey (1961) by J.D. Salinger

* In the time of the Butterflies (1995) by Julia Alvarez

* Little Women (1869) by Louisa May Alcott

* Sri Sumarah dan Bawuk (Sri Sumarah and Bawuk,1975) by Umar Kayam

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