Tamara Jong is a Tiohtià:ke (Montréal) born writer of Chinese and European ancestry. Her work has been published in literary magazines, and long and shortlisted for various creative non-fiction prizes. She is a Writer’s Studio graduate and lives on Treaty 3 territory, (Guelph, ON). Worldly Girls is her first book.

How to be a writer

I have a bit of a messy writing life now and process. It wasn’t always that way, at least, not in the beginning. Maybe my writer’s life was simpler, a lot less distracting. When I first came back to writing again, my choices seemed to be fairly easy. I had a clean slate, not written anything of note for a while and not having gone to university after high school since it was discouraged by my former religion as a Jehovah’s Witness. I did have a different kind of education in preaching, but my stories, and writing were put on hold for years.

Fast forward to me taking back my writing life because of circumstances, some mental health challenges, and encouraging friends and therapists decades later. I didn’t think it was too late, only that I had wanted to write again. I didn’t even judge it harshly, or even wonder if it was any good (and sometimes it was, sometimes not). I did not think of publication at all. I entered some contests, but I was pretty green.

I happened to find out about the Humber School for Writers in Toronto that was a weeklong course. Writers had to submit their work to be accepted. My therapist had told me that she knew someone who hadn’t been able to get in. I hoped I’d get my shot, but didn’t know if I would. To my happiness, my fiction story had been accepted. It was the realization of a dream, that I had thought may have been long dead. That week was amazing. I learned a lot. I had never workshopped before, but I remained open to it even though I hadn’t known that was a thing. It was strange having your work examined by new peers you didn’t know. Some didn’t like it, some did. There were talks about genre and writing, fellow writers and community. I made some writer friends. I learned a lot about what writing was. I wanted more. That if I wanted to be a better writer, one week wasn’t going to cut it.

The following year, I signed up for a course that was an introduction to creative writing, not knowing what to expect or anything about the mentor. There was a dabbling of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. It was something of a first. I was eager to try it all. I took it all in. I would write and read absolutely everything the mentor suggested. I would write for an assignment. Write when I had an idea. I had all the time in the world. I often imagined that I’d write story after story, perhaps written in some café with people walking by or a beautiful scene right out of a Hallmark Christmas movie. Next course, I took non-fiction and decided that was my path, and continued taking courses. Years went by and my non-fiction writing group was formed out of those classes. Then I committed to a year-long creative writing program. I just kept going. I kept reading and writing. I went to literary festivals. I joined Room Magazine as a volunteer reader. I was able to get some writing gigs. Eventually, my memoir Worldly Girls was written because of all of it.

Now that I’ve written a book, my writing routine is different. My schedule can be challenging. I am a writer, but I also have another job. It’s a balancing game. In this life of busyness, there are choices to what gets my attention, oh, and there are many. I do plan to a certain degree what has to be done, writing-wise. Deadlines help. I am not terribly disciplined without a deadline; I have learned this about myself. I make lists for myself. I need to think a bit about what I want to write and imagine it before I put it down on the page. It has to ruminate. It feels good to talk about the idea with other writers, even if it looks different when writing it down. And it most always is once it’s down on the page. I also try to read for pleasure and not just for research and ideas. A writer named Brian Payton said, “Read the poets!” and I do.

At that Humber course all those years ago, a writer mentioned that we shouldn’t put our lives on hold while we’re writing. I wasn’t sure what it meant back then, but now I do. Time passed and experience have helped me understand. That I still need to experience a life outside of writing. But I also try to remember those early beginnings and not take it for granted, that it’s a gift to have writing in my life again, no matter how it presents itself to me.