Sucker for accuracy

Posted on 21 November 2004 @ 17:37 in Opinion

It’s probably just me (yes, it is, Chet) but I’m very particular about being accurate with details. Well, it’s also the line of work I’m in, as I still remember the horror of spelling a client’s product wrong (not me, tho, na ah, honest), or a client misreading a sponsor’s name. So, yes, it’s a combination of me and the line of work I’m in.

But as a wannabe fiction writer, I think it’s important for writers to be accurate with facts and details. Unless it’s a make-believe world, then you can get away with a made-up language and place names, historical facts, even.

Yesterday, I heard the most horrendous story of how Malaysia has been grossly misrepresented in a work of fiction. Yes, work of fiction, but when set in a real place in an early part of the last century, then there’s no excuse for making mistakes about the most basic facts about your country. Yes, your country cuz apparently the author is Malaysian.

“Facts” like:

  • there was a country in the 1920s called Malaysia
  • Kajang satay was already available in the 1920s
  • the unit of currency for that country was the ringgit

No, lah!

We screamed out in laughter when we heard the above “facts”. frickangel said she’ll never forget “Kajang satay” in the 1920s. As for me, I’ll never forget “ringgit” in the 1920s.

Yet, the work of fiction that carries the above mistakes is a best-selling book in England! With its author’s picture plastered in the bookstores there! And news of a second book in time for Christmas!

What will it be in the new book? Snow in Malaysia? Genting as the place to go for your winter in Malaysia?

*blood boiling*

Here’s a clue as to why the book has been so popular, its gross inaccuracies overlooked …

Apparently, the author is young, pretty, very presentable, and female.

Well, that’s something for us writer-wannabes to learn from. And dang, no hope for any sales for me, no agent or publisher will look at me twice! I’ll just spend the rest of my life participating in NaNoWriMo challenges year after year.

Excuse me while I go cool off my blood with a bowl of ice cream.

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