[Coffee Chat] Conversation with author Lee Jinmin
“Shall we write something?”
Simple Steps hosted a Coffee Chat conversation with Lee Jinmin, the author of 나는 철학하는 엄마입니다 [I’m a Philosopher Mom]. The book is the winner of the seventh annual writing contest from Brunch, the Korean equivalent of WordPress. This conversation, held for the newly launched ‘writers and authors’ group within Simple Steps, gave members insights on how to write and publish a book.
Since the author, Lee Jinmin, moved to Germany, she has devoted herself to writing. After consistently writing for two years, her four books are about to be published. She said this experience made her truly happy, and she prepared for this chat with the hope of being helpful to others in a similar situation as her.
“Writing is proposing”
Lee suggested that, in order to write a book, you need a proposal first. You need to decide specifically what topic you want to talk about and to whom you want to deliver it. Then you need to work on finding common ground between the best story you can make and the story you really want to tell.
“Try out a platform”
She recommended Brunch as a platform to prepare your book. When you regularly publish articles on the platform, you can know how much audiences are interested in it, and receiving feedback gives you insights for your future book. You can participate in contests or publish a book within the Brunch platform. These experiences will challenge you and encourage you to go further.
“There is no right answer. Start writing freely.”
Along with the importance of a book proposal, Lee also talked about why we need to have the right mindset about writing. “Most of all, my writing - my story - has to be good.” A good story means that it should not disturb others’ feelings, not use other’s expressions as mine, and have well-formed, grammatical sentences. After having the right mindset, Lee moved on to writing consistently.
“Having writer’s block? Just be diligent!”
To avoid having writer’s block, Lee tried to follow her own deadlines strictly. Changing the genre of the writing also helped her stay on task. She also emphasized that collecting and reviewing your previous stories was another good way to begin the series of writing.
“There is always room for improvement. You just haven't found it yet.”
Once Lee finished her book, she waited until one week before the publishing date, then returned to polish her writing. She learned that, in this way, she could read the story in the eyes of readers. More polishing created a smoother and more refined story.
“ Writing gives me a clear view of myself.”
The Coffee Chat conversation with Lee made me think about what was important to me before writing and publishing. Other members of the writers and authors group were encouraged to write consistently and decided to start a small project so that we could go further. I look forward to seeing new work from the group.
Written by Hyekyung Lee
