On Bryce Courtenay
Reading the Sunday papers and came across a piece written about Bryce Courtenay, he who wrote ‘The Power of One’ and talked about the rainmaker. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that Courtenay was once a junior copywriter who climbed up the ranks to become creative director at this famous ad agency.
I didn’t know he was the brains behind 30-second ads such as Louie the Fly (for insect spray), the Milky Bar kid (the chocolate) and the ‘Things go better with Coke’ campaign.
In other words, he was once a sell-out. Hahaha. That’s not true. I wish *I* was the one working for an Ad Agency earning lots of money and coming up with all the snazzy stuff that make people buy products that they normally wouldn’t.
Courtenay thought back then that at 35, he would write a book. But life got in the way and he kept postponing it. Then tragedy struck when twenty years later, in his late 50s, one of his children died from AIDS (due to a blood transfusion). Only then did he decide to start writing full-time.
”I used to think it was such a joy to do a 30-second ad and have the luxury of one minute, “God” I’d think, ‘What could you do with that?”. Maybe it’s a reaction of that time that I now write 800-page books.
In a world where instant gratification is the norm, it’s a refreshing change to know someone who takes up the challenge of sustaining one’s interest for not one, two but 800 pages. Sure there are millions of books out there that aim to do the same. But if truth be told, I find that most of them do so by titillating the readers, entertaining them or shocking them. They’re what I call ‘bells and whistles’ writing. They’re impressive enough but hollow and forgettable.
It’s funny. Every time I’m in this kind of train of thought, I keep going back to ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’. The first time I read it, it didn’t make sense. The grammar was bad (intentionally), it was the story of a boy in a land I didn’t know anything about (Mississippi) and it dealt with issues I was unfamiliar with (moral commentary about the issues of the late 19th century which still applies today).
And yet, here I am, ten years later, still going back to that time I first read it and thinking how it all makes sense. I’ve read many books and novels since but I can count in both hands those that hold a special place in my mind (and heart).
How does Bryce Courtenay do it?
“I’m 71 and I now live in the Yarramalong Valley [in country NSW]. I get up at 4.30am, do my chores and see the sun come up through the bush. I’ve had a reasonably full day before I sit down to work…I sit down for seven months a year - that’s how long it takes me to write a book - and work 12 hours a day, starting at 6am…”
One day, this year, I’m going to knock on his door and demand he sit down with me for a cup of tea. I’ll bribe him with Chinese egg rolls and convince him that I only need five minutes of his time. Hopefully he’ll be generous enough to grant me more. And then, and then, I’m going to write about it. :P
ps. Yes, I’m procrastinating.
I didn’t know he was the brains behind 30-second ads such as Louie the Fly (for insect spray), the Milky Bar kid (the chocolate) and the ‘Things go better with Coke’ campaign.
In other words, he was once a sell-out. Hahaha. That’s not true. I wish *I* was the one working for an Ad Agency earning lots of money and coming up with all the snazzy stuff that make people buy products that they normally wouldn’t.
Courtenay thought back then that at 35, he would write a book. But life got in the way and he kept postponing it. Then tragedy struck when twenty years later, in his late 50s, one of his children died from AIDS (due to a blood transfusion). Only then did he decide to start writing full-time.
”I used to think it was such a joy to do a 30-second ad and have the luxury of one minute, “God” I’d think, ‘What could you do with that?”. Maybe it’s a reaction of that time that I now write 800-page books.
In a world where instant gratification is the norm, it’s a refreshing change to know someone who takes up the challenge of sustaining one’s interest for not one, two but 800 pages. Sure there are millions of books out there that aim to do the same. But if truth be told, I find that most of them do so by titillating the readers, entertaining them or shocking them. They’re what I call ‘bells and whistles’ writing. They’re impressive enough but hollow and forgettable.
It’s funny. Every time I’m in this kind of train of thought, I keep going back to ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’. The first time I read it, it didn’t make sense. The grammar was bad (intentionally), it was the story of a boy in a land I didn’t know anything about (Mississippi) and it dealt with issues I was unfamiliar with (moral commentary about the issues of the late 19th century which still applies today).
And yet, here I am, ten years later, still going back to that time I first read it and thinking how it all makes sense. I’ve read many books and novels since but I can count in both hands those that hold a special place in my mind (and heart).
How does Bryce Courtenay do it?
“I’m 71 and I now live in the Yarramalong Valley [in country NSW]. I get up at 4.30am, do my chores and see the sun come up through the bush. I’ve had a reasonably full day before I sit down to work…I sit down for seven months a year - that’s how long it takes me to write a book - and work 12 hours a day, starting at 6am…”
One day, this year, I’m going to knock on his door and demand he sit down with me for a cup of tea. I’ll bribe him with Chinese egg rolls and convince him that I only need five minutes of his time. Hopefully he’ll be generous enough to grant me more. And then, and then, I’m going to write about it. :P
ps. Yes, I’m procrastinating.