A crowd of aspiring writers, librarians and book lovers gathered at the Milnerton library auditorium on Saturday, June 29, to gain expert advice from award-winning and best-selling South African thriller novelist, Deon Meyer.
Meyer, 65, said, “writing is like learning to ride a bike”.
He said the first couple of times, one would struggle to find balance while moving and might fall but as you move along, it becomes easier with time.
The West Coast Writers Circle were the organisers of the event, and said Meyer last spoke to them in 2008.
They said they needed a refresher and encouragement to brush up on their writing skills.
Meyer’s light-hearted jokes and witty remarks kept the crowd entertained during a question and answer session.
He fielded questions about writing skills; investing time and effort on writing; how to be a great writer and how to be equipped with the information needed when adding locations in the writing piece, but most importantly, he said, it’s best to “invest in a very good chair”.
“I have had at least six chairs over the years but some of them had gone in for repairs more than twice.”
Meyer was bombarded with questions about artificial intelligence (AI), and what the future holds for authors.
He said he tested theories himself, and when editing a story AI had written, he found that, “he has nothing to worry about,” as the story was not informative, had no humour and he had struggled to make sense of it all.
Meyer also spoke about how he had grown as an author over the years, and explained that his first book, Devil’s Peak, spoke about a wine farm selling white wine, but later was informed that the farm had only ever sold red wine, which was a learning experience.
His books are primarily published in Afrikaans, as it’s his first language, however, his works have been translated into 28 different languages.
Afterwards there was a book signing, and meet and greet with Meyer, where the public could bring along books they had of his, or purchase his new ones.
