Kim Yeon-su, who recently marked the 32nd anniversary of his writing career, is a renowned novelist and poet of South Korea. As an admirable writer in literary circles, he reveals his own insights through his masterpieces: As the Waves Belong to the Ocean and Such an Ordinary Future. In the autumn of 2024, Kim Yeon-su hands over his new stories to the Sungkyun Times (SKT).
A Writer Is Not Born, but Built
Q1. Please introduce yourself.
Hello, Kingos. I am Kim Yeon-Su, a novelist. I am glad to introduce myself through the SKT. I entered Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) in 1989 as an English Language and Literature major. During university, I published my first book and debuted as a novelist.
Q2. What type of student were you at SKKU?
I spent most of my time in the Central Library. Leaving my friends in my hometown, Gimcheon City, I spent most of my time reading until the library closed. Reading naturally leads to writing. By the end of the first semester, I started composing poetry. After serving in the military, I began writing novels. As a result, I debuted as a poet in my junior year and won a prize for a novel in my senior year. Looking back on my university years, my only focus was on writing.
Q3. What challenges did you confront in your twenties when writing?
In my twenties, all I had was a passion for writing. Never been taught to write, I had to teach myself how to write poems and novels. Therefore, I was obligated to write a vast amount of text and inevitably had to go through terrible drafts. The writings that remain today are, in fact, the best among them. Looking back, I can easily see the flaws in my practice work. Another difficulty I encountered as a novice writer was learning how to voice through writing. Voicing in your own words is never easy; it only becomes possible by overcoming a series of challenges. It is challenging to accept failures in the early twenties. It is easier to pretend to be excessively fancy instead. My early twenties were not too different. In fact, I still face difficulties writing honestly and precisely about myself.
Language Constructs the World, the World Links to Reality
Q4. Do you separate your identity as a writer and a person?
At the beginning of my writing career, I separated them. Becoming a novelist was not my dream but was merely an extension of my enthusiasm for writing. Since this process seemed like a series of coincidences, I felt more comfortable separating my identity as a novelist from myself. Starting my career under a pen name has also stemmed from this initial thought. Therefore, I was interested in building a fictional universe rather than finding inspiration from my surroundings. After 20 years passed, the identity of a novelist started settling inside me. In other words, the writer Kim Yeon-su and the person Kim Yeon-su began to merge. Now, I no longer believe the two identities are separate.
Q5. Where does your comprehensive insight come from?
Writing a novel corresponds to reconstructing the real world in the writer’s way. If someone decides to change this world, the intention must be expressed in language; a new language creates a new world. Spending my past 30 years writing and revising, I discovered the power of language, witnessing how fiction impacts reality. If I have an insight, I guess it comes solely from writing. Similarly, lectures at universities revolve around the power of language. It is learning to express actions, ideologies, and structures that never existed in words.
Q6. What is the relationship between the world you create in the novel and the real world?
Even though the historical background and events I bring to my novels are factual, all the happenings are created. For instance, No Matter Who You Are and How Lonely You Feel covers the historical events around SKKU in 1991, but the characters’ stories inside the novel are all made up. I define the meaning of fiction as the construction of a physically perfect world where I observe how the characters act. To build an ideal world within the novel, it is necessary to explore many reference materials, just like writing a thesis. The characters inside the novel resemble us so much yet do not actually exist anywhere.
Q7. Is there any reason you prefer rewriting the whole draft rather than editing specific parts of your work?
There exist domains that I can control and domains that I cannot control in writing. I believe I can distinguish between these two domains quite well. Sitting up straight and retyping yesterday’s draft lies in the domain I can control. However, the quality of my writing of the day lies in the uncontrollable domain. I learned that focusing on what I can control actually brings good results in what I cannot control. Rewriting the whole draft is simply doing what I can control. I rarely consider this process a burden.
Everyone Is Writing Their Own Story
Q8. How do you hope your novels reach your readers?
Everyone sees things differently. Even in an individual’s life, one perceives the world differently in other periods. This implies that the way people see the world may change at any time. Although one may have a pessimistic view of the world today, one may gain the power to change one’s perspective once placed in a new situation. If someone does not understand my novel, it is because of a considerable gap between my view and their perception of the world. If their view becomes similar to mine, one would read my novel as if reading the world through my eyes. I believe no novel or book is difficult to read. In fact, there merely exist books or novels that one cannot understand. Some books stand on the bookshelf, waiting for the day to be understood, maybe one being my own.
Q9. What do you experience from the conversation with readers?
Every reader starts with a similar story. They struggle to live their own life, but life brings so much unpredictable grief to all. However, the story after this differs for each reader. Some of them are still dominated by sadness, some have overcome their struggles and some bury their stories and live as if paralyzed. Hearing these stories from my readers, I realize that each of their lives is heading in the same direction. This makes me stand beside them, shoulder to shoulder.
Q10. What advice would you like to give Kingos dreaming of the life of a novelist?
Love novels. When you do what you love, you can make a constant effort without realizing how hard it is. A lucky person cannot surpass a hardworking person, and a hardworking person cannot surpass the one who loves their job. Be the person who loves the job. Then, genuinely consider whether writing a novel can be your true affection. If it truly is, choose a life as a novelist. Just like other jobs, living as a novelist is harsh. There are many things to learn and many talented competitors. There may be endless nights of reading books and writing novels, darkened in worries and sleepless nights. However, these obstacles can be overcome if you truly love writing.
Q11. What message would you like to leave Kingos with?
When boarding a plane, the flight attendant explains that oxygen masks will automatically drop if cabin pressurization is lost. The point is that one should secure one’s own safety first before helping others. When life gets hard, first, try to make yourself happy. Only then can one make others happy. No matter where Kingos are standing on, I hope Kingos do their best to become happy first and foremost.
