In 2021, Steff Fleur made her emergence with the song ‘If You Don’t Love Me Now’, which is also the song for popular TVS production drama ‘Tilit-Tilit Cinta’. This year, the singer songwriter made her debut as a book author with her release — ‘Empat Sisi Dinding’.
The book, which was written in Bahasa Melayu, depicts the story of a girl in university in West Malaysia, experiencing her young adulthood. Explaining further, Steff shared that the book talks about love, friendship, loss, coming-of-age, mourning and getting over the loss of love and friends.
“The story is a journey of life, loosely based on my life in university there, surrounded by great friends and met with numerous challenges.”
Stepping stone as an author
A passionate creative in the arts, Steff revealed having written fiction novels throughout her life. “It started when I was young and in school. My classmates and I would write in an exercise book about chapters of stories. And we would pass it around for everyone in class to read.”
The 34-year-old added that it was fun, and that as a kid, she had imagined herself publishing books some day.
Sharing more about ‘Empat Sisi Dinding’, the bubbly lass disclosed that although the book was published in May this year, the manuscript was written in 2015. To her, it was a way for her to capture ideas and translate them into written stories.
However, the book never had a proper ending until several years later. “And when I found it back, suddenly, the characters were talking in my head, instructing me to write their stories and how it should be written. So I just grab the keyboard, and tap away. The ending was dictated by them, and it was kinda fun.”
Steff also added that she has done several other manuscripts over the years too. And through this published book, she learned that everyone has a different coping mechanism in life when it comes to loss.
“And it would take time, but that’s okay. There’s no one method of coping with loss. I also learned that we should be true to ourselves. The main character of the book has an interesting personality and was an outcast as she likes different things than others. I wouldn’t say she struggled to fit in because she didn’t want to. But she still has people around her as friends.”
Asked whether the main character resembles her, Steff gave a resounding “yeah”. Regardless, the book is based on her experiences and interests — such as Haruki Murakami and The Beatles, which appeared in the book numerous times.
Apart from this book, Steff, who was active in the local book scene in West Malaysia, had also published alongside various other authors, an anthology called ‘The Tudung Anthology’.
Battling writer’s block
Like many authors and writers, and creatives, Steff battles with the inevitable — writer’s block. To overcome it, she would just let it sit and do other things to distract her. “I would also look for inspiration in other places.”
Sharing further, she said that there is a manuscript she had written, in which she planned the whole book before writing — from the chapters to the plots and characters. Then, she would aim to write at least 1,000 words a day, which she managed to finish within a month.
Giving tips on how to overcome writer’s block and avoid being judgemental over the writings, Steff revealed that choosing one’s favourite font can help.
“No matter if it’s some wacky font or some other fancy fonts, if it motivates you to write, then you do it. There was one time, I wanted to write and I chose the silliest font ever which is Comic Sans. I think that by using it, I don’t have to take things seriously.”
Secondly, she said that as writers, we can always write first then revise later so as to not stress ourselves too much.
Her singing career
Though she has a full-time career during office hours, Steff never forgets her passion in singing. While not as active as before, she still performs at several events statewide, she added.
“I perform more of my originals now compared to covers like before,” however, she added, “I feel like when I got Covid-19 early this year, it had messed up with my vocal cords causing it to be weak. When singing, I couldn’t hold the note for too long.” Nevertheless, Steff reveals that she is slowly recovering.
Although the challenges make it hard for her to move on, she shouldered on. Juggling can be hard, but Steff said that she kept up with her passion by surrounding herself with other musicians, by continuously going to their shows, watching them perform.
“While I am not performing much, I try to maintain the relationship of me and the other musicians for the love of music.”
In the future, Steff foresees herself not retiring from the music scene as she looks forward to writing new songs. Adding on, she revealed that she has a couple of new songs which she had performed on stage, uploaded on her YouTube Channel, though not on any music streaming platform.
“I try my best to still continuously do what I enjoy doing, which is music. It is what drives me forward,” said the Iban lass.
