This is the first of a series of articles by NG YI-SHENG about how writers from Singapore and other Asian countries got started. He starts with his own story - taking you back to his childhood to look at what made him the writer he is today.

Since I'm a published writer, I've been asked to begin the series by talking about myself. This is pretty embarrassing because I remember myself as being, in some ways, a weird kid. In primary school, I was completely obsessed with magic. Almost every English composition I wrote was a fantasy story. For example, if I had to describe a day at the beach, I'd write about sea monsters, or shipwrecked ghosts.

I blame my parents for this. They were modern, educated professionals who weren't very superstitious. But, they were intensely aware of the presence of spirits in their lives. They would sometimes grumble at dinner, quite casually, about how they were being disturbed by ghosts in their bedroom.

I never saw these spirits. Still, I grew up with the idea that we were surrounded by supernatural and divine forces: that there was an invisible world around us, stranger and more powerful than our visible one.

One way to connect with this invisible world was with words. These included spoken words like my parents' ghost stories, as well as written words like my favourite fantasy novels. The Harry Potter and Twilight books hadn’t been written yet, but I raided the National Library for books by Diana Wynne Jones, Helen Cresswell and Terry Pratchett – all of whom are much better than JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer, in my opinion.

I was also nuts about myths and legends - after all, they're the oldest fantasy stories there are. Once, I took the lift with my sister and discovered an old, tattered book of Greek myths on the floor. This was the first book in our collection of myths from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, Scandinavia, Mexico and Africa.

Now, as an adult, I often write about real-life news for newspapers. Yet, when I think about it, I realise that my original fascination with magic and myth has stuck with me, influencing my other writing.

My poems are full of references to ancient myths. My short stories talk about the social problems we face in Singapore, but they explain them through supernatural plots.

I've also started writing plays, again drawing inspiration from famous legends. My actors have played hungry ghosts, pontianaks and Greek gods. Through drama, I've managed to bring the bizarre world of my imagination to life in front of a whole room of people.

I'm no longer sure that spirits exist. But, I do believe that an invisible world is out there, a world of fantastic images and stories that is the foundation of all the planet's cultures.

Whenever we read or listen to a story, we enter that world of ideas, and our minds become richer from the experience. And, when we write, we add something to that world. Through words, we can create the universe.

About Ng Yi-Sheng
Ng Yi-Sheng is a full-time writer and journalist. He was the youngest ever winner of the Singapore Literature Prize, which he received for his first poetry collection titled last boy.

He has written a novelisation of the movie, Eating Air, and a non-fiction book, On His Wings, Soaring: 20 Years On, about his old school, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent). One of his early plays, "Hungry", is published in the drama collection 5 Under 25.

Besides being a regular writer for What's Up, he also writes articles about theatre and dance for The Flying Inkpot and the Straits Times.