Writing Career
It was in the early 60s when Gu long, aged 23, truly concentrated on writing martial arts novels. Martial arts novelists were extremely popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan at that time so it was a highly competitive genre to write for.
There were about 100 martial arts novelists to meet the demands of the large number of martial arts readers. Despite this, Gu Long made use of his great mind and occupied himself with writing.
Together with Zhu Qingyun [Got Ching-Wan], Wo Longsheng [Ngo Lung-Sang] and Si Maling [Si Ma-Ling], they were the four great martial arts novelists. Gu Long had rather an odd personality, he was only willing to talk to those he knew well.
Even so, he needed to have alcohol in his hand to find enjoyment. Gu Long's reputation in the publishing circle was bad; he would always ask for high advanced royalties and then fail to complete his manuscripts on time.
However, publishers were willing to be deceived by Gu Long time after time, because they were afraid of losing this Golden Goose. Gu Long had a habit of manicuring his nails before writing. A good friend of his explained that Gu Long actually used that time to construct the story plot.
Sometimes he would not write on a table, instead he'd sit on the floor and rest on a black board. He believed that this allowed inspiration to rush into him.
He was also an excessive smoker, consuming an average of two packets on a simple night of drafting.
The Early Days
By Pheonix