As a writer, I’m forever curious about the writing habits of other writers: how they write, when they started writing, and how they sustain the muse. If you’re interested in guestposting, leave me a reply.
This week’s highlight is Angela Tjong, owner of Journey of Life; she blogs extensively about her may journeys, to Mexico, Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Taiwan. Her posts offer real insight into the historic of these places, and some fascinating details such as the origin of cappuccino – ever wonder about that, the last time you sipped one? Her blog also can offer more personal sojourns of daily life, equally insightful.
I am not sure how it all began … perhaps it was back in high school when I loved putting pen to paper to jot down poems. Or perhaps it was when I picked up that pen again just a year ago to write about my frizzy hair—a change that I had in mind just didn’t coincide with the hairdresser’s. The responses to that blog post from my friends were quite prodigious. My long-buried excitement about writing resurfaced. Coincidentally, my little girl loves to write, and putting myself up front by blogging was my way of encouraging her. She has flourished ever since, and is now working on her very first bookwhich is near completion.
Her excitement coupled with mine has enthused my “virtual pen” to write nonstop. In fact, it has been uninterrupted ever since the inception of my blog, with the exception of weekends, vacations, and hectic days. When I am not writing, my mind never ceases to fashion entire articles from mere thoughts. In other words, I am always writing. My writing journey has caused me to forge bonds with other bloggers, and together we journey to places that I have actually visited. As well, I blog as a way of reflecting on my own life journeys right here at home, from parenting to book reviews.
As a person that my family and friends love to talk to or seek advice from, I have never shied away from speaking my mind. Perhaps through my blogging, I have found avenues to express those views in written words. I do not believe in passing up a good retort to the occasional controversial comment, but I do hope to share the ‘take-away’ points and lessons that I have learned as inspiration to my readers. Writing for me is not a way to express anger or frustrations, but to express those experiences in my own Journey of Life.
Having said that, my writing process is quite simple; an idea takes shape beforehand, and the words flow once I start to type away. Sometimes the words flow smoothly, other times, they seem stilted and do not satisfy my inner self. Typically, it takes me half an hour to draft a blog post, and perhaps another half to one hour to perfect it. But if the idea were not preconceived, the writing could take at least a couple of hours. Either way, the time element doesn’t stop me from writing, and I hope you enjoyed this stop in visiting my journey in the writing world …
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Here’s wishing you tons of luck and fun for this years NaNoWriMo! (and of course, tastey chocolate and hot tea
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Great post, Amy. I have been thinking about doing it too but have decided not to this year. I am already doing a creative writing module for my Open University degree between now and June next year, as well as a short story course and editing my first novel. I constantly have to remind myself that to do thing well I need to do less of them at one! Best of luck with it though, everyone I know who has done it only has good things to say about the experience
Found your post via Sandra’s writing workshop on FB. I just joined the group, but have NEVER written fiction–except as a kid. At any rate, I AM writing a memoir at the moment. I found this post inspiring–especially for someone like me who has secretly wanted to try fiction but never dared. Thank you!
Hugs,
Kathy
Hi Kathy! Well, it would be fun to see you try your hand at fiction; the prompts help a lot with that.
It was an awesome feeling to be a guest writer, Sandra. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to be in your blog’s spot light.
love you. Wish we could talk writing stuff and your travels over real coffee!
Would love too. Some day