Rabu, 27 Februari 2008

Intimate Details Of My Love Affair With Writing!


I was introduced to writing at a very young age. When I was about 6 years old, I had my first exhibition. My pieces of creativity were pinned to our home curtains! I would invite neighbors and my relations who lived close by, to come over for the exhibition. At the time, my motivation for holding an exhibition wasn’t because I loved writing or any style of creativity. It was because I used to get a few coins every time someone came to visit the "exhibition"! Looking back at it now, it all seems a bit embarrassing. Whenever there are family reunions, these things have a nasty way of coming to haunt me!

In school, the form of writing was essays. I didn’t like writing essays. Possibly because English Literature was the only subject I didn’t get an A! Then there was university. Every assignment was followed by report. That was when I began to realize that there was no escape from writing. Then it finally happened.

I was in my final year at university and I had to write my BSc thesis. I was really in love with my project. It was a software project on web services;WSDL,UDDI (never mind, if you are not aware of the technical jargon.) That was when the web services concept started to lift off. A lot of people were interested about the project and their interest was very encouraging to me. In order to get my idea across, I had to write. This time it was different because I was writing about something I loved. It didn’t seem like "just another assignment".

After graduation, I began my career as a software engineer. Again, No escape from documentation and writing. In the mean time, I was also doing my Master in Computer Science. Again, it required a thesis. That’s where I discovered the world of blogging and the beauty of "having my own mic"! Once I finished my MSc thesis, I had some time on my hands and started blogging on Enhance Life.

Grammar in The New World (=Body Language Blunders!)

The deal here is that my expertise is judged on my ability to communicate. I have realized that if I want credibility from the written word, I need to master grammar, spelling, punctuation and sentence structure. With every post, I dedicate my self to master the craft of writing. This is an ongoing learning process; please bare with me.

There are two vitamins that I take on a daily basis to nourish this writing affair.
1. Grammar Girl. Her podcasts are easy to listen, very informative and answered most of my grammar uncertainties.
2. Brain Clark at CopyBlogger taught me everything about writing magnetic headlines and more....

How I please my partner (=YOU)

In any affair there is always a partner; in dangerous and daring love affairs, there are many partners! I may fall into the later. Now, don’t let naughty thoughts enter your mind. I am referring to my writing people!

So how do I please you? It is very simple to put into words, really. I try to find out what makes you happy and keep doing it. Applying it in everyday life is a totally different story altogether though.

A few months ago, I was a bit obsessed with what other "popular" bloggers were writing. Here I was spending a fair amount of time on my writing, but didn’t see any positive results from a numbers point of view. I tried to imitate their writing style. You know what, it didn’t work! The numbers told the same pathetic story. I suppose, a partner knows when their better half is trying to be someone, he/she is not. I gave that up and just concentrated on being me, before it led to a break up! This time around, the results are encouraging. Yes, I am going to keep on "being me" from now on.

I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate all my devoted partners (=YOU) ;-) Thank you very much for putting up with me. Your communication, encouragement and help, has definitely taken my affair with writing, to unimaginable heights.

Stirring the pot (=Come away with me!)

Writing has always been (and will be) my way of discovering the "gifts" I have and then finding ways to share them with others. If you are not part of my ever growing writing affair, it is not too late to join. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

Note: This post was written as part of Joanna Young’s group writing project My Love Affair With Writing.

How did you come about the habit of writing? Do you have a story to tell?

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