Our creative writing workshop today raised a few questions for me to ponder. Firstly we had to think about what motivates us to write. Some of us write because we like scrapbooking, blogging, and recording important events in our lives. Some people like to write and research family history. Whilst others do it to publish material. Either way, it was a nice way to think about why we write and what motivates us. Using whatever platform or approach we take.
I thought about what motivates me to write is my interest in journaling in the earlier years of my life. And how I have turned a form of journalling into blogging once I became internet and website savvy. Journaling was something I did as a school project at Ngata College in the 80s with our English teacher. Over time I carried it on and would write little journals in notebooks. I still have these journals in boxes from the 80s, and 90s until now. My grandfather was meticulous as a journal writer too. he would keep records of his movements, and significant things he did at home. He'd write predominantly in Maori around his farming and church ministry work.
Anyway, Journaling became a good outlet for me to dump my emotions on paper both the good and bad feelings. It's a good way of being more self-aware and reflective of who we are and the changes that go on in our lives. Journaling fed myintroverted self aside trying to be more extroverted to fit in with others.
To help me continue my engagement with you all, I'll try to be a little more committed to journaling through my blog with you as my audience and readers. I'll try to do it in small milestones to keep engaged and committed to my writing goals. In my head, I'd like to be able to write daily journals and commit to journaling and publishing daily. But we all know that in the real world things come up and I may tend to slack up on my journaling. Forgive me if I get a little slack with my journaling process at times.
At the same time, journaling is a good tool for me to reflect on significant things and ideas that I'd like to share and talk about without being too self-editing of myself. People want to read my real thoughts and not the toned-down edited version. I don't know why I'm so self-conscious of what others think of me at times. Some of my favourite people are those who are unapologetic about themselves. And I'd like to be reflective of people who have this unapologetic view of themselves and the world. I'd like it more if I could reflect this in my writing and persona too with an unedited version of my thoughts. This will definitely be a feature in my new year resolution for 2023 to be more thoughtful about.
Flash Fiction
Also in our creative writing group, I was encouraged to explore a little more about getting an understanding of writing Flash Fiction. It was pointed out that my writings of fiction seem to be similar to flash fiction sentence structures. So I'll spend a bit of time exploring this and reading a little more of this and checking out some examples of flash fiction. Already friends have emailed me some material related to flash fiction.
Upon reflection, I have noticed that some of my short stories tend to come off as a kind of flash fiction where the sentence structure is descriptive in short versions. Maybe I'll post an example of my short story that I worked on today for my next journal entry once I get my head around the use and meaning of flash fiction.
Blog Development and Progress
Over the past couple of months since September, I've not been feeling too well during the winter. I had to work a little slower and sit a little less behind the computer to keep warm. Nonetheless, although it has been cold. I've been attending small business meetings organised by the Taitech Hub to work on a few projects to help my blog become a little more grounded.
I spoke to a friend (Regina De Wolf Ngarimu) and told her that I am beginning to realise that going into the field of writing, either for leisure, pleasure, or an actual full-time career does require us to have some sense of writing in a business sense. Hence this is where my blog also sits on the periphery of business entrepreneurship and enterprise. I've realised from the start of taking on blogging it isn't an individual self-money-making venture. It is a community network of development. My blog and writing exist as part of a wider community of local writers and tech businesses that are all on a journey for the betterment of the community. I realise why I write and blog because I exist in a community with others. It is a satisfying feeling to know that I am here because others in our networks resonate on a similar journey.
To conclude with the development of my blog I have been assigned a mentor from the Taitech Hub (Matiu Clark). Matiu has given me the time in his busy schedule to become a reflecting block to build my business development ideas around my blog. The goal of his mentorship is to help me build a foundation so that I am eligible to apply to the Work and Income Flexiwage. It is a funding pool designed for small businesses in the community. His mentorship will guide me in this process and work towards developing our ideas and building networks. The unique thing about this is that I am the only person in our group of mentorees who is developing a blog. That uniqueness is something that puts me on a different trajectory to which I can foster and build a niche.
Tomorrow I have another workshop to attend at the Taitech Hub for my blog. We are asked the following question to reflect upon for tomorrow.
Where are you now?
Where do you want to be?
How are you going to get there?
These questions will be something for me to think about and reflect upon as my blog grows.
Finally, before I end my journal entry. Just a note my next monthly newsletter will be out soon. Peace and love my fellow Aliens!