I recently entered a writing contest that only required me to answer one
question: “Why did you start a blog?” At first I thought “Too easy.” but
as I started typing I realized how much of an effect something like
starting a blog has had on me. Since this essay had to be under 700 words I
narrowed it down and made some cuts, but my whole process to starting a
blog is too complex for 700 words.
My very first blog, LovelyAsia,
was strictly for me to write movie and music reviews. I was stuck in a
shitty job in Chicago at the time, but my whole reason for moving to
Chicago in the first place was to go to school and earn my degree in
journalism. By this time I had dropped out of school because I could no
longer afford it which led me to take that shitty job in the first
place. When I started that blog it was my way of trying to start
something that had once made me happy and to get some practice as I sent
my resume to local papers and magazines in hopes that I would finally
get the career I really wanted.
When the Avengers
happened I threw professionalism to the wind and reblogged any and
everything that had to do with Tom Hiddleston. At that point in time
Tumblr became a place for me to find friendships in people who obsessed
over the same things I did. It was good and bad. It was good because I
was finding people who were just like me, but bad because I would just
kind of zone out and continually hit the reblog button and no actual
writing was being done.
In an attempt to get back to writing I started another blog, SparklingGlove,
that was dedicated to a small fanfic I wrote after Michael Jackson
died. I tried to keep up with it, but by then I was starting to become
unhappy with my writing. I wanted to write a new chapter each week, then
a week became a month, then a month became whenever I had an idea, then
that became never. It’s still an active blog and perhaps one day I’ll
get back to it and add more because I feel like there’s always something
I could say in that fanfic, but as for now I kind of feel like most
chapters are repeating themselves so I’ll get back to it when I feel
confident enough in my writing to know that I’m saying something
original.
My second blog was going dry and even still
it was a blog for a fanfic. I wanted to be a novelist, travel writer,
poet, and entertainment journalist. I couldn’t grasp a career in those
fields if I was putting that type of work to the side and focusing on a
fanfic. Then comes my blog, AsiaWrites. I’ve dabbled in my poetry, stories, and
essays on this blog. It started out rough. I’m very much the
perfectionist and I have a strict way of doing things. When my brain
betrays me and goes off course it causes me to shut down. See, I started
this blog in hopes to get me motivated on the books I have in mind. I
got overwhelmed and just kind of gave up when I should’ve started out
with the posts you see on my blog today. Everything moved kind of slow,
but I’m becoming more confident in my writing like how I was before I
hit a major snag in my life. Being able to share my work and my thoughts
were sort of therapeutic while also leaving me feeling a bit empty at
the same time. Now, I am a writer. I’m not really good at drawing and
anytime I do sit down to draw my style is very abstract (same as my
writing style). Posting my work on Tumblr left me a bit empty because it
seems as though all other art forms are celebrated. Poetry is not
shared or acknowledged the way fanfics and fan art are. Whenever I see
someone post something they worked really hard on I try to reblog or at
least like to let that person know that I see their passion. As for me
and other writer’s no one seems to do the same. It’s a little daunting.
That leads me to my latest blog.
A little hurt that my
work wasn’t being appreciated on Tumblr I sought out other blogging
sites to set up shop for my work and my work only. That’s where Inside My Creative Mind
comes in. AsiaWrites is where I test my work and
the finished product ends up on here. I also share more of myself here. I go into my journey about transitioning to natural hair and I’ve
touched a little on my journey with weight loss. In recent months I’ve
gotten a little more acknowledgement and my work has been seen by more
people than Tumblr has yet to do even after several years. Blogger has
given me a platform to share my inner thoughts and hopefully, in the
future, I can look back on my thoughts and use it to develop my
characters for my books, since at least one character in each book is
loosely based on myself. I have hopes that this is going to help me get
back on track with my writing so that I can be where I want to be in
life. So four blogs later I feel like I’m starting to find my niche. I
won’t stop until I become a writer and not just any writer. I feel like I
have a lot to say that hasn’t been told from a certain perspective. I
have a voice that I think people can relate to. I can only hope that
through my words and my experiences that I offer some guidance to
people. All I ever want is to help people and make them not feel alone
like I do. The only way I’m able to do that is with my words. That’s my
biggest contribution to this world. THIS is why I started my
blog. I started it to find a passion I’d lost and now I’m using it to
find my voice and to hopefully help others find theirs as well.
-Asia Aneka Anderson 2015©
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