My Writing - From Hobby to Profession

Never so far have I put the necessary diligence into my writing. Hence, calling it 'my writing' is just as inappropriate as saying ‘I’m studying English’ when all I do is watching the occasional movie in English. On the 14th May 2013 I took a firm decision to offer this matter its due importance, so that I can steer this activity of mine from a mere wish or possibly a hobby into a profession at some stage in the future. I was determined to take my first step by being diligent every morning, for the following 21 days, by writing a little until a pleasurable habit would form. In order to simplify my task, I decided to pay more attention to the aspect of diligence and less on the content and its inherent literary value. My aim was the habit formation, not the masterpiece.

In retrospect, I can say that I’m satisfied with the result of my exercise. 98% of the times I doggedly sat down at 6 o'clock in the morning to fill my pages. On one occasion I ran out of coffee so the quality was less than expected, on another occasion I simply applied the "mañana principle".

It took about 2 weeks until I started to actually look forward to my encounters with the blank page. My muse wasn't always fully awake at that time, but I carried out my task nevertheless, so... on the whole, I'm quite pleased with my pluck. I shall apply the same habit formation technique during the next 3 weeks for polishing the content and the aspect of my work on the website, improving the navigation system and creating some legal pages, such as disclaimers & terms of use notes. I'll turn my main attention to quality next, but not to the exclusion of my daily writing sessions.

Some of the essays I wrote during this time

Writing would be futile without readers. After all, you know how the joke goes: "If Eve wasn’t there to listen to Adam… would he still be wrong?"

It’s your turn, my good friends to tell me sincerely if this is any good. Here’s a random selection of my articles - less than 21, as some of my work was confidential at times, or it was designed as part of my book project in progress. At other times I just added content to previous essays on the list below, instead of starting a new one.

• My Myllennium Resolution
• Shopping in China
• Trusting in China
• How Free Are We?
• Fairies and Spirits Among Us
• Variations of Freedom
• "Just Do It!"
  
• My Home
• About me
  
• Traditional Chinese Medicine
• At the Doctor's
• Aston English in Donghai
  
• Circus at the Kindergarten!
• English Club in Donghai
• A Deliberation on Q&As
• Friendship in China
• Learning Chinese
• A Hanging Man!
• What Makes a Good High School?

The Biggest Project, 5 years down the line

Well, my life took me some unexpected routes since last time I wrote on this website, but I never gave up writing. In fact, I have made some sacrifices in the meanwhile, in order to just keep going with my writing.

For a few months, I have written a crucial piece on the topic of Open Access for my studies. This was a new challenge  - a learning curve I've been waiting to do for years! My dissertation was handed in within the original deadline and it secured me a Master's with merit on graduation in December 2018. More about this in a while, certainly after a break during Christmas and a pressing job-hunting stint in early 2019.