Laura Lai, coffee break at the National Gallery in London
by Laura Lai/ Uncategorized
Last year today, in a small but
comfortable single dorm room in Oxford, I was more determined than ever to do
this ‘Writing Break’ blog. I was three days before my drama writing course began
– and when I start a course I’m extremely committed to do all my best, in order
to complete it the best I can – and I was also applying to jobs that was taking
me lots of time. For me, the job hunting has been the greatest time waste
especially that I didn’t find any. So, I watched a tutorial on YouTube about
the way one makes a free blog and here I was, determined to have it done. In
comparison to the job hunting, the blog, as well as the completion of the
course, depended fully on me. And I could commit myself to accomplish them. When
the blog was online, the satisfaction of having done it entirely by myself was
great.
The idea of making the ‘Writing
Break’ blog was in my mind for quite some time. I guess that ‘Oxford, January
20th, 2019’ was this blog’s birth place and time. The point was to keep
on practicing three writing styles: essays, comments and reviews. I’m also a
sketch writing lover and I thought an ‘uncategorized’ section for all other
writing styles would be good. The practice material was supposed to come from
three fields: politics, culture and sports. Another point was to practice
computer drawing. I had this idea of accompanying each of my writings with a
computer drawing, because I like drawing and because here I find it relevant: A
drawing is the shortest summary of whatever I’m writing about. It’s also quite
challenging to draw on computer, but MS-Paint is a good option start.
Writing for a personal writing
blog is a great experience. Writing, in general, is a great experience, but the
blog allows what I, informally call, a ‘personal note’, some sort of a freedom
I have as a writer that I think I can’t enjoy anywhere else.
For
example, I happily connected a speech of Donald Trump at the U.S. Air Force
Academy to the movie ‘Top Gun’ or I celebrated 50 years since the first step on
the Moon reviewing also the movie ‘Armageddon’. I can’t imagine any teacher or
professional allowing me to this in class or in the pages of a magazine without
being ‘sanctioned’ for this ‘original association’. Or maybe I’m the outcome of
an educational system that generates a general mentality based on ‘you can’t do
this!’ It’s crazy, I know. But it can get crazier: The reason why ‘you can’t do
this!’ is not a great philosophical and enlightening explanation, but simply
the fact that somebody else decides so and you must obey, in order to avoid
being punished by diminishing your grades, or whatever system they have (There
is a grade for behavior. At least here, I’ve always scored the maximum.). However, ‘because
I say so’ or ‘because I want so’ is the cheapest argument I’ve ever heard. I’ve
never been interested in learning from people who can’t formulate an argument,
but impose their will. Besides, this kind of mentality is not at all
democratic. Furthermore, the templates that one must learn and is asked to use almost
everywhere I’ve been is meant to help, when a student can’t write, but no rule forbids
‘original association’ of ideas or things, as long as it doesn’t harm anybody. Some
people do forbid, instead of encouraging the freedom and the liberty of
creativity. No wonder that when I studied Political Sciences in English with some
American professors I felt like the happy fish in the water. Furthermore, ‘Old
Ties’ drama review allowed me to remind about a good friend and colleague I had
in university, while ‘Fair Game’ drama review invited me to a written
reflection on this blog. I gave myself the freedom to compare ‘Ben-Hur’ the
silent movie (1925) to ‘Ben-Hur’ the animation movie (2003) to the ‘Ben-Hur’
production from 2016, or to write a ‘Football recipe’, or to answer challenges
and write a 39-word story on Serena Williams, etc. You bet I love this freedom
that this blog gives, without harming anybody, but always trying to add a cheer
up spice to our daily life!
The
essays and the comments are usually more documented. And for some, I remember
having researched the whole month, such as those on the ‘Who’s the Man in the
Southern Border HuMANitarian Crisis?’ or ‘The U.S. Border Crisis: The Deal with
Mexico Works, but Can it be Sustainable?’ Other essays started from appalling
statistics: I was outraged that 1 in 20 Europeans has never heard of the
Holocaust genocide that happened in Europe. But if ‘the Holocaust were a Rock
Star’ many people would have known plenty of insignificant details about him or
her that are also irrelevant for one’s life security, in comparison to the topic
of genocide that is highly relevant for everybody’s life security.
These
last days I have been reading again some of the writings on this blog that I’ve
posted during the whole year 2019. Many of the entries are around Brexit and
about American internal politics. The reason why it looks so is because I was
writing a play on Brexit and I’m planning one on the American internal
politics. I basically use the same reading material to write my plays as drama genre
and to practice different writing styles on this writing blog. The former I
have just finished, but the latter is not yet unfolding in my head, as I’m
having now a long trip in mind. I have other priorities – and the full time job
remains a top priority in 2020, too – then there are some old manuscripts that
require some retouch and a children’s book that needs a follow up.
A writer even when is looking
through the window is working. I also like to give a lot of thought to whatever
I’m writing before I actually start writing it. And a political play – like the
one on Brexit or the one on the American internal politics – requires both
reflection time and research. Many details of the research will be left out,
but it’s part of a long and enjoyable writing journey.
In
2020 I will keep on enjoying practicing writing styles on this ‘Writing Break’
blog. I will continue reviewing (old) films and dramas – that I enjoy so much,
that I thought to focus only on reviews, but not this year. I will keep on
writing comments, essays and reviews based on materials from politics, culture
and sports. I’ll try to explore even more the opportunities that an online blog
offers. I tried to experience that in December 2019 with the essay ‘From Vaping
to Smoking and …’. What I did in terms of format was to write an essay and to
add footnotes. Nothing special so far! But when I was a student electronic
references were rare, as we were mainly using books and articles (sometimes
CDs) as references. The footnotes were written as academic references of online
resources should be. However, I didn’t want to disconsider a specificity of the
blog in terms of references, meaning the links. Of course, it’s odd to combine
in an essay academic footnotes with links! Unless… and that’s what I’ve done in
terms of format: all references to data were footnotes, as it should be, but
the text was also mentioning one or two international organizations (WHO, for
example). I found appropriate to put a link to WHO main page for any further
explorations of previous projects, statistics, programmes, etc. I thought to be
perfect while taking advantage of an online writing blog resource. It is also
in the general framework of freedom of making ‘original associations’ that a personal
writing blog can offer that is good for the writing practice and experience,
and that it doesn’t harm anybody.
To
sum up, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ‘WRITING
BREAK’ BLOG!!! You are 1 year old. And we are
growing together!
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