The Writing Process Blog Hop – My First Blog Hop!

Several weeks back, Charlene PM-ed me over Facebook to ask if I was keen to join a Blog Hop that’s going around. Charlene (also known as missuschewy) is an active blogger who enjoys travelling (shiok!), food (also shiok!) and is now a happy mummy to baby Chanelle (shiok baby! hahaha)! This bubbly lady whom i e-met over Instagram because we attended the same event for our babies (it was also baby Vera’s first event!); although we were not acquainted face-to-face during the session, she exudes such positive vibes that it’s really hard not to want to connect with her :P Like her, we are both full-time working mums and share similar experiences in our motherhood career which encompasses our breastfeeding woes journey and baby’s milestones. So i ponder for awhile and thought that it’d be fun, so why not? The only thing that stood between agreeing instantly was ‘time’, so, heck, just do it! :P

a. What am I working on?
Right now, there are several drafts on the dashboard. Am due to put together a travelogue for our recent trip to Taiwan, which was also baby Vera’s first trip (and my first post-partum one too!!), and it was a new challenge for us as new parents. Achievement unlocked, i say! Many friends and parents alike have been telling me that they are looking forward to the articles (i’m very very happy to know that people actually read this blogazine man *touched*) and I’ve also been trying to sneak in pockets of time to update. Several friends and people whom i’ve gotten acquainted with via The Hooting Post have been very kind and supportive. Indeed, I’m counting my blessings with each sponsored advertorial/review, invited media events, sponsored giveaways and growing readership. But alas, if you’ve been following us on Facebook, you’d know that baby Vera’s bedtime pattern has taken a turn once again. So, i’m practically a slab of meat after she has fallen asleep because she mostly sleeps around midnight (now now, please don’t judge), and there goes my bit of time to work on articles for The Hooting Post, as well as for other platforms because i’ve to dig myself out of bed the next morning for work. Nonetheless, still striving to find time to write because it’s my passion and i don’t wish to regret when it’s too late or when i kick the bucket :) Work has its waves of highs too, and guess it pretty much explains the multiple drafts sitting there, and articles which take several nights (or sometimes weeks) to complete.

b. How does my work differ from others in its genre?
Well, i envision myself as a writer managing a blog-form of magazine, hence “blogazine” is referred to for The Hooting Post, instead of “blog” per se in this aspect. A blog in its origins, was conceived to be an online diary, but for me, it’s more of article-based postings where i hope to share with readers interesting and relevant topics; mainly content revolving around my life minus being too personal – when i first started writing offically on blogs, my first concern was to keep the writer’s identity a secret (because i’m shyyyy), almost like a ghost writer. Because of the topics that i write about, if there’s a need for classification, i’m probably a cross between a lifestyle blogger + mummy blogger?

c. Why do I write what I do?
I remember when i was 5 or 6 years old, i took a pencil and conceptualized an entire children’s magazine, sketching out all the contents in those pages including activity pages (word games, word search, colouring pages, imagined story contributions from imaginery kids), stories with moral learnings, book reviews etc; you can tell i was pretty much a bookworm, eh? But the real interest in writing came on much later. I do not consider myself blessed with the flair for writing nor do i have the official paperworks for writing, so it’s pretty much borne out of interest. Writing is something which i “discovered and developed” over the years alongside opportunities at work. And the more i did it on different platforms (marcoms, copywriting, packaging, press releases, social media, freelance writing etc), the more i enjoyed it and what better way to put up stuff to read when i’m much older? So, I started writing about topics related to thyself – food, beauty, fashion, and until more recently, our little one, parenthood. What fueled the burgeoning interest and full works further: I realized that my already-bad memory was deteriorating (must be the aftermath of pregnancy!) and it scares me that i can’t seem to recall certain nuggets of information! With a shrinking memory bank, penning it down can help collate my current thoughts and feelings for future readings when I look back in time.

d. How does my writing process work?
My mind is switched on 24/7 and yes, that includes night too (i dream every.single.night., except maybe like 5 times in my entire life that i actually had dreamless sleep) so you can probably imagine the number of contents floating in my mind – if i could actually translate those thoughts into typed text (anyone gonna invent this anytime soon??), i’d be able to conjure up plenty of articles daily! Thoughts aside, inspiration comes anytime and from anywhere. It could be baby-related, or something fun i did, something yummy i ate (i probably post pics faster on Instagram..hahaha!) or interesting things sighted, so all these start with drafts, along with pictures which i usually snap with my Samsung Note 3 (i still do not like its camera for its slow shutter speed compared to iPhone 4. Sob!) because lugging a professional-looking camera with a heavy diaper bag, stroller, baby in arms, is really not a joke! Don’t know how Charlene does it, but she deserves claps! So for that, my pictures are usually raw ones (unedited hahaha, except with the occasional tools found in the apps like filters or text), and for the content, basically i pluck those floating ones from the back of my head, string them together and TA-DA! I get quite paranoid before publishing an article too – multiple rounds of proof-reading and editing too! Working late into the night after tucking baby Vera into bed (and my big baby too haha!) is a natural part of my writing journey, and honestly, also a very difficult thing for me to do because it takes sheer determination and discipline to get this piece of meat out of the bed, what more with sleep deprivation which comes with motherhood?! Truth be told, my fave past time before baby was uninterrupted sleep; and now it’s probably a distant dream. LOL.

Next up, mummy Qiqi of MissyQiqi is tagged in this relay… hehe… look out for her post next Monday! This charming lady has recently delivered her 2nd baby, a princess, and she looks picture-perfect even in the delivery suite! In fact, I’ve to thank her for inviting us to her Kidsme event, which Charlene and I attended back then. We learned about independent feeding for a baby and it was assuring when baby Vera took to the food feeder to feed on her own too. It’s no mean feat for this lady – juggling a toddler, taking care of her newborn, working full time AND managing her own business (she’s the lady boss behind Totsworld Pte Ltd) – phew! Find out how she does it all!