The Writing Journey

 Ms Hannah Ng

 

Throughout years of my teaching journey, it saddens me to share an observation that most students are not fond of projects that involve a lot of writing. Yan, a P5 student in my class, is one exception – she always takes the writing tasks happily while others are busy grumbling. I wish I have more chance to get to know the story behind Yan and her amazing enthusiam in writing, but she surely reminds me of my English teacher, Mr. R.

 

Mr. R was the teacher in our creative writing class back in Secondary School. In his first lesson, he gave each of us an empty notebook and told us to write anything on it every day, it could be anything we want. As expected, my classmates and I did not take this task well, we only did it because we had to.  

 

In the beginning, a specific topic was assigned everyday and I was so reluctant to finish it as required. However, miraculously, as I began to write more, ideas started to flood into my brain and even though I could not express them in words as well as in my head, I started to write more, and faster. As time went by, I found that I was able to enjoy this task – I can let my imagination take me to anywhere and be someone I could hardly be in real life. Gradually, I was able to complete this daily task with joy and ease.

 

As we gradually became more familiar with the task, Mr. R suggested us to come up with our own topics. I was frustrated at first as I did not know how to begin, I could only write down trivial matters in my ordinary life - sometimes it was about the fight between my baby brother and our dog; sometimes it was the silly conversation between my friends and me. I did not realise it was all these daily trainings that made me more observant and enabled me to create characters and stories based on the people around me.

 

The pandemic has changed our lives and it is not easy to remain optmistic and calm when there are so much going on. But every cloud has its silver lining, now we are staying home for safety and we have more time than ever, let’s start writing, let your imagination take you somewhere else!  I am sure you will find joy and peace in writing as you progress.

 

I sincerely hope the pandemic will be over soon and meanwhile, let’s pick up a pen and set sail on our writing journey.