welcome aboard!

Dear All,

Ok, I know, boring template...(I must admit I don't know how to upload a new template from some other website, so if someone wants to help, I'll be most grateful)..

This is our Writers' Block, an extension of our Writers' Workshop in class.

I don't think writing should be an isolated activity. Granted we sometimes write for private enjoyment or expression,  but often enough, we write to share and communicate with others.

SO, let's make this blog our communal space for writing, sharing and giving as well as receiving feedback from readers and fellow writers, so that our writing endeavours become dynamic experiences and hopefully, it can also help us become better writers in both creative and critical arenas of writing. 

For a start, please upload your 55 fiction pieces. Don't be shy to share and don't hesitate to give encouragement and useful feedback to one another. We don't expect perfect pieces of work; the main objective here is that you're open to sharing and to receiving feedback and advice from readers.

In the coming days and weeks, you'll be uploading further pieces of writing. 

(Hopefully, this writers' block will also survive into next year as well.)

Ms Ng :) 

WHY WRITE

Writing is one of the best ways of expressing one’s self. This is because it is unlike music or art, where it is a largely exhibitionistic form of self-expression. When writing we can choose to reveal or conceal, so no one but ourselves know what we truly mean, though the audience can make guesses to satiate their innate desire for knowledge. Of course, in an academic setting it is not as mysterious – you have to be very straightforward – as can be seen here.

Writing can be used to convey meaning and display insight into human conditions of the period of time from whence the writer came. For instance, Charles Dickens wrote extensively on his experience as a child labourer in the industrial revolution under the guise of fiction. Indeed, writing can be brilliant for masking reality under pretense of falsehood.

One can utilize writing for various purposes, simply because it is a versatile tool which never leaves us (until we die – in the brain or in the physical life). Many writers wrote to seduce – such as Percy Shelley. Many writers wrote to express their anger and pain – such as the literate peasants of the Russian Revolution. And some, like Oscar Wilde, wrote to satirise and ridicule.

Language is manipulative. It can fiddle with your mind and toy with your emotion. For example, Mary Shelley’s masterpiece and first novel, Frankenstein, incurred fear in many of her readers with its exploration of the meaning of art and life. Other works such as Dracula by Bram Stoker also explore such themes.

When reading writing the work can compel the reader to ponder various ideas, such as the morality of racism in To Kill A Mockingbird, or the viability of communism in Animal Farm. Such is the power of fictional creative writing.

Writing is basically a celebration of humanity and life and a mimicry of the lives we lead, or the lives we want to lead. It is everything it is, because it is a representation of us, and since most of us are innately contemplative, manipulative or imaginative, thus our writing will be as well.

-Cheryl, 315