For some reason, I am feeling more optimistic about doing more writing this year than I have ever done in the last couple of years. And, I’m already looking forward to trying new and different things once again. Perhaps, even start on a good project or two.

What about you? Have you included “writing” in your New Year’s Plans/Resolutions? What are your goals for writing this year?

Whatever they may be, I wish you all the best. May 2009 bring you a lot of wonderful writing moments.

Writing books and magazines used to be in my staple reading diet. I devoured them. But, I’ve pretty much abandoned the habit in the last few years.

I guess, after a while, all the advice just began to sound the same to me. There was nothing new, nothing revealing, nothing that excited me enough to want to actually WRITE.

Then I saw this book at the library a few months ago. I decided to borrow it just for the heck of it.

And, without expecting it, I actually enjoyed reading this book. It inspired me. Gave me lots of ideas and food for thought. But most importantly, it allowed me to explore my writing roots AND got me back to writing.

I also love how it enabled me to explore my strengths and weaknesses as a “rising lit star”… and it helped me to re-focus my writing dreams. And, since finishing this book a couple of months ago, I’ve been on that personal writing journey.

Some of my favourite quotes from the book:

“You must write the thing you most want to read.”

“Embrace your genius.”

“You don’t have to be good at something to do it. Put your heart in to your work, don’t take yourself seriously, and practice!”

The only regret I have about this book is having to return it to the library. I wish I can have it in my own bookshelf to refer to whenever I need to remind myself of certain writing goals and dreams.

Note to Australians: Buy How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights from Fishpond. They offer free shipping for orders over AU$50.

So, instead of over-thinking it, I decided just to give it a go. It doesn’t even matter if I ‘win’ and complete a novel or not. I just want to try it. See how it will work. Wish me luck.

If you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo too, do let me know. Share your profile here in the comment section or here at my personal blog (and join the 52WoC fun). And, if you are taking part as well, I wish you all the best too!

Bad move, I say. Not only did it complicate the whole process, it made the site appear disjointed. No wonder I was left uninspired when it comes to trying to blog here.

Ah, well. I guess, I’ll just blame it on pregnancy hormones.

At the moment, I’m not sure how much time I can devote to updating eWriteLife. But, it’s one of my first ever sites/blogs, so it’s really something I can’t let go for good.

I’m hoping to post updates here more often. And yes, hopefully, the next post won’t be this much delayed.

If you’re a reader/subscriber/supporter of this site/blog and you’ve stuck around, waiting for something to happen, let me say: THANK YOU! You’re a rock star.

Let me try to make it up to you and show you that eWriteLife updates are worth waiting for.

For now, let me offer a re-organised blog, with no more webzine/blog separations. And hopefully, offering more functionality in the next few weeks.

Do stay tuned for more!

It’s a long story how it all happened. So, let me just give you the quick version: eWriteLife started as just part of my personal site, hosted on a freeserver many years ago. Then, it went to its own domain, with paid hosting. It was just like any other website then - with a few additions like newsletters/ezines, forums, mailing lists, etc. It even had columnists and contributors - and online workshops. When I got in to blogging, I thought it was best to move it to that kind of platform. It was on solo flight mode all those years, until it joined the b5media fold last year.

As a co-owner of b5, of course, I wanted as many of my projects to be part of the network as much as possible. And, I would’ve kept eWriteLife there for good. But, over the last few months, I realised that I was having to cope with too many web projects. Too many deadlines and demands to work with. And, with me taking on a full-time role at b5 as the company Vice President for Community - PLUS a new addition in the family (yep, just a week to go!) - well, I knew I couldn’t keep up with the posting requirements and such.

And, really, we don’t want a ‘dead’ blog on the b5 network. And, seeing as I have to weigh in my priorities, I decided to pull it out and just archive it. Well, for the most part.

I thought that one of the best ways to archive it is to present it in a web magazine format, so nothing looks too dated. Since I do have content that are ‘evergreen’, it seemed like the right thing to do. I didn’t want to fiddle around with websites too much, as I really am way too busy at the moment. But, I found this component for Joomla (a content management system) called iJoomla Magazine*, which made my task easier. So, I moved the blog to a subdomain (ewritelife.com/blog) and put the webzine in the main URL.

Issue #1 is up and it’s called ‘Beginning to Write’. Just a collection of some articles that are suitable for beginners. Not sure when Issue #2 will happen. But, if you’re keen to get updates, please feel free to register at the site.

And, what about this blog? Well, I hope to be able to continue updating, even sporadically. But, I’m not sure how often I’d get to do so, as it will basically be just a side project. We’ll just have to see how things go…

Anyway, if you want to read a bit about the evolution of eWriteLife, see our main site’s About Page.

Will keep you posted.

See the latest issue of eWriteLife’s web magazine edition powered by iJoomla:
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2) List 5 things that you love. Then, list 5 people that you love.

3) Write about your first love.

4) Create your own definition of love.

5) Complete the sentence: “Love brings…”

If you’ve written about these things on your blog, please feel free to share them right here.

2) List as many adjectives as you can describing fullness.

3) Create a character that appears “full”. What does he/she look like? What does he/she feel like? What is he/she doing?