For those that remember, back in the mid to late 2000s blogging was quite popular among the early Mizo internet adopters. They were usually Mizo’s living/studying outside Mizoram.
This was the age of Orkut, Myspace, Blogspot.
I remember some of the Mizo blogs. They would try to post about something a little more interesting than the mundane everyday life (pictures from trips, etc.), go on each other’s blog and comment. Some of these blog’s archives can still be read to this day.
I thought about writing back then because my cousin I looked up to also had a blog, but I had nothing to write about.
The First Time
It was around 2009 – 2010, in my Web Design class we had to create our blog, write a blog post on the assignment, then go and comment on some of our classmate’s blog posts.
That was my first introduction to writing in the online sphere. I put some effort into my blog posts but I still had no interest. Neither did my classmates.
One time we had to write about how to solve some of our computer problems. I had some technical experience so I wrote about how to diagnose a computer on my post. I then went over to my neighbor’s site to read and comment on his post.
He wrote about how his uncle dealt with his anger when the computer started malfunctioning. In the post, he mentioned that to solve his anger with the machine his uncle threw his shoe at the computer. He ended the post saying he thought it was a good way to deal with computer malfunctions and recommends it because his uncle calmed down and felt much better afterward.
I couldn’t stop laughing.
Compliment Me
The first time I had a hint that I could write decent happened a year before in English class.
The assignment was to write a paper on a movie that was watched in class. I was absent the day of the film so I had to improvise on the paper with minimal information on the plot of the movie. I still don’t know what happened in the movie to this day (Empire of the sun).
My teacher read some papers to the class that was too short, vague, didn’t follow proper guidelines. As he was reading one I noticed it was mine.
When he finished reading one of the class clowns at the back said: “That was beautiful.” I didn’t think much of myself as a writer but when the teacher read it out loud I thought it sounded pretty good too.
This event reminded me that I can write okay if I actually try.
Off Again
I didn’t write for a long time.
However, I occasionally started writing again on blogs about 3 or 4 years later. This time I wrote in Mizo.
I would get up early and write. I wrote for myself. I was anonymous; there was hardly a filter.
The blog lets you see visitor count and what search term led them to your site. One of my posts was getting more attention than usual (which was about 0), after looking at the stats it seems like he stumbled onto the writing while searching for some ethnic porn. The post was about 2 sentences. He probably thought it was funny and must have shared it.
I started to write less and less, and I didn’t like the idea of my unfiltered diary out in public so I decided to close down the blog.
Do you even like writing
Since then I would still occasionally write in Mizo, in private and not share my writings.
The idea of being a writer/author sounded cool to me, although I seemed to be more interested at the thought of being a writer than actually sitting down to write. That part actually took effort.
I don’t even know if I liked writing.
Right in the Feels
I’m not creative/interested enough to write fiction. But I seemed to be better at writing that touched people. Especially in a sad way.
I once read a short piece at an event. The day before I was at a cafe with a pen and paper, I delved within and really wrote from my true inner heart. The crowd was deeply moved, according to my friend. I felt it at the moment; the room was utterly silent.
It’s when I’m most honest my writing tends to resonate with others.
Sporadic
I don’t write every day. I often go for a long time without doing so. But the itch to write somehow always creep back after a hiatus.
The part I dislike is the amount of time it takes to write, edit, publish. What takes others 1 hour is potentially 3 – 4 times longer in my case. But it is what it is.
This isn’t the most comprehensive story, I left out a lot of details but it should suffice. I just published 2 articles in a row, I really need to get to bed now haha 😀
After a 2-3 month break, I have started to continue working on my memoir (in Mizo) in my spare time. I will be writing more in the coming months.