If you’ve been reading for a while, you might have noticed that I’m generally a pretty chipper person. I’ve always been a glass-half-full kind of girl and tend to see the bright side or humour in most situations. But for the past couple of weeks – ever since I had the flu – I’ve been a little grumpy. Why? Writer’s block! I was completely stumped on my novel and it was driving me nuts. Perhaps I need more romance in my life (or at least a little) to write about my life but even watching Coffee Prince (커피프린스) or My Tutor Friend (동갑내기 과외하기) wasn’t getting me out of my funk.
Thankfully, it’s now mostly resolved but the frustration was making all writing difficult, even my beloved Korean culture writing. Oh man, it was so frustrating. I couldn’t seem to string a sentence together and when I did, it was crap.
Luckily, two wonderful things happened to cheer me up and remind me why I write. And by putting me in the correct – read: happy – frame of mind, words started flowing again. So I want to acknowledge what happened and thank the two lovely ladies who unbeknownst to them, helped me get over my writer’s block.
First, in addition to my blogging/writing here. I also tweet a lot about Korean events, festivals, films, concerts, etc. in Toronto. And just like how I love your comments here, my lovely readers, I also value my Twitter conversations. In fact, I feel that I become friends with some of them and have been lucky to meet a few in real life. One can never have too many friends.
A few days ago, one of my Twitter “followers” or friends as I prefer to call them, recently replied to one of my tweets about A Werewolf Boy (늑대소년) playing in Toronto (at Yonge & Dundas and Yonge & Sheppard Cineplex Odeons). She said “yes!! omg thank you! super excited to see this. I also saw Masquerade due to ur info lol. love following u ^^”
Well, I want to say “Thanks!!” (and I did). I had a smile on my face for hours after reading it. If each article or tweet can reach just one person and help them learn something, I’m happy. That’s why I write. And just that one tweet lighten my mood enough that I was able to start thinking about ideas for my next couple of weeks of articles. You, my lovely readers, are an essential part of the writing process.
The second wonderful thing that happened recently, happened at HallyuCon 2012 (check back on Thursday for my article on that amazing event). I was walking around the event, taking pictures and finally made my way to the YG booth. Yeah, I was there as press but I had to know what they had. While I was waiting for the crowd to thin in front of the booth, a lovely young lady came up to me and asked if I was Cindy. When I replied I was, she told me how much she liked my writing and in particular, how much she liked Love in the Land of Morning Calm (and how she was waiting for it to be published). I was floored and so grateful. There is absolutely nothing a writer likes hearing more than that someone likes there work. Thank you so very much!! I was beyond surprised but it was such a lovely thing for her to say!
I am so lucky to have such wonderful readers like you all. And I also appreciate all your responses on my survey, you’ve helped so much. I hope to keep providing you with useful and interesting articles in 2013 (and of course, for the rest of 2012) with the help of some new featured writers. So excited for the upcoming changes to upgrade this blog to an online magazine about Korean culture. Keep reading, my lovely readers, and keep being so fabulous!