On Reviews and Writing
I began writing when I was five years old, typing short stories on my mom’s office computer. I wrote about rude rabbits and pigs with wigs and fancied myself the next Enid Blyton, whose books I used to collect. I later discovered poetry and penned many a bad rhyme. And then came the “junior journalist” phase, where I joined essay writing contests and became a staffer for the school paper. Growing up, I was so often told that I had potential for writing by both biased (my mom) and unbiased (teachers — they didn’t like me because I was a lazy underachiever) authority figures that I thought it must be true.
Here’s the truth, though. Even now that I have successfully earned a Journalism degree, I still can’t decide whether I like writing or not. While there are times when I feel the urge to just write, I usually struggle so much with it that I wonder if I’m even having fun. It’s rare for me to come up with a piece of writing that I’m satisfied with, and even when I do I still cringe every time I see someone reading what I wrote.
It’s drastically different from what I experience with my other hobbies. Even when it takes me days to complete a layout or finish a drawing, there’s no doubt in my mind that I’m enjoying what I’m doing. And I’m always proud of the end product and eager to show it to anyone who’s interested, whether I’m completely happy with it or not.
However, this is also true: for all of my creative pursuits, I always appreciate a good critique. I don’t mean good as in positive, but as in detailed and specific. I’ve attended writing workshops where they figuratively ripped my assignments apart, but I’ve found those sessions very helpful and even enjoyable. Not all reviews I’ve received were useful, though, particularly those that came from people who 1) didn’t really know what they were talking about and 2) didn’t take into account what I was trying to do with my piece and simply made suggestions based on his own vision. For me a useful critique is one that points out issues I might have missed and helps steer the piece closer to where I want it to go.
Kimmie‘s recent review of Skylight was definitely useful. I requested her to critique this site after reading her well-written article on website reviews. Her suggestions helped me address many issues that had been bothering me before. The features section is now more organized and the index page less cluttered thanks to her. Next step: a more flexible CMS. I seriously need to move on from Blogger. Any suggestions? 
In other news, I recently made two kid-inspired layouts, one for my candy-loving friend Kathy, the other for my LJ. What can I say? I have a lot of free time these days, being a bum and all 
I’m just resting a little before I go into full-on work mode after the holidays.
So I’ve been lurking around your site for a long time now, and I’ve always been in awe of your amazing artwork.
Which is also why I was positively filled with glee when you commented on my site! So there, my little secret is out.
Writing is awesome. And using WordPress (as others above have mentioned) on a personal site works. It’s easy to maintain and has great features – Plugins are terrific! I’d recommend it to anyone.
It’s hard to decide whether you enjoy something because you’re good at it or you’re good at it because you enjoy it. Which do you think it is for you? For me, although I enjoy it, it’s just harder to enjoy writing knowing it can easily be shot down with critiques about grammar, continuity etc and it’s hard to defend what Ive done. Whereas with illustrations and layouts I can easily resort to “well you know, that’s how I wanted it to look. We all have different tastes”
As for a more flexible CMS, I don’t think you can get better than WordPress for personal use. It’s not as hard to set up as it may seem, although their 5-minute setup takes much longer than 5 minutes.
Would it be embarrassing if I were to tell you that I had a slight squee moment when you commented on my site? I’ve admired your work for a long time, and can only dream about utilising colour as effectively as yourself.
Anyway, as I’m sure many other people would suggest this…why not give WordPress a go? Everything else that’s available is really only good for site updates and blog entries, and thus aren’t really a CMS per se.
I sort of feel the same was as you.
I can’t say that I love writing, but I enjoy it much more than, say, public-speaking. Okay, I do like writing… just not school assignments, is all.
But even so, I’m never fully satisfied with what I write. Sometimes writing is a pain and I struggle with it a lot. I’d really like to be a good writer, though. I’ve been reading many blogs and everyone is so great, and I’m like, “why is it so effortless for them?”
I don’t know…I’m sorry, I’m rambling.
I really like your site by the way. Your artwork is just so cute!
I’m glad you found the review useful!
Nikki, honestly you’re one of my favorite bloggers because I always feel somewhat optimistic after I’ve read your entries. You don’t rant about unimportant things, unlike many blogs out there.
Maybe you landing into Journ was a really fortunate incident because you seem competently artistically-inclined, and it would’ve been sad to lost that talent to…Engineering (tama ba? haha!)
Though like you said, writing and then getting it workshopped later hurts a bit. At least, those classes and reviews developed you more of this calloused, erm, stronger writer who can be useful in practically any field of work.
Please keep on writing because I enjoy reading your works! ^^