Over the past few months I have found so many new K-Pop blogs, but a problem I have seen is that not a lot of them are staying. That's a problem I can fully understand, because in a sense I went though a phase like that too -- I was in my early 'teens, I had no direction in terms of what I wanted to achieve, I didn't even know what I was doing. It would've been so, so easy to give up, especially with all the obstacles I encountered, and later, all the people who already left. However, two things kept me going. The first was that, sooner or later, I realized that I loved writing, that I loved the feeling I got during the writing process, and that I wanted to keep doing it. This is my passion, and so while it may fade away one day, until then I'm going to keep doing it. But, equally important was the second thing that made me stay -- people to share my passion with. Early into my days as a K-Pop writer, I joined Babelpop, a network for Korean Entertainment blogs and news sites, where I met most of my Blogger friends, including McRoth. And I kept making friends, talking to them, and I even began writing with them and turning to them for ideas and help with my writing.
Recently, I've also had many people "coming up to me" -- e-mailing me, Tweeting me -- and telling me that I inspired them to begin blogging. I'm flattered, to say the least, and even after several instances of that, there are times when I still can't comprehend the idea of being an inspiration for someone else when I think my writing has so much to work on. I'm a writer just like everyone else. What these people, friends, have made me realize though, is that communication, constructive comments, and a model to follow or aspire to be, go a long way as far as encouraging writers to stay on.
And so, while it is inspired by many other things, the driving force of my newest project, The K-Pop Writers' Workshop, are those two aspects that keep me writing -- passion and networking. I want to develop passions for writing about K-Pop by helping writers, of any skill set and stage, improve their writing. And, at the same time, but bringing together a diverse group of writers, I want to forge new networks and create more connections within the already-diverse K-Pop blogging community. Blogging with the knowledge that you have friends to throw ideas around with, or to collaborate with, is so much better than being all by yourself. I have my circles of friends (who are helping me out with this project!), and other bloggers have theirs, but now I want to merge them. I want this to be a group of people who are both bloggers and people -- colleagues at the same time friends -- like the relationships I have with my close blogger friends.
So if you're interested, if you're a new writer, or even a seasoned writer, but want to get feedback on your work and meet other bloggers, or even if you just know someone who wants to start writing but doesn't know where to begin, I encourage you to join! We're taking this one step at a time and starting small for the time being, but I would really, really like to meet other writers and bloggers outside of those I already know! I would also like to keep in contact with all the new blogger friends I've made over the past few years, as well as work with you for the first time!
Applications open tomorrow, July 6th, and will end on July 20th to give us all time to prepare and get to know each other. Instructions on how to apply will be posted tomorrow, but the timetable/schedule and guidelines are already up, as well as an intro more mushy than this one was. I look forward to seeing your applications and reading your work! ^_^
Cool!
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