Most people write for different purposes. If you encounter the writers and ask their intentions of writing, you will have more than 100 reasons why they write. But basically, people write for money, pleasure, and interest. As for me, writing is not my utmost interest. Instead, I prefer drawing and singing to writing. I hate writing when I was in school as I found it was a boring task to do. My writing instinct only appeared when I was in a university as I loved to do research. The research has indeed pushed me to write more to express my views, opinions and ideas. Because of this extraordinary instinct, I started to write for a press and magazine in Chinese, Malays and Japanese to earn some extra income that enabled me to pay for my expenditure in the campus.
Writing is not an easy task particularly if you write in a language that is difference from your mother tongue. As for my personal experience, I would finish several writings in Chinese within an hour as it is easier for me to express the flow of ideas in my mother tongue. I found myself more comfortable to express whatever I want to say, but in other language it might be a challenge for me to write.
It needs my patience and continual learning in order to master that particular language to enable myself to express in different situations. Sometimes, the language may become an obstacle to express what I want to express if I have lack of knowledge in terms of its usage, grammatical and morphological rules. In short, it is a huge challenge for me to express in English as my native language is not English and I have a minimal exposure to practice with the native speaker in the more natural learning environment. Despite of this, I have to rely upon Internet to learn from BBC World radio, and other on-line English resources.
How do you measure your success in writings? Money? Popularity? More fans? More views?
Well, it could not be wrong to measure your success based upon the money you earned, the popularity, fans who admire your works and the page views you received. I think, apart from these factors, the fulfillment is the foremost part that leads me to write.
The most successful writers, in my opinion, are those whose works have changed the readers' thinking who read on their works. This might be a brainstorming, a motivation to become better, or an improvement in life and attitude. As a reader, I am sure you know who the most successful writes are. In general, they are those who have influential voices to change other people's life to become better besides helping others to achieve their goals or targets in life.
Well, I suppose every one of us, must have felt on top-of-the-world feeling when he or she succeeded to have his or her works published elsewhere. The feeling cannot be described by words. It must be experienced. This wonderful feeling can remain with one indefinitely. I could feel how he or she feels to be in love and having that ecstatic top-of-world feeling. It is quite intoxicating!
Being the most successful writers either in local or global scale may require the writers to fit some of the criteria as follows:
The Use of Language
Different writing field may require different ways to express. Take for example, if you would like to write cartoon, comedy, and script, you have to make use of the dialect, informal language, dialect and accent to attract your reader's attention to read your work. It will not be appropriate to use a standard language as it appears to be too rough and lack of humor. Below are some of the examples of the dialect forms used in writing and communication. Their meanings are indicated in the brackets.
Dialect
I bain't ready. (= I'm not ready)
Can ye no help me? (= Can't you help me?)
She's after telling me. (=She's told me.)
Are youse coming or not? (=Are you-plural-coming or not?)
I ain't done nothing. (= I haven't done anything.)
Dialect and accent
‘elp yerself. (=Help yourself.)
Come wi' me. (= Come with me.)
‘e's gone ‘ome. (=He's gone home.)
Where d'he hide ‘em? (=Where did he hide them?)
I dunno. (= I don't know.)
I gotta go. (= I've got to go.)
I don't wanna eat. (= I don't want to eat.)
It's gonna rain. (=It's going to rain.)
Vegetables ‘n' fruits. (= vegetables and fruits.)
C'n I'ave a glass o' water? (=Can I have a glass of water?)
C'mon, we're late. (= Come on, we're late.)
Yer getting' big. (You're getting big.)
