J. Z. Y. Liang
Hi, this is my intermittent blog about writing. Here I’ll post short stories, edits of longer pieces, and posts detailing me and my writing process. I want to show you what made it easier or harder, what tricks worked, and of course, some final products.
A bit about me.
My name is Josiah Liang. I am graduate of the University of Kansas, and in between my work in the medical field, I like to write! It’s always been my passion and I hope that by sharing it with you here, I can make your day just a little bit better.
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I Got Published
On January 20th I got the most exciting news. I got published!
The Oakland University Arts Review accepted a piece of mine called ‘Cowboy’. I can’t help but see this as a sign to keep going. Writing and storytelling have always been passions of mine, but these last few months have been some of the least productive I have ever had. I’m talking nothing besides a sentence or two a week. I was to the point of making my peace and giving up on writing, of becoming one of those people who almost wrote something. I wish there was some advice I could channel to my past self, any tricks that have made me fall in love with writing again, but if I’m honest, I’m riding a validation high.
Looking back on the last several months of lacking productivity, I think I’ve missed the structure of education. I think it kept me motivated to write. The constant pressure to learn, to apprehend a new topic, and to prove myself validated me, but they also pushed my mind to wonder. Buddhist artworks, Arthurian Legends, Geology, Rhetoric: I learned the stories of these subjects, their history, why they are the way they are. Learning never left me reaching for what comes next, or what ink could spill over my new, blank page.
I miss that structure, and the opportunities learning provided me. My next challenge, in this post-academic phase of my life, is going to be finding a way to mimic the environment that made me such a productive writer. Hopefully I will be able to do so without replicating the relentless stress of academia.