me no academia

At lunch time today, I had a chat with someone with a very technical background.He asked me what are my methods in writing and I was like... my what?

He asked me what are my steps, how do I decide on an angle and how to formulate the words into a readable piece. I looked at him in total bewilderment and told him that I have no idea.

The truth is, I never consciously think. Ever.

And that is the truth.

I make a living by writing ads. It's a fun job, really. I'm given an advertising brief and I work on it, as simple as that. I like it because they let me wear shorts and sandals to work in the days that I don't have meetings and I get to meet lots of fun people. There might be some conscious thinking involved, but not much, because selling household stuff is no rocket science really.

I blog in my spare time. I have four blogs so far. One is to cater to my inner monster so there are some pretty gory stuff in there, one is to document the conversation I have with my imaginary friends, one is dedicated to my husband to document our adventure in culinary and travel, and the last one is this, my recent narcissistic blog that will feature only me, myself and I.

I write most of the time, but I never think about what to write. I just write whenever I feel like writing and I don't consciously attach any methods to it.

In fact, methods freak me out. Anything structured freaks me out. So much so that I bailed from Indonesia's finest university after only spending 3 weeks on campus and spent 3 years doing practically everything useless before my father decided that enough is enough and sent me to Perth, where I spent another 3 years lying on the grass at Nedlands Park imagining a parallel universe.

I did not bail out after 3 weeks because Australian universities are generally more laid back, you could be yourself and wore whatever and wrote about whatever in your papers provided you could back up your arguments, even if you back them up with the lamest and most messed up theories ever. A skill proven incredibly useful in my line of work now.

Until now, I still can't shake off my allergy in anything academia. I read strictly fiction so don't discuss The Tipping Point with me. I read lots of Japanese psycho thrillers and Brett Easton Ellis. I am fascinated by serial killers and stalkers and anything totally unnecessary.

So don't ask me to explain anything. I don't know how I get from point A to point B. I just do.

I guess the beauty of my life is that everything comes effortlessly. I can't be bothered with anything that requires conscious thinking. Don't be fooled with my appearance. Most people mistake me as an intelligent person because I dress shabbily and wear thick glasses, but it's only because I'm incurably unfashionable and can't be bothered with wearing contact lenses. And deep,meaningful questions freak me out. I am as shallow as anyone can be, and so far it's been good to be me.



Me, spacing out, not thinking.