Introduction Blog - First Post!

Hi, there. I'm Vitto Alexander. As a young boy who’s trying to develop his writing skills, this blog shall be the container of my writings. Being a 16-year-old Indonesian studying for college in the U.S., I won’t consider my writings to be challenging for many people, but I hope that they are intriguing enough for people to be inspired. Many of my writings will have themes based on my reminiscence. Although, my inspirations are sometimes found from the struggles in my life, or in the lives of the people whose closest to me. To be honest, I just want my writings to inspire people as I have been inspired by other writings.

---

Well, first of all, there’s an Indonesian proverb that says, “If you don’t know them and you’re not familiar with them, you can’t learn to love them.” So, let me tell you more about me ...

Uh, here's me ...

I was born in Jakarta, the capital city of probably the most underrated Asian country ever, Indonesia (because people only know the famous place of Bali and not the country). I used to switch schools and learn how to adapt really quickly. Fortunately, it works in my favor, as I learn how to be myself, despite being in different environments from time to time. I realise that it has made me to value authenticity among people. I believe each of us is unique and we have our own ways to express ourselves, and personally, I believe people whose true to themselves are the best. Therefore, I really hope that this blog shall be a genuine form of expression that will inspire you, the readers.

---

MY HOBBIES

Next, I want to share my hobbies. They cover important aspects of my life and somehow shape me until I become who I am right now.

First, I am a sportsman. I love sports. I was a tennis athlete since I was 10 years old. I was the captain of my middle-school’s soccer team, and I was the sixth-man player of my high-school’s basketball team. Switching sports was somewhat part of my hobby, I guess. These experiences have taught me about passion, perseverance, teamwork, and many other valuable things.

Then, I am also a musician. I play the drums and guitar. I’ve been learning them mostly by autodidact, or self-taught. In addition to that, I served in my local church back in Indonesia, as a drummer and guitarist, being in the music team. Now, I'm a drummer in New Bethel Temple. I also listen to various genres of music. From gospel, indies, alternative rock, and to hip-hop. My favorite artist also varies. For song-writing, I admire Frank Ocean. For instrumentalist, I adore Tom Misch and his guitar skills. I listen to music almost an hour every day, it has been a huge part of my life.

And lastly, just like most boys, I love video games. I can just sit on the couch and play my PS4 indefinitely. I mostly play FIFA or NBA 2K, which is sports related. Alright, I think this doesn’t need further explanation.

---

MY PAST

Okay ... looking back from the past, my time in Indonesia right before I moved to the U.S. was actually great. I was just in the 11th grade for three months in my high school. I had decent grades. I had the chance to be actively involved in school, church, clubs, and other organizations. It was really exciting, and I value every precious opportunity that I took. Oh, what a journey it is.

I was really comfortable, and I wished that I would’ve spent my entire life in Indonesia ... except, that I moved to the U.S. in September 2018 to pursue higher education in such an early age. Now, I’m about 8,000 miles away from my family. Starting a new life in a very contrasting world. Dealing with bigger, more complex problems, and having to make decisions on my own. I guess, learning to be mature at the first time has always been hard for people. Sometimes, when I’m feeling down and need consolation, I have to remind myself to think positively for the future ahead.

Well, that might be all you need to know about me. Next, I’m going to talk about who I am as a writer and my experience with creative writing.

---

MY WRITING

To be honest, I don’t know much about writing. For me, writing is a way to store ideas and insights. Sometimes I write cool ideas in the notes on my phone. Essentially, I just like to write for fun.

Meanwhile, I think creative writing is way much more than that. I think the most important element about creative writing is the plot itself. It takes time to outline the plot, listing down key events, and connecting each component. In addition to that, it must be really hard with the addition of plot points and plot twists. In my opinion, a clearly written plot, with an effective delivery, is surely good narrative.

So, why am I writing? Well, I am keen to become more creative and thoughtful as a writer. I believe by writing more frequently, it would help me. I will make mistakes, for sure, but bear with me please. By making more mistakes, I can learn from those mistakes and become better. This might sound cliché, I hope these mistakes will lead me to write more efficiently.

Another reason is also because I love to improve my English. For example, I want to learn using better words that describe something in a story that would create an effect for readers to better picture the story in their imaginations. See? That wasn’t an effective sentence, but I don’t know how to make easier to read and understand. Oh, well ... I want to improve my English and my writing in the same time. So, win-win?

In order to achieve my goal, I should use strategies, especially with this genre of writing. I think being creative and innovative is really important, and the themes are usually taken from inspirations. I usually try to find inspirations first before writing. The inspirations might be from myself or from the situation, environment, society, or even people around me. For example, if someday I feel like school was hard, but remember that I paid expensive tuition fees, I might write with a theme that’s like “Keep moving forward because huge sacrifices had been made.”

Then, talking about creativity and innovation, I might just need to let my thoughts wander wild. Sometimes, brainstorming might only lead my brain to overthink. So, what I usually do is that when I think of something cool or something that’s worth to be in a poem or fiction, I write down the idea in my notes. It should be stored and pile up with other ideas of the same theme. After that, when deciding to write something with that theme, I look at the notes for reference and ideas for the plot. I found this method to work in my favor most of the times.

---

So, that is all for my first ever post in this blog. I am looking forward to post more some good things in the near future.

Don't forget to send me a constructive feedback if you have one.

And by the way, thanks for having the time to read this ... of all the things that you can do right now :)

Cheers!