Process Reflection
For my final creative piece, I have decided to write about a young woman from the quiet town of Sigtuna, Sweden. Cecelia comes from a highly traditional family--her father has never set foot out of the town. But she has always dreamt of visiting more exciting places. She travels to Hong Kong, in spite of her father's wishes. The core of the story is about wanting to experience new things and how some people can grow bored with the mundane, while others desire it.
The inspiration for this story came from the interview with my partner in Hong Kong, Natalie. One of the comments that stuck with me in our interview was that Hong Kong isn't a place that you would want to go on a holiday. In contrary to this, my father had recently gotten married in Hong Kong and spent part of his honeymoon there, and found it to be a highly rewarding and enjoyable experience. This got me thinking about how as people we can grow tired of the things we are surrounded by, whether it is a busy city or a quiet little town. I wanted to explore a character who grew up in a place completely different to Hong Kong and write about how they might see this busy city as opposed to somebody who grew up there.
Overall I was pleased with how our interview went. While I had prepared about twelve questions asking about Natalie personally, wanting to get to know her a bit, she didn't seem entirely comfortable with them, so I made the decision to cut them out and focus on the city itself, and her studies at HKBU. Fortunately, I was able to adapt to the interview and still get a lot of helpful information out of it, which inspired the piece which I went on to write. Another issue I faced was that I had gone into the interview expecting Natalie to be a creative writer, but the truth was that she hadn't done much creative writing before. I had a few questions based on this, so, similar to the personal questions, I avoided asking them and went in-depth with the prepared questions that were more suitable. I found that the whole process was about adaptability and being mentally prepared for obstacles.
Despite a few early barriers, my interview with Natalie proved essential to the creation of this piece, as I started to get a solid grasp on the business of Hong Kong. I believe that through the interview, I was able to illustrate a more truthful picture of the city and life there in my initial draft.
Perhaps one of the most interesting things that happened in the interview occurred when I spontaneously asked about domestic helpers in Hong Kong, since my new step-mum worked as such. Natalie seemed completely surprised by the question, as I imagine that domestic helpers in the city are somewhat invisible. I didn't learn too much out of the interview on that question, just that they have a domestic helper in Natalie's household. It was a few days later that the reward from this question came through, when Natalie messaged me on Facebook with additional information about domestic helpers and the reason for them, with Hong Kong citizens often working 70 hour weeks with no time for the family or domestic chores. This additional information was unprompted and somewhat surprising, given that Natalie and I have had little communication outside of the interview, but it was greatly appreciated nonetheless. While the information didn't make it into the draft, what she mentioned did help me get a better understanding of just how busy Hong Kong is.
Another aspect of my interview with Natalie that influenced the draft I made was the popularity of hiking as a recreational activity in Hong Kong. This came up in several of my questions throughout the interview and I realised that it might be an interesting thing to feature in the piece, given that it was set in Hong Kong.
I would like to thank Natalie for her time in doing the interview with me, as well as her helpful answers that allowed me to get a better understanding of Hong Kong.
The inspiration for this story came from the interview with my partner in Hong Kong, Natalie. One of the comments that stuck with me in our interview was that Hong Kong isn't a place that you would want to go on a holiday. In contrary to this, my father had recently gotten married in Hong Kong and spent part of his honeymoon there, and found it to be a highly rewarding and enjoyable experience. This got me thinking about how as people we can grow tired of the things we are surrounded by, whether it is a busy city or a quiet little town. I wanted to explore a character who grew up in a place completely different to Hong Kong and write about how they might see this busy city as opposed to somebody who grew up there.
Overall I was pleased with how our interview went. While I had prepared about twelve questions asking about Natalie personally, wanting to get to know her a bit, she didn't seem entirely comfortable with them, so I made the decision to cut them out and focus on the city itself, and her studies at HKBU. Fortunately, I was able to adapt to the interview and still get a lot of helpful information out of it, which inspired the piece which I went on to write. Another issue I faced was that I had gone into the interview expecting Natalie to be a creative writer, but the truth was that she hadn't done much creative writing before. I had a few questions based on this, so, similar to the personal questions, I avoided asking them and went in-depth with the prepared questions that were more suitable. I found that the whole process was about adaptability and being mentally prepared for obstacles.
Despite a few early barriers, my interview with Natalie proved essential to the creation of this piece, as I started to get a solid grasp on the business of Hong Kong. I believe that through the interview, I was able to illustrate a more truthful picture of the city and life there in my initial draft.
Perhaps one of the most interesting things that happened in the interview occurred when I spontaneously asked about domestic helpers in Hong Kong, since my new step-mum worked as such. Natalie seemed completely surprised by the question, as I imagine that domestic helpers in the city are somewhat invisible. I didn't learn too much out of the interview on that question, just that they have a domestic helper in Natalie's household. It was a few days later that the reward from this question came through, when Natalie messaged me on Facebook with additional information about domestic helpers and the reason for them, with Hong Kong citizens often working 70 hour weeks with no time for the family or domestic chores. This additional information was unprompted and somewhat surprising, given that Natalie and I have had little communication outside of the interview, but it was greatly appreciated nonetheless. While the information didn't make it into the draft, what she mentioned did help me get a better understanding of just how busy Hong Kong is.
Another aspect of my interview with Natalie that influenced the draft I made was the popularity of hiking as a recreational activity in Hong Kong. This came up in several of my questions throughout the interview and I realised that it might be an interesting thing to feature in the piece, given that it was set in Hong Kong.
I would like to thank Natalie for her time in doing the interview with me, as well as her helpful answers that allowed me to get a better understanding of Hong Kong.
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