Freedom Writer

Working on the Foundations

I have now created and defined the public-facing units of Freedom­Writer.net, which are:

Of these, only the community site, Freedom Hub Online, is still under construction1. The rest are all ready for operation.

This is good news. However, as you may have realized, running Freedom­Writer.net will take more than just these superstructures — strong and deep foundations are also required. Foundations that will ensure the success of this endeavor. Foundations that aren’t finished yet and laid down.

Because in the end, after the websites are built and the workflows are drawn, Freedom­Writer.net is all about writing. And that is the most important thing. For the blog may be all ready, and the platform all shiny, but where is the blogger? Where is the writer?

And writing, especially personal writing, is an energy-intensive, time-consuming, often-difficult creative process. Not all days are good days to write. And some days one cannot write at all. And so, it must be managed, and there must be some system already in place, if a consistent output is demanded (and it is.) In other words, for writing to flow like water, even in dry seasons, there must be some kind of machinery that supports this process — something that lessens the friction and shortens the distance, as much as possible, between raw thoughts and the written words.

To illustrate: I’ve never been a consistent writer, but I’d like to change that. And so currently I am learning how to manage and how to use a wiki software called PmWiki2. I want to use it for my notes, journal, and research. Prewriting this is called, and because of the complexity and depth of my thoughts, a simple notes app won’t do for me. I am a creative person, but I am also a technical one, and I work best if my environment is highly organized. Having my own “wiki notebooks” that I’ve customized — which are ready to receive my words and ideas any time — is a crucial support to my writing process. Add the fact that these wikis are to be found and accessed online: it gives me the peace of mind that my works are safe, even if my computer hardware fails.

So this is the system I’m working on: wiki notebooks as my foundations. And getting them up and running will take quite some time.

However, and this you already know, the real foundations for writing go far beyond the digital. Far beyond computers, word processors, blogs, and wikis. Because ultimately, these foundations are in the realm of the soul — mental, emotional, spiritual — where the ideas and words themselves are born. There was a time, not too long ago, when there was nothing between a writer and a piece of paper but a pen, and all that he had to drawn upon was his soul.

In other words, in addition to building my digital assets for Freedom­Writer.net, I must also be mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepared to do the work. That is, I have to study, to meditate, and to pray. Because the truth is, I’m not yet ready right now — my soul is not yet ready — for Freedom­Writer.net.

In this blog’s home page I talked about how the things that I’m doing for it are acts of faith. I cited my hard circumstances as the reason why I shouldn’t be doing these things, but that is only half of the story. The other half is that for the past several years I’ve been in the wilderness, spiritually speaking. A desert place. A lonely place. Just letting time pass by. Allowing my wounds to heal. Yes, I’ve just now rediscovered my voice, but I’m still not completely all right.

If I’m still a member of a church, my elders would say that I am not ready to minister. And they would be right. But I have no church; I have only God, and he said, “Move on forward!” And I did. Acted on faith. But now… this blog’s superstructures are done… and God is leading me to take things slow… and for me to prepare myself. To work now on my foundations. It is time.

Announcement: For the past several weeks, I’ve given Freedom­Writer.net my focused attention. But now, my other responsibilities are calling to me, and they will keep me busy for a while. In light of this, and of the things I’ve just explained, that there’s still much foundational works to be done… I’m announcing now that I’m taking a few months break — to work on those responsibilities, and to work on these foundations.

Tentative date of my return is August 1st.

  1. Building Freedom Hub Online is not among my priorities right now. Starting such a community requires at least a small group of followers, and I haven’t got that yet.↩︎

  2. I’ve tried a few other wiki software like MediaWiki and DokuWiki, but PmWiki is the easiest to manage — with only one command in the terminal to both install and upgrade. It is also the lightest, occupying only a few megabytes on disk.↩︎

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