ILLUMINATION Writers

Interview with Woei Teoh

Featuring creative writers of ILLUMINATION

Purpose of the Story

In this story, I want to share an interview that I conducted with Woei T. Even though Woei is a new writer on ILLUMINATION; we recognized his creative and engaging content immediately.

Several of our writers are also impressed by the collaboration and engagement Woei displayed in our publication. Like many new writers, the serendipitous appearance of Woei brought diversity and synergy to our ILLUMINATION.

I am grateful that Woei accepted my offer to participate in this interview. Let’s explore!

Tell us a bit about your background, Woei!

I am quite a fusion 😊 I grew all over the place from Malaysia to Australia. Home in my heart will always be Australia even if I haven’t lived there for over 15 years. I have since lived in three other continents and it has been a fun journey. I love to travel because I find the experience of discovering new culture, food and tradition very exciting which might explain my passion for diversity. Another obsession of mine is tennis even if I am not a good player, I follow both the men and women’s tour religiously.

Why do you write on Medium?

Writing has always been a passion of mine (I mentioned the bird story in my introduction piece) but growing up I was always told you are not going to make a decent living with it unless you are in the top 1%. I even wanted to be a CNN journalist at the time but when it came to university, I chose practicality and went into Technology.

At the start of the lockdown, I had some time and randomly discovered Medium mainly to read and realized I didn’t need a qualification to write, just a big passion. I signed up immediately.

Right now, unfortunately, I can’t write as frequently as I’d like as I am also starting a new business but writing has given me breaks in between and I am finding it therapeutic.

What are your values as a writer?

I am still working on my writing skills but there is no shortage of passion. For me, a few very important values I keep in mind are:

1. The Truth

2. Compassion

3. Positive

We have enough negativity in the world.

What are the top three books affected your life?

Tough one but if I must narrow it down to 3

1. Catcher in the Rye — JD Salinger

Even though I never got expelled from school, I related with much of Holden Caulfield’s view of the world. I struggled with the superficiality of society and also often confused between the two worlds I grew up in. Strangely this book helped me through it all. Might explain my obsession with finding and writing about the truth.

2. Wild Swan — by Jung Chang

I was embarrassingly not very interested in my own cultural heritage till I read this book. I hear many stories from grand parents about their departure from China and building a new life outside but never paid much attention. Since reading this book, I went on to read many more books about China’s very long history and journey. One of my retirement plan is to research and document at length my own family history for the future generations.

3. Tuesday with Morrie — Mitch Albom

This book resonates with me because it snapped me out of the world of self-pity and accept that life is not fair and I just need to get on with it. Make the best out of what I have and work for what I want to be in life.

What are your hobbies?

This was actually a question in one of my first grade exam to which I wrote “eating”. I think my mum still have that paper. Yes I do love eating, I explore the world to find different food and learn about their history and how they came about. I like street food, fine dining and simple home cooked meals. It ties it very nicely with my interest in travels, learning and experiencing different cultures and people.

Other than that, I recently re-discovered writing for pleasure.

How do you connect with your readers?

I must say I am still learning. This is all new to me and I am working on different ways to do that. Few things I have learnt from the very short time on Medium so far is to be engaging with the community. Start a dialog with authors that published articles that I can relate to or have similar passion for.

For me, I think it will be sharing with own journey with the readers and hopefully it helps or connects with others one way or another. If any of my writing help one person feel less isolated, it is worth the effort. I just need to keep improving the creative side of my writing to attract more readers.

Why did you join ILLUMINATION and how do you find it so far?

ILLUMINATION the very first publication I came across since joining Medium where it is focused on diversity, openness and inclusive. The community has been so supportive and there is so much to learn from both experienced and aspiring writers. I feel this is the place I will learn the most.

I am trying to make sure I contribute where I can as well where I can.

Who are the top ten writers you follow on ILLUMINATION?

There are many amazing writers on ILLUMINATION. Since you limit it to ten, here are some quick ones coming to my mind: Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Timothy Key, Arthur G. Hernandez, Sarene B. Arias, Jessica Cote, Kevin Buddaeus, Daniel Clark, Ryan Frawley, Tim Ebl, Ming Qian

What are you top five stories that you want to share with your audience and why?

Unfortunately, I have only published about that many stories so far. They are however very personal to me and paints a picture of who I am as a person.

This one is to paint a beautiful picture of New York as I knew it from my 3 years living there. Too much negativity coming out of the city in this pandemic and I just wanted to add a positive spin in solidarity with the people still living there.

I got a little excited when I got up to 99 cents on Medium which meant few people are reading my work 😊 It was a little shameless but it was one of those therapeutic moment in the morning while enjoying my coffee before going to the office.

To be honest I started this to try out a technique as I saw so many instructional stories about ways to increase views and make money on medium. I couldn’t go through with it as it just isn’t what I am here about nor do I think I am good enough a writer yet. So I stayed with sharing the ways I managed my own struggles that turned out well.

This was the introductory story of myself when I joined the ILLUMINATION community. I didn’t think too much of it or expect too many readers but somehow it is so far the most viewed of my stories to date 😊

This story I wrote before joining ILLUMINATION and self published. Not sure if it works to add to ILLUMINATION now but I have submitted it anyway. It was written few weeks into the lockdown life, I was still trying to set up my business and adjusting to the new way of life.

What are the success factors for you as a writer on Medium?

I am far from considering myself a successful writer on medium but for me, what will determine success is the ability to engage with a wide group of readers, establish good dialogs and sharing great ideas.

What do you recommend to the new writers on ILLUMINATION?

Get involved as much as possible with the community and help each other out.

What are your future plans as a writer?

As previously mentioned, one of my retirement plan is to document in detail my family history. Whether it will be published, I have not decided. Also I am nowhere near retirement age 😊.

For now, keep working on improving my writing skills and share as much of my stories to date in the most creative and mindful way as I can.

Thank you for your valuable time, Woei. I look forward to reading more stories from your creative pen. Your participation in our publication is valuable to us and is greatly appreciated by our writers. You are an inspiration to us on ILLUMINATION.

If you are a writer on ILLUMINATION and would like to be interviewed, please send a request via this link with title of “Interview Request”.

Other Interviews

You may also check other interviews I conducted with inspiring writers of ILLUMINATION recently. These stories can provide a great opportunity to know more about our creative writers and connect with them.

Desiree Driesenaar

Holly Jahangiri

Ming Qian

P.G. Barnett

Jill Ebstein

Bill Abbate

Terry Mansfield

Kevin Buddaeus

Invitation to writers to join ILLUMINATION

If you want to join our growing, enjoyable, and supportive publication as a writer, please leave a message via this link. We help you become a successful writer on Medium.

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You might check more interviews in the attached collection.

You can find inspiring profiles of ILLUMINATION writers from this story.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

About the Author

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