Aseneth Waide publishes her first book, ‘Random Thoughts’

Aseneth Waide [26] from a mix parentage of Oro and East Sepik province published her first book titled 'Random Thoughts'.

The book, ‘Random Thoughts’ essentially documents her thoughts from Grade 10 up towards the time she was at the University of Papua New Guinea [UPNG].

“I call it ‘Random Thoughts’ because there was no theme or topic that I used to center my poetry on. I just wrote on whatever I found interesting. So, on one page you would see a very patriotic piece on being a Papua New Guinean and then on another page, you would see a poem on dirty laundry.” Ms Waide said.

Aseneth is the daughter of PNG's prominent journalist, Scott Waide. She recalls that growing up as a child, her passion was in drawing however, that has shifted to writing when her Grade 9 class teacher made positive comments about her writing, which eventually made her switch dreams.

“She informed my parents, who later sat me down and talked to me about my ‘supposed gift in writing.”

From there she began writing poetry for fun and posted randomly on her Facebook ‘Variety of Poetry’ in which she would post her work for anyone to read.

She told herself that after graduating from university, her focus wasn’t on finding a regular job, but on pursuing a career as a writer.

“I was hoping I’d be unemployed so I could spend my time writing more books. But of course, life happens, and you have bills to pay, so you have no choice.”

Ms Waide, who also followed her father's footsteps, now works as a journalist with PNG FM [sometimes writes movie reviews for PNG Hausbung]. She was awarded Best Blog of the Year from the PNG Media Council a few weeks ago.

She identified that there is a huge money making potential in writing books based on PNG stories.

"Telling stories is part of PNG culture, now imagine if we used that practice as a business. But instead of simply talking, we write and publish. How many traditional legends have been documented through writing? How many songs and chants?

“I believe that writing and publishing books is an untapped money-making business. The only thing that’s stopping it, is funding for our writers to get started,” she said.

She added that writing is a way of expression and is not limited to the English language.

She reiterates that most people think of writing, they think of books written in English which is obviously not true.

“You can write in almost any language. One thing I always say to people who are interested in writing is that, if you cannot write in English, write in Tok Pisin, or write in your language. Writing is not limited to the English language,” Aseneth said.

Ms Waide highlighted that one thing that surprised her as a writer to even write and read more was when she got her book published and posted about it on social media and people were interested in reading it.

“I always hear people talking about kids, telling them to get off their phones and read more books. People actually want to read, but are books accessible and affordable? And if they are, you have to understand that, everyone has their own taste and preferences when it comes to reading.

“I don’t limit myself to reading just books geared towards young adults, I still read kids’ books, comics, newspapers and magazines. I’ve even read the entire bible.”

As a young enthusiastic woman, Aseneth understands that it’s not easy having to juggle work and writing but she remains committed and steadfast to face the challenge.

“I hardly have any free time. But still that doesn’t stop me from writing. I have already started writing another poetry book called ‘Quarter-Life Crisis’ – a poetry collection that mostly expresses my woes of graduating from school and adapting to adult life.”

Meanwhile, first 100 copies of her books were printed and now available for sale at K40 within Port Moresby and other centers K50.