Tag Archives: writing

The Trouble with Writing

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Every writer I know has trouble writing.

                                         ~Joseph Heller

Why do writers have trouble writing? Let’s face it. Writing isn’t easy. Except, maybe, for my friend Patti Larsen, who won the 2014 World’s Best  Story Award and churns out about 17 novels a year. Writing requires great skill, a wide vocabulary, an unlimited imagination, and infinite patience and perseverance, not to mention guts. Writers who start out with lots of talent and nothing else don’t get very far, I imagine. They might be the one-book-wonder who disappears into quiet obscurity because they never completed another book. It really isn’t just skill in constructing great sentences and paragraphs, but skill as well in putting those together into a masterful story; the skill of organization, which helps you keep all your ideas in order and helps you develop your story in a logical manner–that is logical at least to you; the skill of observation, which provides you with an unlimited source of ideas and details that bring your writing alive. We’re already familiar with the patience and perseverance it takes to write and revise until a book is ready for publication; it takes infinite patience and perseverance to get the book out and published, and even more to get publicity and marketing up to decent levels so that you can truly say that your career is writing, and it’s not just a hobby or something you do on the side while you’re working at another job that will pay the bills until you make that bestseller or award-winner. Even before the publication stage, writers need to have the courage–the guts–and the density to push your writing out there and at the mercy of public who either love your work,  tear it apart, or ignore it. In fact, I might prefer that they tear it apart, because from a marketing point of view, that would still sell books, and controversy generates interest; whereas a cool reception would not sell a single copy. All that exposure is tied to the fragile, introverted personality the majority of writers have, so it really makes it more difficult to dangle your work out there.

City Centre Community School 2015 Creative Writing Course

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I’m looking forward to January 2015, when a new round of courses will open at the City Centre Community School.

I will be offering my services again, teaching another Creative Writing Course: Writing the Short Story. This will be a workshop course, as last year’s course, but with a lot more in-class writing, sharing, and critiquing of students’ works.

The best part will be that the students’ works will be published online, in The Writing Pool blog as well as in The Writing Pool Facebook group. Of course, it students choose, they can opt to have their work published anonymously.

See you in January!

On Writing Retreats

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Having been attached to academe for most of my professional life, and not just any academic institution but Catholic educational institutions in the Philippines, attending annual retreats was part and parcel of teaching. There was always a spiritual component to the retreat, as it would be a way of stepping back from everyday life and stresses to relax the professional brain and delve into the spiritual core our selves so that we could reflect on our personal and professional lives and return to the “normal” world recharged and rejuvenated, ready for another year of teaching.

A writing retreat is somewhat different in the sense that, while you leave the normalcies of everyday living, you nonetheless immerse yourself into a working environment, assuming that you call writing work. It gives you time to recharge your writing batteries and set everything aside except your writing, allowing you that luxury of not having to worry, for the time being, about housekeeping or bills or meetings or that dreaded four-letter word work.

On my second year of joining a group of like-minded women, I have found myself looking forward more and more to this annual writing retreat. Case in point, I accomplished a record amount of writing in a day than I had in a week. Possibly, considering the rest of year, than I would in an average month. But it’s not just the fact that I can set aside time for writing that I join. After all, being self-employed and living in solitude does give me multiple opportunities to sit at my computer or at a table with whatever writing implement I choose for the moment, to write. Writing, as well, comprises a considerable portion of my self-ordained work. What I look forward to is that shared sense of oneness of purpose, that sense of belonging, camaraderie, and friendship, that openness to hear each other out and share whatever comes to mind at the dining table– be it television shows that you would never catch me watching, or what we call our pets. It is as much a spiritual as it is an emotional experience, when you know you can read your work to others who will not judge you or what you have written, and who can only understand you a little more with each word that trips from your lips, be it like tinkling fairy bells or the resounding boom of a cruise ship– though truth be told, there was more tinkling and clinking than clanging and banging. It is a coming together of minds and spirits that will, eventually part ways; but at least for the rest of the year, hear in our collective heads the gentle echoes of chimed words and ringing laughter weaving delicate lanyards that will hold our sails up until the next writing retreat.

 

@ The Serendipity Inn, Central Bedeque, PEI

IMG_20140607_180626 IMG_20140607_180632 IMG_20140607_180642

 

Integrating Mind, Body, Heart, and Soul in a Writer’s Life

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Finally settled in at home again after a 1-week trip back to the Philippines, made possible by TV5 International’s newest reality show, Ganito Na Kami Ngayon. My episode lasted all of 30 minutes, but we spent 3 whole days covering a lot of ground and meeting people, visiting significant places, and then some hours more to shoot narrative.

It turned out to be much more than the production group or I expected it to be. While the expected format was a simple “surprise return home food travelogue,” the circumstances of my trip transformed it into a soul-searching episode that tied together a multitude of experiences that become part of a writer’s life, a well-spring for writing.

During the planning, I was told not to inform anyone in the Philippines of my return, so that it would be a surprise, because that element of surprise was essential to the underlying mood of the series. The production manager/researcher was supposed to have contacted specific people I knew from different groups and coordinate events where people I knew would gather and then be surprised. Somewhere along the way, communication broke down and not everyone who should have been contacted was contacted until practically the last minute. Up to the last minute, as we were leaving the airport, text messages and phone calls were flying back and forth trying to set something up for my first big reunion. I learned that shooting a big reunion with family on the morning of my arrival would not be possible as everyone was off somewhere and, because of the recent death in the family, those who might be available were not open to having the reunion filmed and televised for all the world to see. That made staying at the home of immediate family members highly unlikely, so we took the second option, which was to settle me in the home of one of my very best friends from teaching at SSC high school over 20 years ago, Evelyn Marasigan.

Once settled, we went out for lunch to get a taste of classic Filipino cuisine at the Archipelago Restaurant in Ortigas Center, which turned out to be an upscale branch of Barrio Fiesta, hence excellent kare-kare, green mango salad, and crispy pata. The best first meal a returning Filipino could have. Well, second meal–the first one was breakfast at IHOP in Global City, which had been transformed in the last 6+ years from vacant lots with about 2% of the land developed, to a sprawling super-urban development with skyscrapers and high-rise apartment buildings, dozens of restaurants and commercial establishments, and foot and vehicle traffic everywhere. Many compare it to bustling Singapore and, indeed, the new skyline is comparable to Singapore and Hong Kong and the new Shanghai.

A drive around the block brought us to a building where, lo and behold, I met an old friend, Dean Francis Alfar, whom I had not seen in very many years. I knew he was busy writing and had meant to eventually contact him regarding the annual anthology he has edited for the last 8 years or thereabouts, Philippine Speculative Fiction. Surprisingly, he hadn’t known about my Palanca award, and more surprising was the act that we both were awardees in the same year! Unfortunately, it was the year I had migrated to Canada, and I learned of my award less than a month after I had settled in Canada, so there was no way I could be back to receive my award. He has made me swear on camera to submit to the anthology this year. I learned from him how much publishing and writing has changed in the Philippines, particularly in the area of Speculative Fiction, which includes the genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. That was totally welcome and completely heartening news. That your writing is welcome anywhere is music to a writer’s ear!

Much of the three days was spent nourishing the body through food, but the next couple of experiences included caring for the body and challenging it as well. A friend of mine shared photos sometime last year of his whole family trying out archery in an indoor practice range, and didn’t I end up there myself? I got to shoot a few rounds–pretty much like riding a bicycle–apparently, you don’t forget how to do it! Just need practice to get back in shape.

The first evening was a heart and soul time, planned to celebrate my book, with a bit of a reunion with my son Kitt and a first meeting with his fiancee. It was a wonderful evening, even if people we were hoping would show up didn’t because of lack of communication. Still, I got to meet another old and good friend, Marisyll Pengson and her husband Joey. Of course Evelyn was with me. A couple of former students had shown up as well, so that was nice, since we got to chat quite a bit and compare notes–Magnolia had lived in California for several years and had recently relocated to the Philippines again. And then, another delicious meal compliments of high school classmate Sandie Romulo Squillantini’s Romulo Cafe.

The next day, Saturday morning, we drove to the Manila North Cemetery where the Lapeña family crypt was, where a portion of my mother’s ashes was laid to rest with my father’s remains. I know her spirit was still lingering–I could feel it, somehow, but it was not anything bad. Just incomplete. After lunch, we dropped in on the dance rehearsal of SSC HS89 as they practiced for their big homecoming number for the 9th of February. That was a really nice surprise! Only Aggie Bontia-Dasig knew about it, and she had told Pia Garcia-Moranda, who was their choreographer/rehearsal mistress, so when I entered the door, everyone just froze and stared at me, and when I took my sunglasses off and they realized it was me, it was such a jaw-dropping moment! One of the most fulfilling moments was learning that one of the girls there had chosen to become a writer and had used what I had taught her and shared with her to pursue a writing career! Nothing fills a teacher’s heart and soul more than to know your lessons have helped to shape a student’s life, their career and life choices. More fulfilling yet, is the knowledge that I was able to share a part of my soul with my students and that they do still value the  lessons I taught and use them in their adult lives.

The evening was spent getting a free traditional medicine session with a bit of acupuncture, heated acupuncture needles, cupping, and oiled cupping on my back to help the chronic pain from the accident…wow, did the last one help! And to show you just how small a world it is, Dr. Philip Tan-gatue turned out to know my older brother from the same hospital they both worked in, and had my sister-in-law for his boss as well!

Sunday was hometown day. They picked me up at 6:30 in the morning–which turned out to be nearly 7 a.m.–and we made the long road trip to Pagsanjan, taking the old road through several small towns by Laguna Bay. It was my first visit to Pagsanjan and we sought relatives whom I had met only through Facebook and some, not at all. I met cousins who were from the “other” side of the family–apparently the two sides were estranged for some old forgotten reason or another–just as cousins on the “same” side were also estranged–methinks there was too much pride and too much sensitivity and sentimentality among the siblings and cousins of my mother’s generation. Meeting my contemporaries–even if they were mostly older than me, since my mother was the youngest of 8 siblings–was completing. Here was family that had always been there, that welcomed me with open arms, that knew of me and read about me and followed me online. That wanted to know me and be with me. Knowing that, I wonder what was so horrible that my mother thought we would be better off not knowing our relatives on her side of the family. Knowing that, I wonder if any parent has the right to deprive their children of knowing their relations. My mother decided who we would know of her relatives because of how she felt about them. I regret the absence of how enriching it could have been to know you had a huge clan of blood relations and even relations by marriage. It gives one a sense of heritage, a sense of rootedness in a place to know your relatives from your parents’ hometowns. It is something that authors can take and weave into the very fabric of their writing that makes their voices unique. Traveling through Laguna province and the town of Pagsanjan has given me a place that I can trace my roots back to, a place where I can say my family came from. It colours my backstory and gives depth to my history. It is where a part of my soul was born and a part that will complete my soul.

For the first time, I got to sleep in on Monday morning, then spent the afternoon shooting narrative and audio clips for the episode. In the evening, another bff Marichu Aculado, a classmate from college, picked me up and we met with Dina and Doc, Divine and Ric, for another sumptuous supper, this time at Ayala Triangle where there is a cluster of upscale restaurants in a space that used to be a football field and a preferred gathering spot for protesters and rallyists, particularly against the government. After supper, Chu dropped me off at Greenbelt where I finally met my sister and her family and we had a nightcap in one of the restaurants there. The last time we met was at a layover in Hong Kong on the way to Canada. My final reunion was at breakfast, with sister-in-law Maeyet, brother Elmer and his wife Agnes, at Resort World, which is another new development in the airport complex.

There have been so many new developments in the Philippines since I left over 6 years ago, I know I would get lost from not recognizing any of the old landmarks. The traffic is incredibly congested and unbelievable chaotic, especially after driving around Canada where drivers are so disciplined, and PEI where drivers are actually tame! There are underpasses, overpasses, and bypasses that I don’t recognize. There is hardly any open space anymore! And some places are filthier and seedier than ever. There seems to be more people than ever, more cars than ever. So many new restaurants and commercial establishments everywhere I turned. It may be a sign that the economy is growing, but so is inflation. The prices of a lot of things seem to be about ten times what they were when I left–we could still get burger meals for way under 20 pesos then–now, that standard meal will be over 100 pesos. A fancy cooler spritzer-type drink at IHOP cost 95 pesos. A can of coke costs 25 pesos at the airport. The cheapest roast chicken dish at Kenny Rogers is about 200 pesos–that was about as much, maybe even more, as four people would spend when I was last there. Movie tickets are also around 200 pesos on the average, depending on the theater–when I left, the fanciest movie houses had tickets at about 60 to 80 pesos. I used to be able to go around for a week with only a couple of hundred pesos in my wallet, which was more than enough–and if I had a five hundred, that was a lot to walk around with. Now, people walk around with thousand peso bills in their wallets. It seems so surreal.

The trip back felt like I was stepping into another world, a totally different world. In reality, it is another world, not totally different, but certainly greatly different. It was a time of re-experiencing, a time of re-opening and revisiting people, places, experiences I had in the past. At the same time, it was a chance to complete another loop in the spiral of life. And it was a chance to open new doors for further exploration, because that is what a writer needs. An infinite number of doors and windows and corridors to explore. An infinite number of chances to integrate myriad experiences to bring together all aspects of being into a single creative work, a work of art, a literary piece.

I am renewed and refreshed. I am a writer.

 

Cindy’s Rules for Writers #4

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Rule #4

Read. Everyday, whenever you have a bit of time, read. Not just anything, although that is good for a different reason, but the kind of writing that you want to do. If you want to be a journalist, read newspapers and magazines. If you want to be a novelist, read novels. If you want to be a poet, read poetry. Not just a little, but a lot. Get to know different styles of writing. Read works by great writers that you can model your writing after. Yes, I believe a lot of what you learn as a writer can happen by osmosis–in this case, just reading a lot of excellent writing–because you remember a bit of what you read (if your memory is better, you’ll remember a lot!), and what you remember will seep into your writing. But don’t just read excellent writing. Read the really bad writing too, and those in between. If you can distinguish the bad writing from the good writing, you’ll be able to apply that to your writing. You will know when your writing is good and when it is bad. You will learn how to avoid the bad writing and write better. I’m willing to bet that no good writer ever became good at writing without having reading a lot. What are you waiting for? Go get something to read!

Cindy’s Rules for Writers #2

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Rule #2

2. Write about something you know. This is the easiest way to begin. Write about people around you, places you’ve been to, experiences you’ve had. Try to describe them in as many ways as you can. Observe very closely and note every detail. You’ll be surprised how much detail you can write.

Cindy’s Rules for Writers

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1. If you want to be a writer, write! Don’t just think about it. Don’t just talk about it either. Write as much as you can whenever you can. You can’t be called a writer if you’re not writing anything. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be words. It can be sentences. Words grow into phrases, phrases into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs into stories.

Writing is good for your brain!

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Don’t just think about something. Write about it. It’s good for the brain.

It doesn’t matter what you write about. It doesn’t matter how good it is.

Just a sentence a day keeps dementia away!

It’s good exercise for your fingers, especially if you type (more fingers are involved).

It’s good practice for grammar. You’ll eventually get those sentences right with practice.

It keeps your vocabulary active.

It makes you think. Thinking stimulates the brain.

It makes you remember things. One memory leads to another.

It brings back memories. Don’t just say something smells nice. Say how nice it smells. Say it’s a faint aroma that wafts in the air and reminds you the gentle fresh scent of a newly bathed baby. It’s the warm, satisfying smell of freshly baked bread just like grandma used to make.

It stimulates your imagination. When was the last time you had a fantasy and wrote about it?

It makes you read. After all, you read what you write, don’t you? And then, you’ll want to read what others have to say about what you write. Then you’ll write some more. It’s a vicious cycle.

It challenges you. If think you have nothing to write about, think again. You can write about not being able to think of something to write. That’s something to write about! When you’re done writing about not being able to write, write about other things. Write about what you like. Write about what you don’t like.

It teaches you to be observant. Write about what you see, hear, feel, taste, smell.

It expands your vocabulary. Look for the exact word to describe something. Don’t just say your desk is cluttered with stuff. Say that it is an endless expanse of treasure and trash that constantly surprises you with objects that you had forgotten you owned. The kiss you got wasn’t just nice. It could have been sloppy and wet, reminding you of your dog licking your face. Or it could have been completely titillating, creating a tingling sensation that travelled from the tip of your toes to the top of your head, and after that you felt like a marshmallow trapped within his tight embrace, warm, fuzzy, and melted like a smore straight out of the oven.

It makes you want to learn more. Every time you learn something new, write about it. Every time you think of something you’d like to learn, read about it. Then write about it. Then go ahead and do it, then write about it again!

It makes you creative. Don’t say the dog ate your homework. Say it blew over the balcony when your mom opened the balcony doors and got caught in the branches of the tall tree in your backyard. Or your father accidentally put it through the paper shredder because he thought it was one of his old files that he was disposing of.

It helps pass the time. If you have nothing else to do, write! If all the people in the world who had time on their hands wrote in their free time, there would never be an idle mind or idle hands. Nobody would be bored. And the whole world would be literate!

 

 

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It’s been so long since I’d been on a live-in writing retreat, I’d forgotten how refreshing, uplifting, encouraging, and productive it can be. I’m just so used to retreating into my little world to write, but having so many new writer-friends who share the same passion and are so welcoming and accepting has assured me that PEI is, indeed, the place for me! I have returned home with a renewed energy for writing and a stronger determination to move towards becoming a completely independent artist and writer! Just need to keep away from relishing the good food too often or I’ll just be eating instead of writing! Thanks to everyone for the amazing weekend! –Thanks Patti Larsen, Kirstin Lund, Kelly Sampson, Charity Becker, Catherine Ann, Stacy Dunn, and Ashley McCormack!
Our first supper was at Eden’s Gate and I got to sample this awesome burger that was more than enough for a single meal! It’s called the ‘Gatekeeper’ Burger — so if you all want to try it out, go to Georgetown! It was definitely a burger to remember!
The Gatekeeper Burger at Eden's Gate, Georgetown, PEI

The Gatekeeper Burger at Eden’s Gate, Georgetown, PEI

 
 

Daring to Write

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I have always been good at expressing my thoughts in writing and never had a problem with composition and reading classes. Writing and reading were water to my fish.

Unfortunately, I was also my worst enemy.

Normally a very introverted and insecure person, I could not expose my innermost thoughts to the world, so I kept my poetry and stories to myself. Until some teachers noticed. I began confiding in some very sympathetic teachers when I was in fifth grade and the poetry was literally gushing out of me. Since then, I found greater encouragement from my English teachers. Then I found THE English teacher who really believed in me and nurtured my writing. I also found another teacher who would let me spill out the contents of my mind and heart to her and I found even more to write about. Still, the only public writing I produced were more impersonal essays. Need I say I even became an excellent public speaker because of my writing? Of course, there had always been that passion for theatre and the secret longing to become a stage actress, director, and playwright, that helped that along. But that’s a different story.

Because of my English teacher and other English teachers, plus an aunt who is a writer that I had secretly admired and wanted to be like, I dared to join a Creative Writing Fellowship at the top University in the Philippines. For two summers, I attended, first as an observer, then as a participant, where my creative writing was up for criticism. I survived and not without a lot of encouragement and some praise from my aunt for a story she didn’t know was written by me.

After several years of putting writing in the background, simply because I needed a job that gave me a steady income, I decided to write again. This time, I shared it with great trepidation to two of my dearest friends, both artists and literarily inclined. If not for them, I would never have submitted my play to the most prestigious National literary competition, the Carlos Palanca Foundation Annual Literary  Awards. Finding out that I had received the third place for full-length plays in English was a totally shocking but also totally satisfying experience.

Migrating to Canada put writing as a career on hold, especially since I eventually had to find work that was a far cry from what I went to school for, even if the plan was for me to become a full-time artist and writer.

After 4 tumultuous and emotionally draining years, I finally decided to put myself out there in the open, beginning with a solo art exhibit that feature my art and my poetry. Then I decided to plunge into National Novel Writing Month, since I had become unemployed anyway and had the time to do it. (Because of employment, I did not dare try for the Labour Day weekend novel writing competitions, and I really doubted I could finish a novel in three days.) I was determined to finally write that novel–and I did.

I still doubt myself, even after sharing parts of my novel with several other writers in the Next Best Author contest, which I was also scared to join, but which I decided I would do anyway, because I really wanted to launch my career as an author. Because of NaNoWriMo, there was no way I could hide the fact that I had completed a novel–besides, I had publicized it all over Facebook among all my friends, and they were cheering me on. Another dear friend even offered to edit my book, just so she could read it, and her words and support have been very encouraging. I have found still more friends who are also writers and am now active with not one, but two writing groups, plus a third support group made up of the other contestants! That was probably the most pleasant and rewarding surprise: that competitors were becoming friends in writing through sharing in an exclusive group just for the contestants! Now, I have writer friends around the world who are willing to talk, to listen, to share, to read, to mentor, to encourage and to support each other.

If this is the writing life, I want to stay in it! It is already much more than I had dreamed it would be.

Who knows what other dreams will come true?