On Your Mark

I don't know what has gotten into me but I'm back at writing in wattpad! Right. Maybe it was because I was just bored at being stuck at home and I have nothing else to do. Or maybe... it's my inner desire to crush those cheesy novels I keep on seeing on wattpad and I wanted them to show how teen romance should be done. Ha! Martyrs of the Modern Era is not a new novel of mine. It's just a revised edition of the novel I've written back in college, with a cringey title "Operation: SELOS". I decided to change the title because...why not? But it wasn't only the title that I revised. I mean, the whole crappy story. Before, the story centers on the  fake dating between the two main characters, Jo and Rhian. But since I was so ignorant that this trope has been used a gazillion times, even popularized by that movie To All The Boys I've Loved Before, I finally decided to toss it out and focus on its other themes: which is martyrdom. Almost ever...

Marinating your manuscript simply means not reading your draft for a long time, say a month? A lifetime?  Before reading it again and realizing it is such a huge mess. It borrows from the concept of marinating foods in which you soak the meat in a combination of oils and spices to add more flavor and to tenderize the food. Apply this in writing and you’ll be surprised at the duplications, redundant phrases, words, fillers, chunks of irrelevant chapters, plotholes, and emotional chapters that cannot even trigger a single tear for a reader. I read this concept from Robert’s Rules of Writing written by Robert Masello . And I can say that this process really works. My WIP is now on my fifth draft and everytime I finish writing to the end of the chapter, I would just set it aside and discipline myself to never read it. The purpose of this is to strip off the illusion that you have written the best version, because who among us writers think that we have written a garbage ri...

Anyone can write, but not anyone knows how to develop their ideas into full-written novels. If you clicked this blog, I’m assuming you’ve been bogged down by those story scenes in your head for weeks now and has turned to writing to finally shut your brains up, but of course, you have no idea how and where to start. Don’t worry. I’ll help you in this process, step-by-step. 1. Start jotting things down Sure, you can tell yourself that your ideas are safe since it is in your head and you’re thinking about it constantly. Wrong! Trust me. I’ve been in that situation. At laking panghihinayang ko noong hindi ko iyon ginawa dahil marami-rami pa namang story ideas ang naisip ko noong college e kaso nga lang wala akong mapagsusulatan kaya nakaliligtaan kong i-jot down. Kalimitan kasi tuwing naliligo o nagwo-walking ako nakakaisip, e iyon ang time kung kailan nagde-daydream ako. So learn from my mistakes. My tip? Bumili ka ng maliit na notebook at dalhin mo iyon lagi kung saan k...

Writing is not just for writers, bloggers, or journalists. If you haven't yet realized, good writing skills should be everyone's concern, kahit pa sabihin mong hindi iyon ang everyday job mo, the fact remains: you'll never escape it. If you're a student, may times na kapag wala nang maituro si teacher at may 30 minutes pang time sa inyong klase, bigla-bigla siyang magpapa-essay (may sa-demonyo eh no?). When you're applying for work, madalas tini-test ng company ang iyong written skills and english proficiency sa pagpapasagot sa iyo ng mga questions na ise-send nila via email. When you want to brag on social media and needed a great caption, you are already writing, and of course, you wouldn't want to embarrass yourself by posting shitty writing. Syempre, kailangan mo ring ipakita na may alam ka rito. One way to make yourself stand out is by knowing how to write eloquently. Still not convinced? Writing is one way of showing who you are. If you're dr...