Creative Writing

I don't know if I was able to tell you the story of how I got into writing in the early 90s. Well, I guess it's time to tell you about it.

I don't want to bore you with the gore and other stuff but I just want to let you know how I discovered my hidden talent in writing.

It started with my writing in a diary. Yes, I have my notebook that had Francis Magalona on the cover. Imagine that? I even put the date on it. It was 1985. Geez. O, oh. My age is going to show. Oh, well, that's fine. Let it show. What have I got to lose, huh?

My writing stint was supposed to have started during my high school, fourth year to be exact. I wanted to see my name in print back then. It was sort of the 'in' thing for me. Okay, so I asked a friend who was writing for the paper how to get in and she told me I just had to take an exam and pass it. So I did.

After like a day or two, I was told that my work wasn't accepted or it was rejected. I really felt bad and depressed. So I just thought i wasn't cut out to be a writer.

Then when I got to college, I thought it would be my break to write for the college paper. I felt it would be prestigious to write for them. I would be able to practice my journalism skills if I get into it.

Then, again, I had to take an exam. I think the topic was about politics. I took the exam. I thought I knew something about it and passed it. To my dismay, I didn't get accepted again.

I thought it's the second time around so I think it was a sign for me to stop wishing for the stars. I gave up on that dream of becoming a writer.

After graduating from college, I applied in an office as an editorial assistant. I was sort of an account executive selling air time to clients for the television show, "PinPin," a Chinese-English program that caters to children so that they would learn the lingua franca of the Chinese. It was shown on channel 4 at that time and it was being aired in a non-primetime slot. It was not rating at all so I was having a hard time booking a client to advertise in it.

An idea came to me. At that time, I was already married and had my 3-month-old son. I wanted to write about having a family at a young age. I suggested that to my editor-in-chief, Teresita Ang See. You probably heard of her. She's one of the leaders who would protest against Filipino-Chinese abductions, kidnappings back in those days because it was very rampant.

She then encouraged me to write my personal experience about having a baby at 22. You're probably guessing how old I must be. Well, just add two and two and you get my age, though, not the real age. Haha.

To make the story short, I wrote my article and the next week, I saw my byline and photo along with it in the Tulay Weekly, a supplementary of the World News Newspaper then. Wow, it was really something. Imagine, I just wrote a personal experience article and I got it printed! That meant I could be a writer! Hah! I just proved to myself and to the rest of the world that I CAN be a writer.

That other people who turned me down didn't believe in my capabilities. I thought that when you get into the real world, you would get more rejections and depressions. I was wrong. I even got encouraged to write more.

Well, that's my writing story. How about yours? Do you have a story to tell? I'm sure you do. You can share it with me. I'll wait for your stories.

Thank you and do have a great writing life!