So I’ve been writing again.
I noticed that I have some trouble providing background information, or exposition on the subject. I haven’t struck a balance between being concise and providing sufficient information for an informed decision.
How do I expand on a theme? I don’t know. I’m afraid of boring my very few readers. A voice in my head just keeps on saying, cut the chase and get to the point. And I have this tendency to overdrive a point. I have this difficulty of moving on. A colleague from my college paper pointed out that my poetry is always on the same emotional plane.
I’ve been listening to a lot of materials, downloaded a couple of podcasts from iTunes, and iUniversity. I even downloaded ‘Start writing essays’ from the Open University. Last night, I was listening to American essayist Henry David Thoreau ‘Civil Disobedience’ something I had previously read, but forgotten. I was never good at essays. Personal essays, or historical essay with a personal note, got me an ‘A’ in Rizal. (Now, I’m all over the place, but I feel okay with it. I need to be more coherent, more thematic.)
My interest in history is perhaps part of my quest for identity, that elusive Filipino identity I long so much to write about. It’s elusive because our identity is a smash, 300 years under Spanish rule, 50 years of Americanization, 20 years of dictatorship, and for the last 20 years under structural reformation in our effort to ‘fit in’ the globalized world.
So, I’d downloaded “Stuff You Missed in the Classroom” a podcasts on some-what trivial historical matters like ‘How the Greeks Think of Happiness” and “Is the Taj Mahal a symbol of love?” Mostly, for history, I read the newspapers, columns of Manolo Quezon and of Ambeth Ocampo, occasionally ‘Pinoy Kasi’ by Michael Tan (which is yet to be published in collected form) and essays of Nick Joaquin and of F. Sionil Jose.
I read history, but I do long to be part of it, too. All these great men and women shaping the destiny of our nation, I admire them. (Stephen King said that if you don’t read, don’t write.)
So, like every writer having not much to write… Well, I think Patricia Evangelista used that line before. But I just kept on having a creative frustration. I use to throw tantrums, because I can’t find the right words to express. Maybe, that’s why I become verbose. Then, I switched to German: angst.
I noticed that I have some trouble providing background information, or exposition on the subject. I haven’t struck a balance between being concise and providing sufficient information for an informed decision.
How do I expand on a theme? I don’t know. I’m afraid of boring my very few readers. A voice in my head just keeps on saying, cut the chase and get to the point. And I have this tendency to overdrive a point. I have this difficulty of moving on. A colleague from my college paper pointed out that my poetry is always on the same emotional plane.
I’ve been listening to a lot of materials, downloaded a couple of podcasts from iTunes, and iUniversity. I even downloaded ‘Start writing essays’ from the Open University. Last night, I was listening to American essayist Henry David Thoreau ‘Civil Disobedience’ something I had previously read, but forgotten. I was never good at essays. Personal essays, or historical essay with a personal note, got me an ‘A’ in Rizal. (Now, I’m all over the place, but I feel okay with it. I need to be more coherent, more thematic.)
My interest in history is perhaps part of my quest for identity, that elusive Filipino identity I long so much to write about. It’s elusive because our identity is a smash, 300 years under Spanish rule, 50 years of Americanization, 20 years of dictatorship, and for the last 20 years under structural reformation in our effort to ‘fit in’ the globalized world.
So, I’d downloaded “Stuff You Missed in the Classroom” a podcasts on some-what trivial historical matters like ‘How the Greeks Think of Happiness” and “Is the Taj Mahal a symbol of love?” Mostly, for history, I read the newspapers, columns of Manolo Quezon and of Ambeth Ocampo, occasionally ‘Pinoy Kasi’ by Michael Tan (which is yet to be published in collected form) and essays of Nick Joaquin and of F. Sionil Jose.
I read history, but I do long to be part of it, too. All these great men and women shaping the destiny of our nation, I admire them. (Stephen King said that if you don’t read, don’t write.)
So, like every writer having not much to write… Well, I think Patricia Evangelista used that line before. But I just kept on having a creative frustration. I use to throw tantrums, because I can’t find the right words to express. Maybe, that’s why I become verbose. Then, I switched to German: angst.
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