A Thing of Beauty

July 2, 2009 at 9:12 am07 | In Beauty, Writing | 2 Comments

As the old saying goes, “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.” What may be ugly or uninteresting to others can be beautiful to me and vice versa. I have a different view when it comes to how I see the world. As an artist (Yes, a writer can be called an artist. I have encountered a few people who seem to relegate artists only to those who design, paint, or take photos. Well duh.), I take pleasure in observing things around me. I may not be much of a talker but I observe.

I delight in the simple things in nature. I can get awestruck just by looking at the sea, a blossoming flower, or even a morning dew. To me, that is beauty. I’m an audience not an actor. I’m creative not technical. I’m emotional not mental. I can get inspired by just the littlest of things or ordinary events happening around me. Beauty is symmetry. Symmetry is beauty. Beauty is in a perfectly-shaped seashell. Beauty is watching a dog make fine pawprints on the sand. It is personal and subjective. Some people don’t understand why I delight in taking pictures of a footprint, a tree, or any random thing I find beautiful. These people don’t seem to appreciate nature or the things around them. They grew up seeing things as they are and taking them for granted. They are analytical. They don’t get passionate about the simple things.

Given the opportunity, I would like to try photography sometime. My main medium of communication is a pen and paper — or in this case, a computer. I think it would be neat to take up photography as a hobby. I might be using another medium (i.e., a camera) but the message would be the same — that is to communicate.

Losing that Lovin’ Feeling

April 17, 2008 at 9:12 pm04 | In Writing | Leave a Comment

I just watched Finding Forrester again last night on HBO. The film is about a sixteen-year-old upcoming writer who met and was taught by an award-winning but reclusive writer. I loved this movie because of the valuable lessons I learned about writing. And being a writer myself, that movie really got me thinking.

For more than a year now, I have been neglecting my plans to finish the book I’m writing. Well it’s not actually a book; it’s more like a short story that has developed into a novella over time. My original intention of writing a short story slowly faded as I kept revising several paragraphs. That led me to break the story into several chapters. And before I knew it, the story became longer and longer. I’m currently stuck writing the sixth chapter.

When I watched that film again last night, especially the scene where Sean Connery’s character was giving the teenaged boy bits of wisdom about writing, I wondered about my passion for writing fiction. Lately I’ve been noticing that I’m losing the drive to finish my story. There are times when I feel like changing the plot of the story and start again from scratch. Also, I haven’t been writing the usual stuff I love writing about lately. And I couldn’t help but notice that I’m veering away from the career path I want to take.

Watching the film last night kind of gave me a jolt to focus on my creative writing skills. I have to do something about this. I have to look for ways to get closer to my dream — to my real career path. I don’t want to completely lose my passion for creative writing.

Stuck

February 7, 2008 at 9:12 pm02 | In Life and Society, Writing | Leave a Comment
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I’m supposed to finish writing something at work today but my mind just goes blank every time I try to write. I just can’t seem to focus on the task right now. There are times when I do a few writing exercises to get my creative juices flowing. Sometimes they work; other times they don’t no matter how hard I concentrate. This is one of those days.

I surfed the Net a while ago in search of other writing exercises and came across Jack Kerouac’s creative writing techniques. I’ve never read a book by Jack Kerouac but his writing style (called Spontaneous Prose) is pretty darn interesting. I should try this method one of these days.

The Tale of the Missing Manuscript

July 27, 2007 at 9:12 pm07 | In Life and Society, Writing | 1 Comment
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Browsing through iGoogle today got me thinking of my unfinished autobiography. There’s a How-to article there about writing an autobiography and instantly I remembered that I once started writing my autobiography back when I was still in college. That time, I loved the idea of writing an autobiography of my own and chronicling the events that happened in my life. I thought then that it would be a way for me to tell my story. So that’s what I did. I tried recalling things and events that happened during my childhood and wrote them down on paper. I was able to write a few pages somehow but then I got busy with my thesis and I just didn’t have the time so it was eventually forgotten.

I’ve been meaning to continue writing it when I started working but because I now live in Manila and I left the manuscript back home in the province, I wasn’t able to. Then a series of unfortunate events happened: my family decided to renovate some portions of our provincial house and some of my and my sister’s stuff (including drafts of my writing) got misplaced or thrown out — not to mention I forgot where I’ve kept the manuscript in the first place! And so that was it. My manuscript was lost — gone forever. It’s such a shame because I liked what I wrote there. Now if (or when) I want to write my autobiography again, I have to start from scratch.

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