Istoryan Writers

[Von!-x]

---

@brownprose, do you have a blog or a website? I am a CPA and I do read the business section of the newspaper (well, after reading the sports section). I am a "Fortune" magazine subscriber myself.

[brownprose]

@diem

appreciate sincerely for the kind welcome & will definitely get in touch with the guys you mentioned. and yes, if i could be of help to any aspiring/professional writer here, feel free to shoot me a message. as to your projects and when resources also permit, i'd be honored to chip in my two cents or shell out a few bucks.



[br]Posted on: December 04, 2007, 09:58:28 AM_________________________________________________

@brownprose, do you have a blog or a website? I am a CPA and I do read the business section of the newspaper (well, after reading the sports section). I am a "Fortune" magazine subscriber myself.

just recently abandoned a 3 year old blog for very personal reasons ...but planning to build a new one soon...got a site www.thecopystudio.com....need to update this one too.

[Pinkdimensions]

@brow ..and don't forget me ...

great portfolios..

[Nino Gonzales]

Hello folks! I’ve been visiting this thread once in a while for what must be more than a year now. I finally got myself to post again (I think I have one or two posts somewhere here). I’ve seen how helpful the community has been to writers (or at least—like in my case—people who are attempting to write). I’m about to commit myself to writing a long… thing (not sure what kind of writing it would end up), and would surely need some kind guidance and brutal feedback along the way…

Here’s what I want to write about. I’ve been mulling over this for around two years. I’ve been quite interested in “identity” in the past few years. You know, “what it means to be Filipino,” “what it means to be Cebuano,” language, race, class, ethnicity… stuff like that… I’m not really a writer (I don’t do it for a living and I don’t do it for fun). But it seems like it is the only way to get this thing out… I guess what I’m saying is that there are things you want to think through and discuss… some things can be thought through with a few minutes of looking at an invisible object far, far away, and can be discussed over forums or over tagay. But some things—and I think this is one of them—have to be thought through with writing a book (or at least a Word file with many, many words), and discussed that way as well. Like a really slow and long dialogue. Say, I write something. After 10 years, a guy gets interested in the topic, writes another book which says I totally wrong. Perhaps in another ten years, a girl will write another book which says that we are both wrong. Something like that… A really long conversation. But a really interesting conversation.

Anyhow, I’ve also been trying to figure out how to write it. I couldn’t do a straight non-fiction essay on Cebuano history and culture since that takes a lot of research, brainpower and time. I’ve thought of doing fictional memoirs of 3 Cebuanos in Manila—a college student, a taxi driver and a Makati corporate guy. It didn’t feel right. I thought of other ways to get it through, which also didn’t feel right.

Now, I think I got something which feels right. A father in his deathbed. He writes to his son who is less than 5 yrs old, since he wants to share his life. He writes about his childhood and adolescence in Cebu (this way the book gets to talk about recent Cebuano history). He talks about moving to Manila (this way the book gets to talk about recent Manila history and perhaps some language politics). He talks about meeting his Binondo Chinese wife (about race and “what it means to be Filipino” plus they have a really interesting story). He talks about his son’s heritage (among his ancestors will be a self-made rags-to-riches guy from the probinsya; an old, big and prominent family in rural Cebu; maybe someone from the prewar urban bourgeoisie; perhaps one of the first 800 Cebuanos to be baptized; perhaps a colonial-era Chinese mestizo/a from Pari-an… with that, I guess you could cover anything in Cebuano culture and history).

The dying father will be an accountant (I thought accounting metaphors about life would be funny… and it was sort of confirmed in Anansi Boys, where you can read something like this… life is like a ledger… you credit in one side and you debit the other… but in the end, it all adds up… hilarious, right?). The grandpa will be some famous Cebuano intellectual who has written a book about Cebuano history and culture, which the accountant will quote generously (this way, the book can contain pretentious theories and big words on culture, which would sound out of place in the pen of an accountant [James Michener uses the same device in his book Mexico]). The accountant writes the book in Cebuano, but the end product is in English—a translation of the accountant's book—with some translator’s notes (that way, I could put “untranslatable” Cebuano words and put explanations). So it would actually be a fictional translation of a fictional essay by a fictional character. Hehe.

I think this is the right time to do it since it has grown to a bit of an obsession. More details of the accountant’s world just keep on appearing… when I’m walking, when I’m working, when I’m jogging… I’ve even heard some dinner table dialogue with the accountant when he is around 12 yrs old with his mom, his dad and an older brother who eventually became a priest…

(The last time I had this kind of obsession was in 2005, when I thought I had to write the biggest and baddest parody in the web… I was obsessed enough to say no to invitations to basketball games and movies so I could do my “research”… after a year, it ended up being a 15-page parody research about the Jologs of Manila. [Manila was back then a novelty for me, and the way they looked at divisions in society (e.g., jologs and conyos) was quite interesting. The difference and the cause of the difference of the paradigms of class between Cebu and Manila was sort of the backbone of the thing.] The parody research is complete with a jeepney-colored diagram and lots of genuine citations from Resil Mojares to Tupac Shakur to unknown bloggers. To live up to its ambitions of being a parody, it tries to commit all scholarly sins: unrestrained biases, unreliable sources and beginning with a conclusion and looking for studies to support it. I don’t know if turned out to be actually funny, but I had a lot of fun writing it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Nino_Gonzales/jologs)

One reason why I’m writing this post, other than asking your help in advance, is to sort of give my commitment to write this to as many people (who care about writing) as possible. Otherwise, I’ll just keep on delaying it. This Christmas break, I’ll complete the outline, and work from there. I’m guessing it will take me at least 2 or 3 years. So wish me luck

[thisbe.ara]

@Nino Gonzales: Looks like a very promising project you have there. Yes, the temptations of delay has always been present, especially when we are at the peak of our passion. Well, rest assured that from time to time, there will be a lot of us to push you to your goal. Besides, I am very interested with how it would come out-- especially with the Cebuano culture and all (call it a personal interest as well). I will be doing my research as well on this and if I do get something, I'll let you know. Maybe it can be of use in your project.
So anyway, best of luck to your goal! Well, if we won't do the pushing, I'm sure fate will.... There are a lot of Accounting stories yet to taunt you. hehehehe...

[Von!-x]

i kept my poems and short stories in my blog. http://jumbled-writings.blogspot.com.

[boohoo101]

i've read the first page of this thread. did anything happen to the plans in creating a writers' group? im interested in joining, although what i've wrote over the years ain't anything to boast of, hehe.

[gareb]

hala, naunhan sa book readers ang mga writers.

toinks.

[pongborro]

is The Project still open for contributions?
ganahan pud ko mag submit, that is, if mubalik akong gana ug sulat..

[thisbe.ara]

@PongBorro: yes, it's still open.
please send a PM to me or to diem for your contributions.

@diem: i am rewriting my piece as it seems very adult to me. hehehe. i guess i really have to polish my childlike qualities.