Writer's Block

Oh yeah, update! I updated some of the content of the RefineMe.org. :) Look up there at the menu under the header graphic. :) I’m not yet done writing the About section, but the Faith and Writings are already done. I still have some more additions in the Writings sections that I have yet to add, plus I need to figure out a hack that would let excerpts show in the link. Haha. Anyway, I’d really appreciate comments any of the stories I posted. :)

I believe in the power of positive prophecy. And because of that, I will write it down here for anyone who cares enough to read this to know: Sometime in the near future, I will write and publish a book.

Amen.

Sweet Valley Kids (image courtesy of readingwell.com)The first writer I got introduced to is Elizabeth Wakefield. Yes, Elizabeth Wakefield of Sweet Valley fame. I know she’s not a real writer, but reading so much about her during my childhood years influenced me to want to be a writer. I loved their stories so much and I was so amused that Elizabeth could already write stories when she was seven that I thought, I could do that too.

And I tried to do it. I think I started writing stories when I was in Grade 3. I can’t remember what my first story was about exactly, but most of my stories then were about a group of friends who got into different adventures and mis-adventures — I thank Francine Pascal and Sweet Valley for that. :p The first real series I made was about a group of friends named Sarah Springfield, Carmella Churnichan, Jericho Villa, Patrick Grange, Veronica and Ericka, I think. I can’t remember the names of the rest. They were a group of friends who all live in Ireland and formed some kind of club and whatnot. They have this awesome clubhouse that my friends and I can only dream about, as well as love teams: Jericho and Sarah (my favorite) and Carmella and Patrick. I knew that their group got bigger and there were even French twins where one of them was psychic and the last solid story I remembered about them was that they were investigating in a haunted house (against the warnings of their group’s resident psychic) in their town where a vampire was supposed to live. Sarah got hypnotized by the vampire and eventually became one, and Jericho had to do something about it or else Sarah would be gone from him forever. He ends up killing Sarah the vampire and then he wakes up, realizing it was only a dream.

Boring huh.

Then around Grade 6, I started writing again, and this time, it fed on my fanaticism of the Backstreet Boys. I made a story where the main character, Danielle, is supposed to be Brian’s first cousin in her mom’s side. Nick was also her second cousin from baptism (I just made Nick Carter Catholic I know). Because of that, the boys usually hang out at her house and most stories I wrote have them as characters. I had about ten stories about them but I don’t know where the notebook is anymore. Haha. I still have some stories of them here in my computer and whenever I read them I could feel myself cringing. They weren’t bad, actually. Some of them were quite good, only they lacked description.

And then came the series that my friend and I made: The Chosen Ones. This one was inspired by a “pager stalker” which was no one other than my other high school friend who decided to pull a prank on me when I got my hand-me-down pager. I didn’t get scared but instead used it to have a new story and out came a series adapted from other series: Animorphs, Sailormoon, Charmed, Replica, Heroes of Might and Magic II and a fanfiction Sailormoon Zodiac. It got as far as the sixth installment and I stopped writing because I got too lazy to write it. I still have them here and like the previous one I wrote, they all lacked description. The storyline is a bit too anime-ish too.

2005 NaNoWriMo winnerI wrote other little stuff every now and then — short poems, short stories and whatnot that mostly contained what I felt. I kind of stopped writing during frosh and sophomore year in college because I was too busy with schoolwork. Junior year, however, presented me more time because I started dorming and writing became my most common release. I wrote mostly in my journal and then finished some stories that I started writing over the summer. And then I had the guts to join the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the first time. I lost the first time but the second time around, I won. ;)

I also started to get published around junior year. From the first (and only) printed issue of LIVEtheLIFE Magazine to a Caedmon’s Call review in FiSH a year later and Didache reflections in the same year. I guess you can call me a freelance writer of some sort. :p
I know that I did not finish a degree related to this particular passion of mine. I didn’t take up that course because my passion for computers is just as big as my passion for writing, and I figured that a computer-related course would earn me more money than a writing-related one. Plus, I know that I will (somehow) be able to learn about writing on my own.

I’m still learning, and I bet a year from now, I’d probably laugh at what I wrote this year and think it’s just stupid. Or maybe not. But that won’t stop me from writing. Even if it’s a simple blog entry to a NaNo novel or a real novel, I will continue to write until I get something publish-worthy. :P

In the meantime, I’ll be stuck here. :P Then again I paid for this space so I have just enough right to blab here as much as I want.

Did I make sense? I hope I did.

Mabuhay ang mga manunulat! :)