Writer

For almost two decades now, writing has been a medium that I use to express my thoughts and ideas, to channel out my emotions, to share and tell stories, and to showcase creativity. It is an activity that I tend to find enjoyment in, and as time goes on, I learn to feel more and more passionate about it.

I was just a fourteen-year-old third-year high school kid when I discovered the pleasure in creating something through writing. The very first creative piece that I ever made was a short poem. It was just a ten-line poem titled A Dream with You, and when I finished it, I felt amazed as I realized that the rhymes matched and that I had a skill that I never really knew that I had. It was just a ten-line poem, but with that, I managed to pour out emotions from inside of me that were wanting to get out.

I wanna go to sleep now and forever,
‘Cause that’s the only place that we’re together,
Lying on my bed, eyes shut for hours,
Going to paradise, the night is now ours.

The view I see is elegant for me,
I hope this slumber won’t end so quickly,
You’re dancing with me, I’m dancing with you,
I only wish that you’re feeling this too.

But the alarm will ring and stop this dream,
To exit paradise and end with the lies.

That was A Dream with You. And yes, I was just a teenage boy thinking and daydreaming about his high school crush, then the next moment he had written that.

But what truly inspired me to grab a notepad, pick up a pen, and start writing? Well, the answer to that is the Jonas Brothers. But why them? It’s simple. I used to listen to their songs religiously back in high school, then I realized that they were also just kids around my age and they were already composing songs and creating their own music. So I thought to myself, if these kids from halfway across the world could do these things, then it was not impossible for me to be able to do those things as well. So when I discovered that I have what I would describe as a talent in writing, I continued writing. I wrote songs and poems, and would proudly identify myself as a lyricist. Some of the things I made were truly good, but some were too cheesy or too cringe, but still, I continued writing.

Eventually, when I was in college, still writing poems and songs, I also tried blogging. With that, I found a new way to talk about my experiences, to discuss random things such as shows, movies, or music, and sometimes just to open up about my thoughts. Blogging has been cathartic for me, and it was ironic because I used to hate writing essays if it was schoolwork.

Years later, I dabbled in story writing. I remember making a few comic strip scripts that were never converted into a full image, due to the fact that I was never good at drawing, so I still need a visual artist if I want to make comics. I also began writing short stories, and have been trying to write a novel, but life and other priorities have been putting this little book project of mine through several periods of hiatus. To this day, I still let my imagination run and try to put those ideas into words.

Many of my stories came from a dream that I had scribed out from that subconscious realm the very next moment after I woke up. It was as if my dreams were feeding me raw creative materials that I probably wouldn’t have thought of if I was awake, and that type of source channel has always been my favorite.

A few months ago, I had a dream, and it was of a few glimpses of a science fiction action scenario, like I was playing a first-person shooter video game with portals to alternate realities. Upon waking up, that dream had me intrigued and excited, and it pushed me to expand on those simple dream visions. I formulated a plot, created characters and settings, and just kept on writing. It took me around four hours to finish that short story, and after reading it, I had an epiphany, and it was that I truly enjoy… I truly love writing and I want to be able to share my stories to a lot of people, and at the same time be recognized and appreciated as an author. I then decided to finally start sending my works to legitimate publishers with hopes that they would get accepted.

But there was a problem. I didn’t know anything about getting published. In fact, I didn’t even have any formal training, didn’t have an educational background in creative writing, never attended any writing workshops, nor had a mentor to teach and guide me. All I knew was that I had to write those things in my head and I just have to keep on writing. So to explore and learn these new areas that I was venturing into, I researched where and which publishers to send my stories to, studied a lot about these publishers and even about the process itself. I even learned how to make a manuscript, and that publishers require that it must be in a traditional manuscript format. I didn’t even know what a manuscript or its purpose really was before this. I was like a level five starting Pokémon at the beginning of his journey, but yes, I learned, and I am still learning, and I know I have to keep on learning and improving to reach the goals that I set for myself in this race, for I know that I still have a lot of empty spaces to fill and potential left to fulfill.

This is now me realizing a dream of mine and finally working on pushing a writing career. I had looked back at my previous works, I have been revisiting my unfinished ones, and still generating new concepts and ideas on more things to write about, whether they’re stories, poems, songs, or just topics that I would like to talk about. I had already submitted short stories to publishers, and had already received some rejections, and I know this path is not going to be an easy one, but I have to keep on writing, creating, and submitting more. And I am hoping that one day I would get that email telling me that a story of mine was accepted, or that I would see a novel that I wrote inside a bookstore. For I am a creative writer, a poet, a lyricist, a songwriter, a storyteller.

I am a writer.