When I write, I do so mainly as a job. The joy I get from writing depends on what I'm writing about. There are so many things I want to write about. Some topics keep me engaged from start to finish. Others bore me in the middle and then I slug through it paragraph by paragraph, writing for 15 minutes, and then watching a movie on Netflix or YouTube to relax. In this way, an article can take up to 10 days. I refuse, however, to write about anything else until I finish it. That's probably the most disciplined thing about my writing.
When I was a young professional, writing embodied a lifestyle. There was the office where you meshed with other journalists. The interviews, the press conferences, the swag, the ability to show up at formal affairs wearing jeans because well, you were a writer. Meeting other writers and getting close to them all, and free meals while interviewing people who needed the publicity.
I was never, however, in a position where the gifts were huge. The business pages would get extravagant sums of money deposited in the person's bank account. And there were free trips abroad, all expenses paid. Plus, there was the luxury of having someone who knows the place you visit to show you some of the nicest things their country has to offer.
I didn't get many free trips, but I'm thankful for those I had. Because when you're in a press jaunt they put you in five-star hotels and feed you the most expensive meals in the poshest restaurants. I always felt like a very important person when I was on a press jaunt, just because of the hotel room I was in.
I'm not going to say which of my trips were press jaunts, but I will say where I've been. In the Philippines, I'd been to Baguio, Tagaytay, Cebu, Palawan, Albay, Ternate in Cavite, Carmona in Cavite, Lipa in Batangas, and Ilocos Norte. Overseas, I'd been to New Zealand, Hongkong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, and Bali, Indonesia. I've also been to Boston, California, and Kansas. Plus Spain, France, Italy, Luxemburg, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and Amsterdam. Some of my travels were media trips, while others were taken with family. This paragraph is actually a humblebrag. Pardon me, I simply could not resist.
I miss writing fiction. When I was in grade school in Madrid, Spain, I kept a notebook of poems that I wrote. I never thought that writing made me special. But when we moved, afterward, to Brussels, the new tenant of our apartment in Madrid found my notebook of poems and told my parents that I was a poet. Mom and Dad often repeated that story. I guess they were proud of me but I wondered why. Because really, I never felt that anything about me nor anything I did was special. Still, their pride in me made an impression.
In Mercy High School in San Francisco, a poem I wrote was published in the school newspaper. In college, my first short story was published in Focus Magazine (now defunct). I liked the money and the thought of being paid while being a college student. And so my writing career began.
When you get old, you realize that writing is very different, mainly because of the internet. It's so much easier to do research and write something using what you researched. Here's the difference. When I wrote for publication (before the internet) I learned a lot from my interviews. I wrote entertainment articles, lifestyle pieces, business articles, political pieces, etc.
Now, I feel more comfortable writing because I can research online and get all the information I need to write a credible article. It is a matter of choosing good, reliable sources, and getting both sides of an issue, and double-checking your facts, and quoting your sources. These are the things that matter. When you write, you have to make sure that your article is well written and true.
My watcher: I don't get blocked now like I used to. I do get bored, my new form of blocking. My watcher also takes away from me the comfort I used to have writing fiction. I started out as a fiction writer and now I can barely get started doing it. I think it's time for me to tackle that again.
When I was a young professional, writing embodied a lifestyle. There was the office where you meshed with other journalists. The interviews, the press conferences, the swag, the ability to show up at formal affairs wearing jeans because well, you were a writer. Meeting other writers and getting close to them all, and free meals while interviewing people who needed the publicity.
I was never, however, in a position where the gifts were huge. The business pages would get extravagant sums of money deposited in the person's bank account. And there were free trips abroad, all expenses paid. Plus, there was the luxury of having someone who knows the place you visit to show you some of the nicest things their country has to offer.
I didn't get many free trips, but I'm thankful for those I had. Because when you're in a press jaunt they put you in five-star hotels and feed you the most expensive meals in the poshest restaurants. I always felt like a very important person when I was on a press jaunt, just because of the hotel room I was in.
I'm not going to say which of my trips were press jaunts, but I will say where I've been. In the Philippines, I'd been to Baguio, Tagaytay, Cebu, Palawan, Albay, Ternate in Cavite, Carmona in Cavite, Lipa in Batangas, and Ilocos Norte. Overseas, I'd been to New Zealand, Hongkong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, and Bali, Indonesia. I've also been to Boston, California, and Kansas. Plus Spain, France, Italy, Luxemburg, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and Amsterdam. Some of my travels were media trips, while others were taken with family. This paragraph is actually a humblebrag. Pardon me, I simply could not resist.
I miss writing fiction. When I was in grade school in Madrid, Spain, I kept a notebook of poems that I wrote. I never thought that writing made me special. But when we moved, afterward, to Brussels, the new tenant of our apartment in Madrid found my notebook of poems and told my parents that I was a poet. Mom and Dad often repeated that story. I guess they were proud of me but I wondered why. Because really, I never felt that anything about me nor anything I did was special. Still, their pride in me made an impression.
In Mercy High School in San Francisco, a poem I wrote was published in the school newspaper. In college, my first short story was published in Focus Magazine (now defunct). I liked the money and the thought of being paid while being a college student. And so my writing career began.
When you get old, you realize that writing is very different, mainly because of the internet. It's so much easier to do research and write something using what you researched. Here's the difference. When I wrote for publication (before the internet) I learned a lot from my interviews. I wrote entertainment articles, lifestyle pieces, business articles, political pieces, etc.
Now, I feel more comfortable writing because I can research online and get all the information I need to write a credible article. It is a matter of choosing good, reliable sources, and getting both sides of an issue, and double-checking your facts, and quoting your sources. These are the things that matter. When you write, you have to make sure that your article is well written and true.
My watcher: I don't get blocked now like I used to. I do get bored, my new form of blocking. My watcher also takes away from me the comfort I used to have writing fiction. I started out as a fiction writer and now I can barely get started doing it. I think it's time for me to tackle that again.
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