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| WIT 2012 had many posters. This one was designed by Carlo Vergara |
I was there at 6:30 AM. A bit too early for a 9AM event, but some of my favorite writers were going to give talks, and I wanted excellent seats. When I got to the 6th floor, my first thought was, "Where the hell's everybody?" They came eventually, both fans and Visprint staff. Visprint ladies were arranging the books when I had the fleeting to quite my job as a teacher and apply to Visprint instead. Imagine having access to all of those wonderful books ALL the time!
A couple of guys were with me during the event: my Visprint event buddy Gary, and Patrick, a classmate from Hilakbot and Visprint event virgin . I spent the first hour convincing Patrick which books to buy and I manage to make him get a couple of my faves, Naermyth and Craving. I swear, I'm like a super secret marketing associate for the publisher.
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| My WIT buddies, Patrick and Gary (Spongebob?!) |
It was just sad that we had to choose from the morning session: either Fiction Writing with Karen Francisco, Eros Atalia and Siege Malvar, or Comic Writing with Budjette Tan, Paolo Fabregas and Manix. Because we wanted to write stories, we went with fiction in the end.
Siege Malvar went first. The topic was about writing and falling in love, but his talk, for me, was a half-dare, full-scale encouragement to us wannabee writers to stop being pansies, and
"JUST FUCKING DO IT."
To grow up and write about things that makes us uncomfortable. He pulled out a dirt box and asked us to anonymously spill our deepest, darkest secrets. I forgot to put in mine, and I have too many DDS anyway, despite the superlative. I did do the writing exercise he asked us, and here's what i came up with. It's a haiku and the theme is "a date turns bad":
Moonlit dinner ends
in roses, bedrooms.
Did the condom break?
Bad enough, I hope!
Sir Eros went next, and apart from his many "kaso", (which, apparently, ranged from child to animal abuse), I also learned about how he writes. How you understand the world, where you're coming from, these things, he said, are what comes out in a piece. But as writers, we must learn to integrate how we understand the world with how others understand it. Oo nga naman. How can people understand you when your story's completely schizo? Schizo is okay, I think, but if you want to be read then be readable; people still have to relate to what you're saying.
Ms. K related magic and writing, and shared to us some pretty cool photos of her working. It wasn't glamorous, but we love her just the same. I personally liked this part because it's like a super cool writing course lecture. I learned a lot, especially on how to make dialogues work for the plot and the character, and how the character's characteristics can be shown in the plot. I think I'm going to go OCD and make tables like her from now on.
It was all too fun, so, of course, we went overtime. Mid-morning sessions (Creative Non-fiction) was postponed until after we eat. We had a quick bite then the boys and I rushed back to the event. Before the morning talks, I had the chance to buy some books. This year's haul: Siege Malvar's "Roles", Eros Atalia's "It's Complicated", and Carlo Vergara's "ZsaZsa Zaturnnah sa kalakhang Maynila". And because Gary never got me Karl de Mesa's "Damaged People", he bought Eliza Victoria's "A Bottle of Storm Clouds" for me instead. Of course I wanted to get autographs, but even though I'm a total fan girl it would be a little too much to interrupt their lunch and have my books signed. I got to ambush my favorite authors after the event, though.
Patrick and I did annoy Ate Bebang for a bit. Bebang Siy was the guest speaker for the CNF talk. I met her during a horror-writing workshop called Hilakbot. I think she's crazy, thus I love her. Patrick, the bunso of our workshop, is her "student", but I got "kulitan" rights because I begged her for a very special favor. Chitchat followed, then we went to our seats for the CNF session.
Afternoon session meant business. Ate Bebang's presentation was, as expected, funny. She talked about writing a "sanaysay", or an essay. This one's helpful for two things: I teach essay writing for a living, and I want to write better essays for my blog. I also learned that menstruation in Tagalog is "abot-tubo". Cool. She gave tips on how to be a better essay writer, but left the number one tip to us. "Kayo dapat ang mag-bigay ng number one tip sa sarili ninyo," she said.
Here's mine: Walang hiya-hiya sa topic na trip ko isulat.
Oh, and Ate Bebang gave us homework, which I shall send as soon as I finish writing. On a slightly embarrassing note, she did mention Patrick and I, telling everyone that we have yet to pass our Hilakbot homework. Now THAT got me inspired.
Sir Karl de Mesa was next, and he talked about Literary Journalism. Journalism was my favorite subject in high school, so I was eager to compare this kind of genre to the traditional forms, like feature and straight news. From what I understand, LitJourn is shattering the walls of traditional reportage and immersing- embedding - oneself into the topic at hand. Example: instead of simply reporting the 4W1H of a war, you actually have to be there, in the middle of the fucking battlefield, with a pen and a paper, writing about the experience. LitJourn is screwing being a passive observer. Cool. I would have wanted to ask what the connection is between gonzo journalist (which I came across once upon a time) with LitJourn, but Sir Karl answered it before I had the chance to ask. Turns out, gonzo is like a subcategory of LitJourn. Bite me, I'm a nerd.
Did I mention he gave me a cookie?
Alan Navarra, who wrote the story of my last job, Dumot, shared his passion for combiding art and words, weaving them together to create books and tell stories.
The afternoon was mostly dedicated to book launches and performances. Master Eros was temporarily possessed by Intoy and he showed us how 14+14+14+14 can be equal to 25 (genius, man). Bart Coronel launched the part two of his Tragic Theater series (there WILL be part 3!) with a talk on the common literary devices used to add suspense to any genre of writing. Siege Malvar and his partner went full-scale modern Balagtas with a Balagtasan, trying to come to terms on sino nga ba ang mas tanga sa pag-ibig, babae o lalaki? I think a bunch of broken-hearted boys sealed the faith of women's idiocy and love. Award-winning writer Eliza Victoria presented her first Visprint book, A Bottle or Storm Clouds, plus a database of publishers for speculative fiction.
Bob Ong wasn't in the event (or he was, but he's hiding somewhere watching us all fidget in our seats in anticipation of finding out who he is and how hot he is). He asked 3 people from the audience to read his prepared speech and my lucky arse friend Gary got the honor. After I volunteered him of course. BO also answered 10 questions posted by his fans. Apparently Bob Ong is attending Ate Bebang's wedding...as the groom. The three lucky souls who read the speech were rewarded old books owned by the mysterious man himself. Excellent. I can just borrow the book from Gary, get trace evidence like hair, skin cells, and fingerprint and go on CSI mode. With luck, I may be able to find out his true identity... so I can kiss him for the awesomeness of his work.
The event was great, and I learned a lot. Kind of makes me wish that there's a Visprint Academy of Arts or something. Since I am no longer a WIT virgin, though, I couldn't help but compare this year's event with WIT 2011. Here's a bit of what I love and what I miss:
The event was formally closed Ms. Nida, publication manager of Visprint. "Sabi nila walang reading public sa Pilipinas, pero andito tayo," she said, referring to us, to both fans and writers. She ended the speech with a little something that got me excited though.
Did you hear her say "cosplay"?#
Oh, and Ate Bebang gave us homework, which I shall send as soon as I finish writing. On a slightly embarrassing note, she did mention Patrick and I, telling everyone that we have yet to pass our Hilakbot homework. Now THAT got me inspired.
Sir Karl de Mesa was next, and he talked about Literary Journalism. Journalism was my favorite subject in high school, so I was eager to compare this kind of genre to the traditional forms, like feature and straight news. From what I understand, LitJourn is shattering the walls of traditional reportage and immersing- embedding - oneself into the topic at hand. Example: instead of simply reporting the 4W1H of a war, you actually have to be there, in the middle of the fucking battlefield, with a pen and a paper, writing about the experience. LitJourn is screwing being a passive observer. Cool. I would have wanted to ask what the connection is between gonzo journalist (which I came across once upon a time) with LitJourn, but Sir Karl answered it before I had the chance to ask. Turns out, gonzo is like a subcategory of LitJourn. Bite me, I'm a nerd.
Did I mention he gave me a cookie?
Alan Navarra, who wrote the story of my last job, Dumot, shared his passion for combiding art and words, weaving them together to create books and tell stories.
The afternoon was mostly dedicated to book launches and performances. Master Eros was temporarily possessed by Intoy and he showed us how 14+14+14+14 can be equal to 25 (genius, man). Bart Coronel launched the part two of his Tragic Theater series (there WILL be part 3!) with a talk on the common literary devices used to add suspense to any genre of writing. Siege Malvar and his partner went full-scale modern Balagtas with a Balagtasan, trying to come to terms on sino nga ba ang mas tanga sa pag-ibig, babae o lalaki? I think a bunch of broken-hearted boys sealed the faith of women's idiocy and love. Award-winning writer Eliza Victoria presented her first Visprint book, A Bottle or Storm Clouds, plus a database of publishers for speculative fiction.
Bob Ong wasn't in the event (or he was, but he's hiding somewhere watching us all fidget in our seats in anticipation of finding out who he is and how hot he is). He asked 3 people from the audience to read his prepared speech and my lucky arse friend Gary got the honor. After I volunteered him of course. BO also answered 10 questions posted by his fans. Apparently Bob Ong is attending Ate Bebang's wedding...as the groom. The three lucky souls who read the speech were rewarded old books owned by the mysterious man himself. Excellent. I can just borrow the book from Gary, get trace evidence like hair, skin cells, and fingerprint and go on CSI mode. With luck, I may be able to find out his true identity... so I can kiss him for the awesomeness of his work.
The event was great, and I learned a lot. Kind of makes me wish that there's a Visprint Academy of Arts or something. Since I am no longer a WIT virgin, though, I couldn't help but compare this year's event with WIT 2011. Here's a bit of what I love and what I miss:
The event was formally closed Ms. Nida, publication manager of Visprint. "Sabi nila walang reading public sa Pilipinas, pero andito tayo," she said, referring to us, to both fans and writers. She ended the speech with a little something that got me excited though.
Did you hear her say "cosplay"?#
