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On Saturday we had the first session of Write Here, Write Now, our practical writing workshop at the Ayala Museum. Twenty-one participants were selected from among the applicants who submitted their book proposals and writing samples last year. In December we required everyone to turn in their general outlines and timetables; starting this month they have to submit chapters every week.

One participant dropped out by email, citing time constraints. Tell you what: No one has time. We’re all swamped. Either you invent a time machine, or you find a chunk of time to write every day. The words of our house are: We have no excuses.

One had to take her husband to the hospital. Too late for our advice: Don’t get married or spawn haha.

One had a cold, possibly anxiety-induced. The writing life is fraught with anxiety, build up your resistance.

Two just didn’t show up. If you intend to appear in subsequent sessions, you had better write a heart-wrenching letter to the class because they’ll decide whether you’re still in.

For the first session we had a writing exercise, then we discussed practical matters including the all-important Writing longhand vs Writing on a computer question, and the advantages of writing in noisy public places. Each participant gave an overview of the book they’re writing, and some read samples of work done so far. We quizzed them about their methods and made suggestions which they are free to ignore, provided they know exactly what they want to do.

A large part of our job is to determine what each of them needs to hear, and to say it out loud.

Good work, class. See you in two weeks.

On Sunday we shot a scene for Elwood Perez’s movie, Esoterica. We played an author named Jessica Zafra who was doing a book-signing at Solidaridad Bookshop in Manila; our readers played readers who wanted their books signed. For added authenticity, they brought their own books—some of which we signed over and over again because Elwood had very specific images in mind, requiring many takes. (“Hijo, masyado kang matangkad, masisira ang composition, doon ka sa likod. Feel beautiful! Feel gorgeous!”) Plus we’re terrible at taking direction and ask too many impertinent questions (but NOT “What’s my motivation?”).

After a while we got tired of signing our name and took to signing “Fyodor Dostoevsky”, “Joseph Conrad”, “Edith Wharton” and some others. Many, many, many thanks to the readers who volunteered as extras, remembered their blocking, and did their own slow-motion effects (!). They even got to do a bit of acting (Cue mild outrage!) when two of the movie’s stars, Ronnie Liang and Tessa Celdran, “interrupted” the signing. We’ll post the video as soon as we get it (and they may need you for other scenes so get your imdb pages ready). In the meantime, roll credits:

Zim de la Peña
Christian Paul Ramos
Tyrelle Castillo
Liezle Vasallo
Raquel Isabelle de Guzman
Carlos Enriquez, Jr
Allan Gundran
Ronald Tabalada
Joseph Kua
Edrie Alcanzare
as the readers at the book signing

Jay Lozada, make-up artist

Thanks to F. Sionil Jose and the wonderful staff of Solidaridad (Our monthly visit: done!).