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Charming story in the L.A. Times about a pathologically shy man who meets a woman at a film series and falls in love. Read it here.

We have friends who have fallen in love at the movies—with actual people, not characters onscreen.

Many years ago, when Jean-Baptiste (not his real name) was studying film in Paris (the real location), he went to a screening of Wim Wenders’s Kings of the Road. It’s about a couple of guys who go around Germany in a van, fixing broken film projectors. Naturally life gets competitive with the movies: during the screening the projector kept breaking down. Yes, this story is meta.

When the lights went on during the first of many interruptions, Jean-Baptiste noticed this cute girl sitting across the aisle in the near-empty theatre. At the next interruption they exchanged a nod. Next, a shrug. Next, a half-smile. When the movie finally ended, Jean-Baptiste should’ve gone up to the girl and introduced himself. (Well that’s what we would’ve done, but we are more guy than most guys. Hmmm we should give lessons.)

Instead Jean-Baptiste slunk off to the metro, berating himself for being such a timorous weenie (torpe). He got on the train, where he promptly ran into the girl from the screening. Jean-Baptiste may be a timorous weenie but he knew that if he didn’t strike up a conversation with the girl he deserved to be struck by lightning.

He didn’t strike up a conversation with the girl.

Fortunately she had fewer issues than he did and she struck up a conversation. They ended up dating. Never mind how it turned out.

The assignment for LitWit Challenge 8.9: Using the basic plot of the Jean-Baptiste story, write a story in 1,000 words or less about two people who fall in love at the movies. You may change the location, names, genders, the movie they saw. In fact you can ditch the Jean-Baptiste story altogether, but you have to stick with these rules:

1. It has to be romantic (not a smash and grab operation).
2. It has to start in a movie theatre.
3. It has to be unlike a Star Cinema romcom, you know what we’re saying.

We have a real screenwriter on board to judge this LitWit Challenge: Raymond Lee, whose recent credits include Zombadings, Endo, Maximo Oliveros, and yes a bunch of Star Cinema movies from years ago including Tanging Yaman, Anak and Milan.

The prize: Php2500 in National Bookstore gift certificates. (It’s tuition-paying, textbooks-and-school-supplies-buying season, as our friend reminded us.)

Post your stories in Comments on or before 11.59pm on 25 May 2012.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

Minty! para sa kanyang tula.

Pangalawang premyo (nguni’t walang komiks): figsch para sa ulat na beki.

Pangatlong premyo (wala ring komiks): roseriver para sa linyang ito: “sabi ko na nga ba, kapag ang isang tao ay may mabalasik at nagki-criss-cross na mga kilay sa gitna ng noo, may pagka-halimaw talaga ang pag-uugali.”

Mabuhay ang mga nagwagi! Minty, pakisulat ang iyong buong pangalan (Hindi ito makikita ng mga mambabasa) sa Comments. Ipapadala namin ang iyong Manga komiks na Ang Mga Tagapaghiganti sa Pambansang Tindahan ng Aklat sa Pabrika ng Kapangyarihan, Mabuting Bato, Makati.

Salamat kina Francine at Chus, ang mga hurado sa timpalak na ito.

P.S. Momelia, nasa Pambansang Tindahan ng Aklat na rin ang komiks na dulot namin sa iyo bilang pasasalamat sa pagbigay mo ng permiso upang magamit namin ang iyong sulat sa aming kolum sa pahayagan.

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Hindi kami nanonood ng telebisyon (Ang Laro ng Mga Trono ay napapanood namin sa ibang paraan) o sumasali sa Aklat-Mukha at Huni ng Ibon (Twitter) kaya’t wala kaming alam tungkol sa alitang Tulfo-Raymart. Paki-kuwento naman sa amin kung ano ang nangyari at tila ito ang pinag-uusapan ng madla ngayon. Ang hinihiling lamang namin ay ikuwento ninyo ito sa wikang Pilipino (Tagalog, Hiligaynon, Chavacano, atbp).

Salamat! Ang pinaka-nakakaaliw na pagkukuwento ay magkakamit ng komiks mula sa Mangha (Marvel).

Ang Mga Tagapaghiganti. Ayyy biglang nagka-interes ang mga walang pakialam! Hala, magsulat na kayo at kami’y walang masabi hahahahaha.

Ang Biglaang Timpalak ng LitWit na ito ay hatid sa inyo ng ating mga kaibigan sa Pambansang Tindahan ng Aklat (National Bookstore).

revealed at the end of this post.

Notes on the entries. (Read them all here.)

1. Decide whether the story is taking place in the past, the present or the future, pick a tense and stick to it. Constantly switching tenses makes the reader dizzy.

This is especially important if your protagonist lives in the present day but behaves as if it were 1994.

2. Ambition is great, but so is self-awareness. Be honest about your skills level. Do not go for verbal acrobatics unless you are sure you will not land on your face.

Example. They weren’t asexual pods: in fact, they’ve had their fair share of each other’s bodies before they were even engaged. Not having a children after 2 years, it would seem, was an oddity. Or perhaps it was the fact that they have had enough of human flesh that the experience was already boring for them.

The first sentence takes too long to say they used to have sex a lot. The second sentence is windy. The third suggests they are cannibals.

3. Keep it simple. Unless you’re writing an epic fantasy or a farce set in the academe, don’t try to sound like a thesaurus.

Economy is a good thing. Some of you allude to Closer. Consider the most stinging insult in that movie.

Two words: “You. . .writer.” (The clip is in Italian but you’ll get it.)

4. Mind your grammar. When in doubt, consult the spelling and grammar checker on Word or whatever application you’re using. It takes seconds.

It is true that we do not copy-edit letters to our advice columnist. The uncorrected version gives us helpful information on the letter-writer’s state of mind, educational background, etc. If their sentence construction is off-kilter, they can claim emotional distress.

You are trying to win a prize in a contest.

5. “A painting by someone who sounds like a candy brand” only makes sense to people familiar with Goya. Don’t assume that everyone who reads your work is just like you.

6. You watch movies, how delightful. We’re all for dropping film references, but what do Ray and The Aviator have to do with the story? Do the characters have an affinity to blind musicians and germ-phobic billionaires?

7. “Maybe he love her?” Hulk not pleased. Hulk smash!

The winner of LitWit Challenge 8.8: Talk to him is jaime. Congratulations. Please post your full name in Comments and we’ll alert you when your prize has been delivered to National Bookstore in Rockwell.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

From IWDRM, Clive Owen and cat in Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men.

See the guy on the couch with the cat? Write a story about him in 1,000 words or less. Post it in Comments on or before 11.59pm on Friday, 4 May 2012. The author of the best story will receive Neonomicon, the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows.

Begin conversation.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

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Attention: LitWit winners

AM, your prize awaits at the Customer Service counter, National Bookstore Rockwell. You may pick it up any time within the next 6 months.

To all previous LitWit winners: Please claim your prizes within 6 months of your win. You can send anyone to pick up your prize, just show an ID with your real name on it. After 6 months we will collect unclaimed books and give them away.

If you won a LitWit Challenge in November 2011 or earlier, please claim your book/s by Monday, 30 April 2012.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

Catanic, thanks to brewhuh

Askaniclan for his ode to Billy Zane’s eyebrows,

AM for the Catcher in the Rye “sequel”. Lucky he can’t sue you, though his executors may have other ideas.

Congratulations, Askaniclan and AM. Please post your full names in Comments. We’ll alert you when your prizes have been delivered to the Customer Service counter at National Bookstore in Rockwell.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

Thanks to Mae and 20th Century Fox for the Titanic movie merchandise.