Creative process, Creative Writing, Inspiration, Muse
In CL122, Writing on 5 November 2008 at 12:10 am
Ricardo M. de Ungria, in his introduction to A Passionate Patience: Ten Filipino Poets on the Writing of Their Poems (1995), says that poets — and perhaps most writers — become reticent when asked to talk about their works or their own writing process.
And when they do say something about how they wrote their creative works, according to de Ungria quoting I. A. Richards and Harry Levin, the kind of talk writers make about their oeuvres become “suspect.” Whatever they say may be construed as self-aggrandizing statements about their art or artistry.
For how can writers honestly describe what went on inside their heads while writing their pieces? Since ancient times, the creative process has always been cloaked in mystery and mysticism - with the genesis of creative works ascribed to divine possession or to the inspiration of the Muses or to the duende. The same idea persists to this more rational age, and may account for how the rest of humanity looks at writers and other artists.
Comics, Creative Writing, Graphic novel, Popular Literature, Writing
In Fiction, Popular Literature, Writing on 19 October 2008 at 11:35 pm
Last Sunday’s featured works — the excerpts from Attriu Marcus Cabusao’s fiction and Kid Millado’s bricolage of Sandman and Batman — are just some of what readers of high art or popular literature are inspired to create.
And the inspiration does not always come from cultural artifacts from America or other foreign shores. Vanessa Almeria, a Creative Writing student of UP Mindanao, teamed up with Glen Obenza, a BA English student from MSU General Santos, to produce their comic book, GiMix UP.
Drawing from the popular Kiko Machine Komix, a compilation of comic strips originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and created by one-time Philippine Collegian Graphics Editor and Fine Arts graduate Manuel “Manix” Abrera, Van and Glen came up with their own cast of major and minor characters. One such character is the bully Rambo, seen here playing a prank on an unsuspecting professor. The joke might be a bit stale, but is given a fresh treatment with how it is told panel by cartoon panel.
Graphic novel, Literature, Popular Literature, Reading, Writing
In Fiction, Popular Literature, Reading, Writing on 12 October 2008 at 11:24 pm
Gabriel Millado's bricolage of Sandman and The Dark Knight graphic novels
Over glasses of cool drinks in a downtown resto one balmy evening, Amy showed me her son’s writing drafts. I read a few pieces and was amazed by what Attriu, her high school kid, had written. Here’s a sample:
John Slowan was one of the fastest men I knew and the best strategist in the squad. By taking a hovercraft, we crossed the city through the sewerage system. Even when unused, the sewers had such a horrible smell. The dead civilians and dead orks we saw all piled up in the sewer gave the word “united” a foul meaning. Crossing the main ork line we encountered some ork patrols, but we were quick enough to keep them from detecting our position…. We have reported orks massing just three kilometers from our line….
