Mira Vista: Visprint's Writers In Talks 2012

It's hard to picture last Saturday without all the jumping and photo-bombing involved. But of course, you'll go gaga over your favorite local Filipino writers and artists if you get to meet them in person.

Instead of rotting at home, I convinced myself to go to Visprint's Writer in Talks event at Alphaland Southgate Tower near Magallanes Station. Together with 3 of my friends, V, Z and P, we spent the early hours of a Saturday morning spazzing at our local comic book heroes.

I first thought that the event won't be packed since it is held on the wee hours of a Saturday morning, but I spoke too soon. The event is packed. For the small world of local comic enthusiasts, I think we more than filled the venue. And for some reason that I seriously didn't know about since I just followed my friends into a room, we ended up at the Fictional Writing section not the Comic Book writing section. I still blame V for this though. I've been smashing my head on an imaginary keyboard during the talk. But it turns out that the Fictional Writing is also fun. Actually, I enjoyed it a lot even. So I stopped hitting my head on my imaginary keyboard and prop myself up for some bite size learnings. I actually went there to hear Budjette Tan, writer of TRESE comics, but I ended up being a fan of these three local writers.

For the fiction writing, we had 3 of Visprint's renowned authors - Siege Malvar, Eros Atalia and Karen Francisco. Each give an almost 15-20 minute speech about their creative process when it comes to feature writing.

Siege Malvar is the author of Crash and is a virtual dictator with a huge following. He seems young and enthusiastic enough to impart knowledge to his readers. Though he mostly talk about the "writing process" in general instead of how he wrote his novels. Don't get me wrong. I have an excuse. I confess that I haven't heard of Siege before actually. I'm not familiar with his works or how he writes, so it is very alien listening to him on stage since I don't have anything to reference it with. But I did get a lot of pointers on how to write from him. Really cool inspiring ones. I promise to check his novels this coming Manila International Book Fair.

Here are some of his quotable quotes:

Lose Yourself.
Love is the greatest influence.
Write with your doors closed, don't worry what others are thinking.
Burn your ships.
Don't worry, you have a new best coming up.
Bad decisions make good stories.
You will get rejected whoever you think you are.
Just FUCKING do it.
Let it be the pathetic piece of shit it's supposed to be, you have enough time to rewrite your shit out of your shit.
More on him here: http://siegemalvar.tumblr.com/

Eros Atalia, I think, is a one of a kind - more than a person with a forsaken name - he is God's gift to our generation of book enthusiasts. Other than being famous for his deadpan and humorous works of fiction and even bigger personality, he seamlessly entered the realm of the independent. Mind you, I love films as well, so that's plus points for Eros. So, Okay, maybe I haven't researched enough, or I'm just plain stupid, but I think he's one of the few authors that successfully made it out of the print medium. His even bigger personality onstage kept the listeners ROFL-ing on every deadpan joke he makes, and believe me I wasn't able to get as much pointers from him because I'm just simply enjoying his speech.

If only I could write his jokes here, I would. But it wouldn't do him any justice.

Let's see if I manage to squeeze something about Eros' awesome speech:

Each one of us has a story. "Lahat ng bagay may kwento yan. Ikaw may kwento ka na kinekwento mo sa kaibigan mo, sa magulang mo, sa sarili mo at sa imaginary friend mo."
In writing, it starts and ends with the self.
What do I want to tell the world? How should I tell it to the world?
"Life sucks - And buhay ay nagmemedyas." (Korny, pero bumenta sa akin. Lol)
Your world is not the only thing that is important.
You write by where you come from.
Start from the familiar. Write what you know.
Research can help, not through and through. "Hindi tayo National geographic."
Ask yourself if you are happy that what you tell your audience.
"Handa ka bang makinig sa sarili mong kwento?"
More of this awesome author here: http://www.panitikan.com.ph/authors/a/esatalia.htm

And lastly, it's Ms. Karen Francisco. Can I just say after hearing this lady in front of the stage, she automatically became my hero. She writes, she draws and she went to law school. Somehow, that's how I see myself 3 years from now. But I loved her instantly at her geekiness. She reference about Harry Potter, LOTR, Hunger Games and Game of Thrones throughout her presentation to which got me thinking on what she does with her novel. (Yes, I don't have a background about her as well. But I knew it involves a lot of Magick). This got me intrigued and so I dashed out of the room and bought myself a copy of her book Naermyth (on which I would be so proud to share you my review here).

Here are some of her magic tricks:

Storytelling is like a magic trick. You are the wizard. You are free to mold the world.
You have the ability to make the ordinary extraordinary. But it depends on how you gonna deliver your story.
Ordinary things open to a new world. Like a scar, arrow, iron throne or a ring. (See the geekiness?)
Tip for plots: There must exist a certain physics.Set rules that you can personally abide by. You have to have a signal goal.
You need to have outlines. Branch out or draw. Whatever it is, you need to have an outline.
Read again and again and edit.
Go ahead and be messy.
So many things can come from learning - research.
Use of tarot cards is efficient in storytelling.
What happens next? Know to yourself what you don't want to happen. Play detective.
YOU HAVE TO BE YOUR OWN NUMBER ONE FAN.
More about Naermyth and the author here: http://www.naermyth.co.cc/

After the individual talks, we proceeded to the panel discussion. Most of the question raised are more on general fiction writing. Tips and tricks on how to write and how to handle rejection. Then, it's Autograph-signing time! Woohoo! Each of us clamoured to our respective authors. I made a beeline to Ms. Karen's line immediately with my latest acquisition, her novel - Naermyth. Then got my photo taken with her and with the other two authors. That started the spazz-a-thon and P's unstoppable fan-girling and jumping. Obviously, I'm there to photograph each moment.

Interested minds listen to the speakers.

Panel discussion aka the hot seat portion

Ms. Karen taking her time to sign my newly bought Naermyth copy.

I wouldn't miss having a photo with her of course.

P spazzes while Ms. Karen signs her uhm, Notebook

A photo with Siege Malvar.

Z opted to pose with THE God of Love

Oh, And V as well.

P asked Eros this time to sign her notebook.
I didn't quite remember what it actually says but it goes something like this:
"SANA WAG MO ITONG IPAMBALOT NG TINAPA."

Guess who's missing in the photo. Hmmp.

Then me and my friends sneaked in to the comic writing section. We are just right on time for the autograph-signing session as well! I bought TRESE's 2nd book, since that's the only thing I'm missing and zoomed straight to Mr. Budjette Tan. Being a crazy stalker fan that I was, I showed him my photo of us together in Metro Comic Con 2010 at Megamall. He told me that he was supposedly going to wear the same shirt today and he said, good thing he didn't. I can't help but spazz around him. I honestly think that Trese is an awesome novel and that it should be made into a live action or movie. And I got dibs on directing it. Lol. (So I get to pick the "Kambal". Lol.) Here's more on my beloved Trese comics: http://tresekomix.blogspot.com/

We were supposed to be here. Not that I'm complaining.

Our HEROES.

After 2 years, I met Mr. Budjette Tan again~!

Spazzing fan girl.

My asking-for-your-shirt move didn't work. He doesn't want to go home half-naked.

V, giddy to have her comic books signed.

Apparently, they wanted that One Piecce poster signed,
so it's a 2 in 1 inspiration hanging from their wall.

When the organizer said that it's time for Manix to go.

But of course, they wouldn't go home without a picture with him - or sort of with him.

Photobombing their Hero. Oh, I wish Manix could see this.

If you look closer, that's a mic that they are 'touching'.
Because they said "Manix held this very mic. It's sacred."

M got her comic books signed and still, they are photobombing Manix. During this time, we asked Manix if he knows the Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, he said it is his favorite book. We uncontrollably spazzed, especially our youngest.

Couple Photobomb.

Alas a photo of V with Manix.

Z and Manix. Jeez, Manix wouldn't smile like this if he knew what you did behind him.

Giddy fan girl P poses with his God.

Of course, I joined in the spazz-a-thon anyway.

For those, like me, who missed the comic book panel discussion. Please check this site out: http://flipsidepublishing.wordpress.com it's a podcast about the panel discussion on Budjette's and Manix' respective comics. :D

Luckily, we all got what we wanted. V and Z got their respective photos with their favorite writers, I got photos with all the speakers (lucky!) but P got Photos AND autographs - complete! Her jumping helped her a lot. Haha. Unfortunately, we scheduled that day to be a multi-event. We head straight to Shang Ri La, had our brunch and then, watched a Bulgarian film about a mythical goat that's screening on this year's Cine Europa. But before that compulsary group photo from the event.