Chapter Blogging: Instilling Discipline & Patience to a Novel Writer

Before I started writing chapters of my first novel, THE PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER'S WIFE, I already have the complete story in my mind. Matter of fact, I completed laying its foundation by writing titles and story lines of chapter 1 through chapter 32.

Like a house builder, I know what bricks to use every time I'm in front of my computer. However, I am realizing now that completing the novel is not simple as eating an apple pie.

Writing a novel is not the same as writing my masters thesis and doctoral dissertation. Non-fiction like thesis or dissertation, only needs collecting data, analysis, writing, and presenting findings and recommendations. Fiction like novel, creativeness is needed. That means that one has to let the imagination go wild on how to present details, and twists and turns of the story.

In non-fiction writing, every chapter is complete. A chapter in the presentation of data is complete once all pertinent data is included. A chapter in the analysis of data is simply an analysis using statistical tools with paragraphs that simply explain the analysis. No more; no less. Every chapter has no twist and turns, just pure details. The goal is to prove an assumption of a particular phenomenon.

Fiction, specifically novel writing, has several things to consider. Certainly, each chapter has to abide with the novel's plot. However, a novelist also has to consider some factors: How could I make my characters believable? How could I dispose my characters' personality? How could I embellish the chapter so that readers could see, feel, touch, smell, taste, and hear the chapter's events; and yet keeping some of the details secret so that readers would continue looking for them in the next chapter or chapters? Etcetera! Quite frankly, I haven't experienced such challenges when I was writing my first book, KOILAWAN:Letters and Poems of a Jungle Dad-Mom (Xulon Press, 2007), and my upcoming book, BEDTIME-PASTIME (Kalanganan dun hu Ikam): Collection of Short Stories, Folktales, and Essays (New Day Publishers). I definitely did not have similar challenge when I wrote my second book, PRAISING ALL SEASONS LONG: Haiku Verses (Comfort Publishing,2009) and my other collections of haiku and senryu verses, THE HEALING GARDEN OF VERSES,which I am currently pitching to a poetry publisher.

There was a moment when I was about to hit the wall. After writing several paragraphs or dialogue, I sometimes have to pause and ask, "Am I true to the plot? Is this the proper way to string this new chapter to the previous ones? Am I divulging everything in this chapter that the readers would put the book down without even getting halfway through it? Etc.

I know teachers in creative writing would tell me, "Keep your thoughts flowing. Don't stop writing."

To keep me going, I need to discipline myself, including my thoughts. I need to be patient and enjoy the sight, the feelings, the touch, the smell, the taste, and the voices at the setting and of the characters. One way of instilling discipline and patience is to blog some glimpses of the chapters that I am working on. Blogging some glimpses tells me that I have to keep on writing, because those who read my blog already know it. Blog pushes me inside the characters' minds; henceforth, allowing me to put the details to complete a chapter without hitting the wall.

Here's the story line of Chapter 6.


MICHAEL'S SECRET

Being all alone in the village and having problem with communication, (All of the villagers, but Laga, only speak the tribe's language), that Michael clings onto Laga like his crutch. As a result, he secretly falls for Laga. However, he is conflicted with so many thing: Laga’s love with another man, the cultural taboo, his professional goals, his family in the US, etc.

The Peace Corps Volunteer's Wife: Chapter 3 Blog

Certainly, culture isn't a closed system. As long as people have senses and unsatiable needs, culture will always be dynamic.

Laga grew up in a small Bukidnon village, so far away from the city. A chieftain, who also was the shaman, tried to keep new ideas away from infusing to the village culture. He even invoke the power of the deities just to control the lives and minds of every villager.

However, it is better to control a herd of cattle than a person, the saying goes. People have been given the mind to think and the free will on how to live.

For Laga, she wasn't contented, even when she still was young, to live and die in the village. Nonetheless, she loved the village. She intent to come back. Her love for language and learning was just so strong to ignore. She wanted to explore the world of other cultural group. So, after she finished 6th grade, she convinced her parents to allow her to continue her schooling in Malaybalay. The village chieftain/shaman wasn't happy with the decision. He even told Laga's parent's that the forefathers revealed in a dream Laga's disfigurement if she'd kept on pushing her desire to go to the city. Laga didn't listen.

Poverty did not discouraged Laga to keep on learning. When there was rat infestation in her village, she decided to find a family, who could take her as a domestic helper and allow her to attend a night high. The governor's wife heard about it, so she took her as a house help.

And Laga stayed with the governor's family. She cleaned the house, cooked, did the dishes and laundry, literally an all-around domestic helper. She felt that she's reaping positive result from all her sacrifices. She wanted to show it to the villagers that she asked to have a summer break before her senior year. The shaman strengthened a rein on her... And the story of The Peace Corps Volunteer's Wife continued.

Novel: A Glimpse on Ch. 1

A bugyung (nautilus shell) ensemble suddenly reverberated in the pine-scented air of Malaybalay. Those bugyung blowers must have done their breathing exercise, because it was still 7 in the morning, yet they were able to hold this one-syllabic undulating bass sound for 55 seconds...

"Mom, the Kaamulan Festival parade is about to begin," Laga said as she squeezed the hands of her mother-in-law...

"Thank, goodness! As much as I enjoy sitting on this grass-roofed platform, while entertained with all the excited faces and screams up and down the streets, I worry of all the stares by everybody. Well, I know they're not going to harm me, but goodness, gracious, why do many hit or push each other after waving at us?" ...

The parade assembled in Sumpong, right on top of the hill by Bethel Baptist Hospital. The huge make-shift platform where dignitaries and special guests have been seated is diagonally constructed, where the old Rubio's store was before, slightly facing the hill...

The red-clad men with feathered head gears started coming down the hill with their bugyung held closed to their chest. Probably, after 100 paces, they stopped. Like an army bugle corps, they extended their arms out together in a cadence, before they brought their bugyung onto their lips. Another prolonged blow engulfed the crowd. As the bugyung sounds faded, the blowers strutted around like fighting cocks, synchronous to the music of tagungtung (bamboo slit drum) ensemble. The strut ended with a sudden burst of "hey!" as they hoisted their bugyung over their head just as the one-beat sound of agung from an agung (gong) ensemble was heard...

So unfortunate that the mother-in-law's anxiety escalated to panic after the first group of street dancers passed by... A masked men got on the stage, whisked Laga and Michael and forced them to ride on a black SUV... The governor's wife, who was sitting beside her calmly said, "Don't worry, Mrs. Webb, you will see them safe and sound in a little while."

"Yes, tell me that! Killings and kidnappings in Mindanao have been off and on in California's televisions and newspapers."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Webb," Mercy, the governor's daughter, said, "you will see Laga and Michael in half an hour."

"I only will stop worrying if you'd stop calling me Mrs. Webb!"

John and Mercy embraced Mrs. Webb as tight as before.

And the parade in chapter 1 goes on and so is the story of THE PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER'S WIFE: The Novel.



(Synopsis: The Peace Corps Volunteer's Wife is a story about the hurt caused by a polygamous relationship and the joy in interracial marriage. From a Philippine tribal village to the city of Pasadena, CA, Laga etched her way to overcome the harshest chapter of her life. Along the way, she not only helped others gain self-confidence, self-worth, and self-respect; she also supplied the missing pieces of the puzzle in Michael’s life.)

IT'S THE SUIT!

"It's the suit!" the phrase we constantly heard at the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome. Thirty-eight world records were crushed! Less known Olympic swimmers, who were wearing the new polyurethane suits, were taking the glory away from Beijing Olympic medalists. Certainly, those polyurethane-suited world champions were ecstatic; however, the phrase, "It's the suit!", is surely giving them a bitter taste.

As I listened to the American commentators, I learned that this new swim suit gives the swimmer more buoyancy. It helps them move faster in the water just like a sea glider.

The suit was an issue again just before the most awaited 100-meter butterfly took place this Saturday. The California-trained Milorad Cavic of Serbia, who earned the silver medal in Beijing and very vocal that he should have been the gold medalist for he out-touched Michael Phelps at the finish, wore the new suit. Michael Phelps decided to wear similar suit, the LZR Racer suit, he wore in Beijing. Did this self-proclaimed 100-meter Serbian swimmer finally convinced the world that he really was the winner in Beijing? He had an advantage. Unfortunately, he did not. He still ended up behind Michael. Finally, Cavic accepted his fate by saying, "He(Michael) is the man!"

Certainly, advance technology helps people get ahead of others; however, the way how one nurtures a God-given talent to the fullest must never be looked down.