suffering from the delusion
May 10, 2008I am a Creative Writing student in the University of the Philippines Mindanao. That’s plain fact. Whenever someone asks me what course I’m taking in college, instead of answering Bachelor of Arts in English, I’ll simply say Creative Writing. I’ll tell you why.
People go loco whenever we mention our being English Majors. My classmates also has the same dilemma. People tend to be over critical to our english. Some people tend to be conscious with how they speak english when we’re around. They seem to be suffering to the delusion that we’re great experts of the language.
Though we tend to study the complex world of grammar and syntax, that’s not the craft we are really trying to master. We are being trained in the realm of Creative Writing. We may qualify in journalism, editorials, speeches and research work all in english, our forte mainly lies on literature, poems, prose, short stories and plays.
We are taught by great faculty of famous Philippine Writers (mind you) the craft of writing well. Like they always say, “Everyone can write but not everyone can write well”. And of course the common saying, “Few are called, fewer are chosen”.
But then again, people around me seem not to get the idea. Being the only Creative Writing Program in Mindanao, UP Min should be somewhat known for this. Teachers keep on pointing it out that we should tell to the whole world that we exist. Hope this post reaches you there in Moscow.
Anyway, since a guy needs money for him to eat and to buy pretty things for his girl, I’m now stuck to with this writing jobs. Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m quite proud to say that I’m going to be writing-slash-answering my Aunts’ assignments and lesson plans for their doctorate courses. Hah! And I get paid handsomely. It’s not regular though.
But really, though I can do technical writing and all I wish someone out there would actually pay me to write something that’s in line with my craft. That would be nice. Then again, I can’t afford to choose my employers now.
Okay, okay, got to go. I still have to research stuff for this lesson plan thingy.
Tags: aunts, BAE, career, CW, delusion, doctorate, english, job, journalism, lesson plan, literature, major, money, philippines, poems, prose, read, short stories, write, writer
May 12, 2008 at 2:38pm
Nice. Gusto ko rin mag-creative writing. kaya lang wala raw akong mapapala. sana magaling din akong magsulat. at mag-ingles.
May 13, 2008 at 11:24am
@chalkdust: what’s stopping you pala? mag-creative writing ka! sino nagsabi na wala kang mapapala. kung magaling ka naman magsulat e siguradong may mapapala ka sa kurso mo. kahit ang sagwa sagwa pa ng kurso mo pero epektibo ka naman dun e siguradong aangat at aasenso ka dun. okay ka naman sumulat, nakita ko blag mo. check mo isa ko pang blog: http://simplengpagong.wordpress.com . ^_^