I never liked being punctured with needles all over, and I certainly don’t appreciate having to lay down all day to “rest”. Sometimes I feel my condition worsen just by staying in a hospital for too long.
However, I just spent this week being hospitalized.
This should explain why I was super late at posting the writing prompt results from last Saturday, and my lack of updates through any of my social media (Twitter, Instagram). And if you guys haven’t guessed it, this is also the reason why this week’s blog post is arbitrarily more raw and unpolished.
A lot of things had happened during the month I was away from my blog, but at the same time, I didn’t feel like anything major had happened at all. Sure, there was my friend, Felicia’s wedding a few weeks ago. But being one of her bridesmaids, the whole event drained me of almost all my energy—to the point where I got bedridden out of pure exhaustion.
But now that I’m officially over my month-long break, I was quite troubled by what kind of blog posts should I be writing. You know, last year was all about my upcoming books, writing tips, and some tidbits about my personal life. But I wanted this year to be different—I don’t want to just be doing the same thing over and over.
Hello everyone, and depending on when you’re reading this, Happy New Year!
Since this will be my last post for 2018, I thought that listing down my 2019 New Year’s resolution would be the perfect way to end the year for this blog of mine.
Keep in mind that unlike my usual posts, I won’t be talking about any specific item on this list, but I’m planning to make a response post at the end of 2019 to share with you how I fared throughout the year with my resolutions. I hope it’ll be a good year for me, and for you guys, too! Continue reading “2019 New Year’s Resolution”→
I’ve posted a teaser on my Instagram a few days ago, but I am currently working on a new project. And not just any project; I have been working on the premise of this story for quite some time now. So when I finally started working on the project, it feels super amazing.
I owe this excitement, mostly, to the fact that I’m writing in an unusual genre: mystery.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I used to be very experimental with my writings. I’ve written everything from fantasy to romance, and even obscure genres like bildungsroman. Exploring new genres used to feel so fun, and I was addicted to experiencing it.
I don’t know what happened exactly, but I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t been as adventurous as of late. My writings from the past 5 years had always had a similar vein to them: angsty, dramatic, remorseful stories with a bleak atmosphere on them. This isn’t a bad thing, of course, just less exciting.Continue reading “Working on a New Project + My Writing Setup (Late 2018)”→
It felt like it hasn’t been that long since I released a new book. And quite understandably so, too, since I just released Unspoken Words back in January. Yet here I am, writing a blog post about how my third book came into existence. It feels almost surreal, because just one year ago, I would’ve never dreamed of producing two new books in such a short time.
Have you ever fallen in love so hard, you couldn’t help but see everything through a rose-tinted glass?
Even as I am writing this post right now, I find it hard to pour everything on the pages, because just like with 3 (Tiga) and Unspoken Words, Maybe Everything is also a very personal project for me—one that I never intended to publish when I was still in the process of writing it. Continue reading “Of How Maybe Everything Came Into Existence”→
I wrote the majority of Maybe Everything when I was heartbroken. So quite naturally, the songs featured in this writing playlist are the songs I used to listen to during the moments when I couldn’t stop thinking about my romantic interest. Even now, I still recall the evenings I spent during my commute just listening to the songs and staring out the window—wishing fervently for the pain to end. Continue reading “My Writing Playlist: Maybe Everything”→
The good thing about growing up, I think, is that we become more and more accustomed to failure than we were during our pubescent or childhood. Just hours ago, for example. I was in a small room with 4 others; 2 of whom could literally decide the fate of my professional career.
Yes, I was in a meeting. It’s a very laughable situation where I had to present a proposal I’ve been meticulously preparing for weeks to a member of the board, only to have this person point out every single mistake I’ve made, even denoting that “I haven’t done a thing worth mentioning” in regards to the proposal.
The meeting itself was cut short, as you might have predicted. The end result? A humiliating rejection from the board member, and some dissatisfying remarks I will probably carry with me for the rest of my professional career. This includes unpleasant vocabularies such as “worthless”, “mistaken”, “unneeded”, etc.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel disappointed. As a matter of fact, I knew I could get a much better outcome than just a plain rejection. I knew for sure that I’ve already prepared all I could, and even rehearsed the presentation because that’s just how paranoid I can be.
But still, this thing called “failure” stalks from outside the window; bidding its time until it finds an opening to creep in. And despite your best efforts to prevent it from happening, it always catches you off-guard. Continue reading “Growing Up with “Failures””→
There’s just something about marriage that excites people. The other day, when Felicia—my friend of 8 years and counting—announced her marriage, I couldn’t be happier. I genuinely wanted to congratulate her from the bottom of my heart, because I was truly happy for her.
But at the same time, there is this lingering, quaint loneliness in the corner of my heart, whispering the advent of a certain end. Continue reading “Bon Voyage”→
The idea that a writer ought to write in a coffee shop of some kind has been quite prevalent in this modern society, don’t you think? Whenever we picture an author in our mind, for example, the very idea of them typing away in the nook of one dusty cafe might show up in our mind unassumingly.
I, for one, am an example of those stereotypical writer. Although I might add that I don’t think writing in coffee shops is particularly cool or on trend, I want to emphasize that most writers, based on my experience, do like writing in coffee shops the best. Discounting the most comfortable writing space which is our own bedrooms, of course. But I digress.
And it doesn’t even end at coffee shops. Us writers write almost everywhere. I’ve watched a Youtube video of a group of writers who spent their vacation writing in an old castle. How amazing is that? Often times, the “writing spot” doesn’t even have to be grand or obvious like coffee shops and vintage castles. More often than not, you can find these lovely places in your neighborhood! Continue reading “My Favorite Writing Spots”→
I have always been fascinated by the idea of being a valedictorian. You know; standing in front of people, delivering a speech that will hopefully change the world—or simply waste a few minutes of people’s lives.
The very foundation of using your own words and voice to instill a drop of water in the bucket we call “our generation” is a peculiarly foreign thing to me, and thus, fascinating.
Unfortunately, even though I believe I have the passion to deliver these words, I did not have the qualifications to do so in my graduation ceremony. That day, I sat in the middle row of the great hall with shame and listened halfheartedly to the valedictorian’s speech.
I must say, the speech itself felt so fabricated with all those subliminal advertisements of our university it even made me sick. But the person who spoke in front of us seemed like your typical good kid. I even wondered seriously whether this person we call the valedictorian actually enjoyed his campus life.
Judging that he had less fun experience during university just because he was smarter than everyone else was, of course, not a fair thing to do. But as I sat there and pondered about all these explosive train of thoughts, I began to truly wonder whether this person, this valedictorian, at the very least, really wanted to deliver the speech. Continue reading “For Adventurers Clad in Long Robes”→
Alicia Lidwina 