You Too Can Write a Story

This morning while I was mulling on how to write a hub, I noticed a pencil with an inscription: "Could you write a story about you?"

Could I write a story about me? Everyone can write an article as long as you have the interest and drive to write.

I don't have a journalism background; but I love to write. I gained experience in writing in High School. I was part of the Editorial Staff of our School Newsletter. Our English teacher was our Editor-in-Chief. Once she assigned me to cover an important school event. I asked her for tips. She advised me to trust my creativity and love for writing. She knew that I could pull it off and I did. I continued writing after college. I became part of the Company Newsletter Editorial Staff at San Miguel Corporation where I worked. I became a columnist and as a writer covering important Company events. That was a very memorable experience for me as a writer.

I was told that if you want to write, you have to draw inspiration from your own life. So that's what I did - digging up into my psyche and taking bits and pieces of my life experiences. No matter how drab and how uneventful our life seems to be, there should be some bits of spices in it. How else could we be able to go through life?

One of the few times that writing gave me a sense of success was at my Dutch classes. I was taking a Dutch course for adults for a year and one of our final requirements was to write an essay entirely in Dutch. I wrote an essay about my family while growing up. It was about us children accompanying and cheering for our father while he coached and played for his company softball team in various sports events. The grade A that I got for the essay, the fact that I did it entirely in a foreign language and the fact that my teacher was very enthusiastic about my work and let me read it in front of the class, made my day complete.

My best friend once told me that my life story, especially my love life, is like a plot of a film. But is this enough to inspire me to write a novel about me? At the moment I'm contented in writing stories based on bits and pieces of my life experiences.

Famous authors have this one surprising common tip for writing : read, read, read. Nobel-prize winning novelist William Faulkner said: "Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."

Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson once said: "I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in."

In other words, read to be inspired to write. Draw out ideas about writing styles and themes. And the more you read, the more you enrich your vocabulary and improve your grammar. In High School, my favorite author was Edgar Allan Poe. I just love his poems. I enjoy reading Mindy Kaling's books. She is so funny in her tv show The Mindy Project. Her books, the latest of which is "Why Not Me", are so hilarious. If I were to write about me, it would surely be a funny one too. Although writing a funny story would be more of a challenge than writing a serious one. During my stint as a columnist in our Company Newsletter, I tried hard to be funny just to spark interest. Once, I used the phrase "good old" in my column about a colleague and since that day he kept bugging me with "Couldn't you think of anything else but good old ? what am I, a hundred years old to you?" I learned to be careful about my choice of words.

I envy those who write and earn money from it. I read about famous authors who began from scratches. Who hasn't heard about the "rags to riches" life story of J.K. Rowling, the author of the world-renowned and box office hit Harry Potter series? I read about advices for success from famous persons in history. Michael Jordan: "I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” Vincent Van Gogh: “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." Tim Notke: “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” Oprah Winfrey: "Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” William Edward Hickson: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again."

In other words, perseverance is the key. Well, as long as I enjoy writing, I will keep on writing. And I hope you do too.