What's In A Name?

A fictional character's name, like a real person's name, leaves an impression in people's mind. Names say a lot about someone, so name your characters (especially the protagonists) the way you'd name your children. 

Here are some things to consider when naming characters: Social Status/Background, Nationality/Ethnicity, Age, Personality.

1. Social Status / Background - 
Examples: 
         Elena - from class C family
         Bridgette - daughter of the town mayor 
         Jason - son of an engineer and a college professor

2. Nationality - 
Examples:
        Megumi - half-Japanese heroine
        Chin -  half-Chinese, hero's ex-girlfriend
        Fabio - one-fourth Mexican, hero's best friend 

* If you want to give a foreign name for a pure Filipino character, at least give a reason why he's named like that. Say, his mother named him after a celebrity. 

3. Age - 
Examples: 
       Yan-Yan -  6 years old, heroine's niece 
       Armando - 53 years old, hero's father
       Nissy - 15 years old, heroine's younger sister

4. Personality-

It is okay to give them funny names if that is really your intention. But if not, por favor, refrain from using ridiculously-spelled names. 'Fillif' doesn't sound intimidating, neither does 'Dyordann'. 'Meileen' and 'Rhowse' sound like crazy, immature women. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using the correct spelling of a name. 

    Tip: Use a book on baby names for the first names, and directories for last names.  

18 Common Mistakes Tagalog Romance Writers Make

1. Too many side characters. It confuses readers.
2. Unique but weird names of characters. 
3. Biography-ish story (focused only on one character's life). 
4. Unique but ludicrous, contrived or unrealistic plot.
5. Overused plot without new twists. Scenes are cliche.  
6. An unhappy ending.
7. Conflict is all 'internal' (e.g. heroine is afraid to fall in love and that's only the problem in the story). 
8. Juvenile characters. 
9. Inaccurate research.
10. Writing down a lot of details, bombarding readers with too much information that has no direct relevance to the story.
11. Giving out too little information about characters that readers find it hard to relate to them. 
12. Loooong narratives, making the story dragging to read.
13. Using two or more POVs (point of view) in one scene. It's confusing because Tagalog does not have gender for pronouns. 
14. No justification for some of characters' actions. 
15. Adding unrealistic dialogues.
16. Adding scenes that will not push the story forward. 
17. Not enough scenes to SHOW how and why the characters fell in love with each other.
18. No self-editing, resulting to too many grammatical/spelling errors* and unresolved loopholes. 

*Note: I might write another blog entry about the common grammatical/spelling mistakes writers make later. :)

Starting A Manuscript

There are hundreds of ways to start a novel, but here are some tips from the experts as compiled by Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters )

• "Take out another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write..." – NATALIE GOLDBERG
• “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.” - MARK TWAIN
• “I never started from ideas but always from character.” - IVAN TURGENEV
• “It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.” – WILLIAM FAULKNER
• “The secret is to start a story near the ending.” - CHRIS OFFUT
• "Start as close to the end as possible." - VONNEGUT
•  “In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.” - ROSE TREMAIN
• “Bring all your intelligence to bear on your beginning.” - ELIZABETH BOWEN
•  “Lie. Put down on paper the most interesting lies you can imagine...and then make them plausible.” - CHRIS BOHJALIAN 
•  "Every writer has his or her own method..." – JUDY BLUME

15 Things I Learned As A Writer

1. What looks easy isn't really easy.
   
2. Find your muse and befriend him/her/it.
3. Imagination is the key to success.  
4. The name of a character can leave indelible impressions on the readers. 
5. Longer doesn't mean better.
6. More English (both in narratives or dialogues) is not equal to better story.
7. Simple sentences = easy reading.
8. Redundancy and inconsistency are two things that I should not allow.
9. Verbs, adjectives and adverbs are my most powerful tools.
10. Webster should be my best friend.
11. Sometimes, the difference between a noun and a verb is a space e.g. workout (noun) and work out (verb).
12. Longer, detailed love scene does not mean sexier.  
13. My laptop is my most treasured, yet most abused possession.
    
14. When in doubt, Google!
15. If still in doubt, press DEL.

"I am sure that some are BORN TO WRITE as trees are born to bear leaves: for these, writing is a NECESSARY mode of their own development. If the impulse to write survives the hope of success, then one is among these. If not, then the impulse was at best only pardonable vanity, and it will certainly disappear when hope is withdrawn."

 - C.S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves

Hello, World!

Months after my book 'How To Write A Tagalog Romance Novel'  was published (under Easy Companion), I realized 65 pages aren't enough to explain everything about this wonderful craft. There's still a lot of things I wish to discuss with my fellow romance novelists. Thus, this blog. :-)

Let's learn together!

Note: This book is still available on all National Bookstore, Expression, Pandayan branches. Check it out at the Reference Section ;-) #shamelessplugging