10 Signs That There Is A Dormant Writer In You

1. You have very rich imagination.
2. You see daydreaming as a productive activity.
3. You’re good at multi-tasking.
4. You have this since-time-immemorial love affair with books.
5. You’re good with words, you even ‘invented’ some.
6. You love using descriptive details when telling stories to your friends.
7. You correct spellings, tenses, grammar lapses on written articles and on other people’s speeches.
8. You enjoy researching and/or learning new things.
9. Your mind comes up with at least 3 plots when someone asked you, ‘if the world were to end tomorrow, what would you do today?’.
10. You look at Christmas parties, family reunions and get-together activities as opportunities to get new ideas from. 

10 Commandments For Desire Novelists

    I call these 'Love Scene Sins' ^{® :}

1. Thou shalt add many ‘tension’ scenes before the LS takes place.
2. Thou shalt not add a love scene just for the heck of it.
3. Thou shalt not use medical terms for body parts.
4. Thou shalt concentrate on the emotions and thoughts of the characters, and not on the mechanical descriptions of love making.
5. Thou shalt add more tender scenes like staring at each other's eyes, touching faces, kissing nose or temple.
6. Thou shalt use ‘tamer’ words in place of the intimate body parts.
7. Thou shalt use English narratives when describing parts of the scene that may sound offensive or vulgar in Tagalog.
8. Thou shalt not write a love scene concerning taboo topics like rape, incest, infidelity, voyeurism, sadism, exhibitionism, etc.
9. Thou shalt not write too many love scenes in one novel.
10. Thou shalt write only what you are comfortable to read. 

Lost in Translation

Spoiler Alert: By 2013, Bookware Publishing will start releasing Tagalized novels from different international publishers. In connection to this, I’d like to give a few pointers for those who are planning to give translating for MSV a try. :-)

• One of the main objectives of translation is for the reader to understand these novels better; to make them easier to read. So don’t use Tagalog terms that are too deep. Instead, use terms that Filipinos, in this day and age, are using. 
• Do not change the names of people, setting, events, currencies, units of measurement, and other things that reflect the life and culture of the characters in the novel.
• Do not add anything.
• Unless the publisher gave you a permission, do not crop or delete anything from the original novel. 
• Retain the tone of the novel. If the tone is serious, do not add words or phrases that will ‘sound’ otherwise.
• Translate it as it is, unless a sentence will be too mouthful to read or difficult to comprehend.
• Use simple sentences. Split sentences if needed. 
• Don’t translate idiomatic expressions literally. If there is a Tagalog counterpart for it, use that idiom instead. If there’s none, just give the meaning of the idiom in Tagalog. 
• If a certain word or phrase doesn’t have a direct equal in Filipino (or the equivalent term is outdated), retain its English form instead.
• English writers usually write longer and more detailed narratives. If you think it would be better (meaning, easier to read) to condense it, do so but with the permission of your editor.
• If you think your characters will sound odd saying the dialogue in its Tagalog form, then leave it alone.
• Don’t convert endearments if it would make the speaker (character) sound ‘baduy’, weak or lame.
• Do not split paragraphs; international publishers have their own rules regarding this.
• 'Tame' love scenes if you find it too graphic. Use the 'tamer' Tagalog equivalent words for body parts.  

Reminders: 

* Again, the goal is to make the manuscript EASIER to read. 

* Read your work to see if your Tagalog sentences make sense.
* DO NOT Google Translate. Please.
* The manuscript you’re working on belongs to someone else, and that someone has his/her own writing style. Respect it. Save your ideas for your own manuscript, and translate objectively.