"I'm very happy to share the cover study I've just approved for my new book coming out soon under the "Vibal Referencia" imprint, "Windows on Writing: A Practical Guide to Writing Across Genres." I haven't been this excited in a long time about a manuscript I've written, because I see this as a "legacy" project, a summing-up and passing on of many things I've learned over a fairly long lifetime of professional and creative writing.
When Vibal approached me many months ago for a possible project we could work on together, this instantly came to mind, although I hadn't written a word of it yet, aside from occasional notes I've made on the topic. It's a comprehensive manual on writing everything from the press release, news, feature stories, and speeches to poems, stories, plays, and novels, etc., all drawn from my own experience, using examples from my own work. It also includes notes on such writerly concerns as writing workshops and programs, doing interviews, editing and publishing, freelancing, coffee table books, and AI.
As I note in my Preface, "I’ve often described myself, only half in jest, as the Swiss Army Knife of writing, because there’s hardly a genre I haven’t tried over the past fifty years in an effort to sustain myself and my family the only way I know, through writing. While my more inspired colleagues can joyfully proclaim that they live to write, I write to live, and can take some pride in having survived and even, to some extent, prospered in that ambition. It hasn’t always been easy, of course, and I bear the inner scars of the many compromises, slip-ups, surrenders, and abandonments I’ve had to make along the way. The brief essays and sample pieces you see here may seem like polished gemstones (which of course they’re not), but they come to you dragged through and dredged from mud and river."
When I teach literature or creative writing, I never use my own stories for the class to study, feeling it would be unethical and that it would unduly influence my students to write their pieces in a certain way (I do discuss my approach to practical issues like plotting and characterization).
However, I’d been looking for a textbook for the Professional Writing (CW 198 Special Topics) class that I’ve been teaching in UP for over 20 years now, and finally realized that I had to write it myself. I think it will be very helpful to young and aspiring writers in the Philippine context.
About the cover: I specifically asked Vibal to do a very simple cover, without the usual elements you'd expect in a book on writing--pen, typewriter, keyboard, etc.--nothing too literal. Indulging in a bit of megalomania (haha), I wanted a cover that would be easy to remember across editions, like the classic "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White, whose layout and typography have hardly changed over the decades. So this red book will hopefully become familiar and easy to find in bookstores and libraries. Do I sound excited? Haha. Can't wait to see it out there. Many thanks to Vibal Foundation for their support!"
