Best and Worst of 2012

Looking Back on 2012

As the year comes to a close and newspapers, music charts and movie reviewers, to name a few, start putting up their lists of bests and worsts of the past twelve months and honouring their industries chart-toppers, I've decided to take a look at my own best and worst of the year moments. I don't know if I'll manage ten (or twelve, one for each month) but there are some moments that do stand out. And, in many ways, as I'm writing this post, I'm thinking off the top of my head so the list I come with here might change if I made a new list next week, a month from now, or even tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, the items in each list are not written in any particular order. They also might not have been things I did or experienced firsthand but things that made me feel strongly about something or someone or some place in a significant way. Lastly, those items that appear in both lists...well, I'm probably happy for them that they happened but their impact or how they made me feel might not have been exactly what I would have hoped for.

So here goes - my best and worst of 2012.

The Best of 2012:

1. Publishing my debut novel, Back Kicks And Broken Promises.
2. Repeating as New Jersey State Poomsae (Forms) Champion in the 1st Masters Black Belt Division.
3. My Manila Bulletin newspaper interview about my book and my life as a writer.
4. The feature about me and my book in The Filipino Reporter.
5. Hyphen Magazine - the review of Back Kicks And Broken Promises and being interviewed for a feature on self-published Asian-American authors.
6. Meeting Marie Lu, the author of Legend.
7. The removal of my father-in-law's cancerous kidney and his subsequent recovery.
8. President Obama's re-election as president of the United States.
9. Completing the first draft of my second novel, Sage of Heaven: Lineage.
10. Having the best season (final record of 12-10, second round of the country tournament, qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 2003) my high school volleyball team since I joined the coaching staff in 2003.

The Worst of 2012:

1. The Hyphen Magazine review of my book.
2. Hurricane Sandy.
3. The end of classes at my martial arts club, Bamboo Martial Arts.
4. The scare that it was my father-in-law's time to go.
5. My son's first stitches, on his forehead, just above his eye.
6. Not being able to attend the US National Championships after qualifying to compete.
7. Injuries to my back, hips and left calf and hamstring, brought on from training for the NY City Marathon, that sidelined me.
8. Robin Van Persie's betrayal and subsequent departure from Arsenal Football Club to join rivals Manchester United.
9. The rising cost of things.
10. Decreased fitness and weight gain due to number 7 and number 5, above, of the weight I'd lost in 2011, while training for Nationals.

So, there they are. Like I said, tomorrow, next week, next month, I might have entirely different items on those lists. And, some of them may seem trivial, at best. But, like I also said, they're what I came up with on the spot. Either way, I'm glad for the things on the best list and less than so of the things on the worst list.

What's on your lists?

Good Advice - Write Bad Stuff

I don't consider myself to be a new writer. I am a newly published author but not a new writer. I do, however, regard myself as a writer who can still work on his craft and still has much to explore in finding his own style and voice.

As I've developed so far as a novelist, I have repeatedly been reminded - either directly by a writing group or mentor or indirectly through a conversation with someone else or by reading an article - of the most common pieces of advice: "show, don't tell," "character IS action," "everything must move the story forward," "your protagonist must have a need" and "your first draft is going to be junk and don't worry about that because you're going to edit anyway." All of this is good advice and stuff that I passed on in a recent interview I did for The Manila Bulletin (The Philippines' largest daily newspaper) and its Student and Campuses section.

One piece of advice that I heard recently, from Marie Lu, the author of Legend, at a reading and signing in New York takes the 'first draft as junk wisdom' one step further. Not only did she allude to a novel's first draft as being something that will need editing and revision, she also said that new writers should not be afraid to write bad stuff. What she meant - and the other authors in the panel (Beth Revis, Jessica Spotswood and Andrea Cremer) agreed - was for the new writer to write short stories, novellas and even novels that aren't necessarily intended for submission but for the development of the writer and his or her craft. Simply, those pieces of work become practice; the training ground that transforms the person fron writing neophyte to author.

It's like running a marathon in The Olympics. You don't just get to The Olympics. You have to train and run shorter races - 5ks and 10ks and half marathons - and even other marathons before running for your country. On race day, the marathon you've run after all that preparation is the best marathon it can be. So, it's just like writing a novel. The finished novel is the best version of that novel it can be. The author's next novel is akin to the runner's next race. With every race under his shoes, the subsequent race is tackled with more experience and, yet, because of a different venue, the changes in weather, the runner's own altered mindset and whatever other bits of wisdom the runner has gained, the new race is a better one but it is still something completely unique experience.

So, new writers, fear not. You have something to say and we, the reading world, want to read it. Just don't rush to get it out. Take your time to make it right and, in doing so, it's okay to get it wrong.