HOW does one develop the discipline to be a creative writer in the age of social media and fake news? For award-winning fictionist Joe Bert Lazarte, it has to do with choosing reading over wasting time on social media.
If you ask Lazarte — who won first prize for his English short story “Describe the Rapture” and second for his English one-act play “Senator Pancho Aunor’s Blue Balls of Despair and Disillusionment” at the 68th Palanca Awards — his advice to aspiring writers today, it’s to own an e-reader that can hold multiple titles and allows one to read anytime, anywhere. That, and writing daily.
A senior creative communications manager for an integrated resort, Lazarte mostly wrote his winning pieces during free weekends. He cites best-selling author Stephen King as his ultimate peg, writing 1,000 to 1,500 words a day, even without inspiration. Even if it’s “crap,” as he puts it, he keeps it in a page and edits or revises from there.
“It’s a commitment. There are times when I have some space in the office, so I get to put in 500 words a day. I feel empty when I’m not doing literary work. If it’s all work, I feel like I’m neglecting something important,” Lazarte said.
While he gets story ideas from everywhere, Lazarte said he always makes it a point to write with the country in mind.
“For the Palanca, I try to have something that would resonate with the national psyche. It has to be of national significance. For example, a revolution is not purely [a] revolution. There’s a love story there somewhere,” Lazarte said.
His winning story shows this: “Describe the Rapture” is about a freelance copywriter tasked to write the brochure copy for the infamous Torre de Manila building. Lazarte said he found inspiration for this story from a lot of things. Having been a freelance writer for 12 years, all the moods he had experienced writing at home ─ alone ─ all figured in the story.
“It started as a draft in 2005 and it evolved over the years. I was looking for something to complete it, then I saw The Shape of Water. One of the [supporting] characters is a freelance artist who always got his work rejected. I liked the character. He was alone in the world and his only friend was his female neighbor. To make it more significant, I looked for a national issue and decided on Torre de Manila,” Lazarte said.
Lazarte started joining the Palanca Awards five years ago. Despite not winning in his first three tries, he didn’t stop. Last year, he won third prize for his English short story “Don’t Blink.” “Senator Pancho Aunor’s” was the first one-act play he wrote, and he said it felt “awesome” when it got the judges’ nod. He revealed that he plans to keep writing and joining the competition until he gets about a hundred prizes.
For more information about the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and the complete list of this year’s winners, visit www.palancaawards.com.ph.
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