New Writing Adventures

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A comment at my Manila Mom blog triggered this post. An online friend, MrsPartyGirl, said in jest: "so you're into soap-writing now, hmmm, just what our country needs... more drama! hehehe! jk! :D good luck :D"

True, this has been the reaction of many. I must confess that even I had been turning away from local free TV for a time. But whether we like it or not, for as long as ratings support them, telenovelas or soaps are here to stay. And, as always, I just couldn't keep away from this very popular medium. Just as I did with my Filipino romance novels, I see them as another beautiful opportunity to reach the widest possible audience with, hopefully, quality entertainment laced with useful forward-thinking ideas.

In the soap-writing workshop I am currently in, with no less than Ricky Lee mentoring us, I am finding out that writing telenovelas is much more challenging than writing romance novels or even films. I hope I can learn enough from Ricky Lee - one of the writers I most admire not only for his writing but also for his courage and fervor to stay in the thick of the fight for quality popular media.

As I said in my talk last month before a class of Communication Arts students at La Salle, everything in pop media is ultimately controlled by economics. The books have to sell, the movies have to hit it big at the box office and TV shows need to rate. This is not necessarily a bad thing and the writer's fulfillment need not be at odds with the financiers' bottomline. After all, don't writers want their work and message to reach the widest audience possible, too?

It is the writer's job to give the people what they demand: entertainment to the max, with all the expected traditions for each medium or genre. It is also the writer's duty to ensure that this does not spiral downward into the same old cliches and formulas, or worse, into the same old ideas and paradigms that limit growth and social progress. A tough challenge, indeed, but one that needs to be met if we as writers are truly concerned with what our people are watching everyday.

Is it even doable? I don't know. I do know that there are excellent writers like Ricky Lee still fighting the good fight, and that whatever good there is in local TV is thanks to those like him. I am, therefore, willing to give it a try - try to give my best, that is, and see if it's good enough to pass muster and to be able to contribute something to their efforts. I'll never know unless I try.

So this is another new writing adventure. We'll see where it takes me.

Along the way, I'm still working on my speculative short stories and other short fiction. Hopefully, these babies will reach full term in the first quarter of 2008. It feels good to once again be pregnant with ideas and hope!!!