From Reading to Writing

I never liked/loved reading before. When our English teacher asked us to read stories from Greek Mythology, I did complain regarding reading the whole thing. It bored me and kept me from doing other stuff. Good thing, this attitude did not precede until college.

I began to love reading when our instructor asked us to read a book series. I wasn’t forced to read. I kept on reading til I finished the five books in that series. Back then, young adult books were prominent that time because of its catchy and interesting title.

When I finished Statistical Probability of You and Me in three hours, I craved for more books and stories with genre like these. Thus, this made me read more books.

I crave to read more.

Writing was never part of my plan. It’s just that, while reading stories online and in print, I found myself scribbling my own stories, too. I started answering my own “what if” questions. Then, first chapter of my first book was conceived. Since then, I kept on answering impossibilities because I wanted to read something new.

My first story  was about a teen who fell in love with her church mate. Yes, this might sound corny and cheesy but I was sixteen back then! Haha. This was followed up with a sequel. (nakuha ko pang gumawa ng sequel) I persevered in writing stories even if I only had three to five readers.

I read. I write. I conquer.

My third story was about a college student who fell in love with her college professor. My cravings for reading a student-teacher story made me write this. I wanted to read such story, so I made my own story. This story reached a good number of reads on Wattpad. There came new readers and followers of my stories. There also came publishers who started releasing Wattpad stories as published books. This was the era when publishers picked stories which they liked. I was left alone, with my stories, unpublished. But still, I continued. I never gave up. I shared stories as much as I could.

I write what I want to read.

Through the love of reading, I was able to love writing new stories. Since reading exposed me to different worlds, I created my own world, too. This made me realize that there’s more to life than posting your ideas on Facebook, and Twitter. Collecting them and putting them in one formal word file could turn them into a published books (but not all the time, of course).

However, publishing is not always guaranteed. What can I guarantee you is the joy in writing and creating new stories, characters, and life. Through integrating lessons in your stories, you make people happy and inspired. You, somehow, affect their lives through the words in your books. Publishers may reject you but your readers won’t. Your stories and characters will never leave you. It’s always in your heart forever.

I never hesitated in submitting finished manuscripts to publishers. Lots of rejection letters arrived, but, it didn’t stop there. Lifebooks and St. Pauls sent an acceptance letters. I rejoiced for this only happens once, or maybe twice if I am lucky.

As of today, I currently have six books. My seventh is currently under editing. My eighth (if ever) maybe released next year. I am grateful for this blessing. Thanks, God. 🙂