I'm Now on Wattpad!

I've already been plagiarized a few times on Wattpad, so I was never really interested in joining it. However, the Wattpad craze soon started, and local publishers started publishing books that were first posted on the site.

I've come to see that as a great thing.

The Wattpad craze renewed the interest of Filipino readers in... Filipino writers. The books are flying off the shelves, and practically every publisher has started publishing their own so-called Wattpad imprint.

A lot of writers whose work I respect and admire have already joined Wattpad. As a very small fish in a gigantic pond, who am I to disagree, right? In fact, I've even created my own account, and started posting a story. My story isn't anything spectacular, to be honest, but writing it was fun.

Here's the summary:

As far as she could remember, alam ni Jessica kung ano’ng klase ng lalaki ang gusto niyang makasama habang buhay. Dapat ay maginoo ito, simple at, higit sa lahat, isang tapat na katipan tulad ng tatay niya. Nakita niya ang lahat ng qualities na hinahanap sa katauhan ni Jacob. Kumbinsido siya na ito na ang lalaking matagal na niyang hinihintay.

Pero bakit ang nakakalokong ngiti ni Dominic ang laging laman ng isip niya? Bakit ang mga halik nito ang nagpapalakas sa tibok ng puso niya? Soon enough, she found herself falling for him, pero may sikreto pala si Dominic na makakasira sa kanilang dalawa…

You can view my profile here and read my free story Me and Mr. Right Now here.

Welcome Back

Hi.

It’s been a while.

There’s a huge chance that you don’t remember me or never even knew I existed. Well, let me introduce myself. I’m Camryn Morrell, and I am a romance novelist (or, at least, used to be) for Bookware Publishing.

I wrote His Secondhand Heart (2010), Save Forever for Me (2010), Reel Love (2011), and The Accidental Bride (2011). It’s pretty obvious that I haven’t finished a book in almost three years.

When my first manuscript got accepted in 2009, I was a heartbroken eighteen-year-old who was pretty clueless about life. I graduated from college, got a job, the usual stuff. Now, I’m a twenty-three-year-old who hopefully knows a little more about life. I’d like to think that I finally have my priorities straight, and I want to give writing another shot.

My heart has always belonged to the written word. I love getting ideas while I’m simply making coffee or sitting through another mind-numbing meeting about statistics. I procrastinate a lot when it comes to putting the actual words on paper, but, once they start coming, I feel like I’m on top of the world.

So, I’m reviving this blog to chronicle this brand-new writing journey. This time, I hope to be more professional and sound less like a naïve kid high on caffeine. There will be a lot of navel-gazing about writing, updates about my life (not that anyone’s interested), helpful tips, and more.

Welcome to my little blog, and I hope you like your stay.

I'm Alive (The Millionth Edition)

Wow.

I haven't touched this blog in months. I am one lazy writer.

To be honest, though, I got so busy with school that writing became a secondary priority for a while. The good news is I graduate last April 2. I am officially a college graduate. Isn't that cool? :P

Here are some photos from my graduation:

I'm really excited to begin this new chapter of my life, entering the workforce and all that jazz.

Decisions, Decisions

It’s been almost a month since my last post. Suffice to say I’ve been super busy with school. I’m currently snacking on Pringles, and lazily breezing through Roald Dahl's short story collection entitled The Umbrella Man and Other Stories. I'm actually considering changing my thesis subject from magical realism in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude to Dahl's penchant for twist endings in his short stories.

Decisions, decisions.

However, I should be working on the first chapter or, at the very least, the outline of my fifth novel. I'm stuck, though. Just winging it and freewriting sounds like a good way to begin, but I'm very hesitant about the method. I don't want to end up with ten pages I'll never use.

Again, decisions, decisions.

Bleh. I should stop procrastinating and start writing.

How Meteor Garden Ruined My Life

Meteor Garden ruined my life.

When I was a high school freshman, I became addicted to the Taiwanese television series Meteor Garden. It’s about a poor girl named Shan Cai who goes to an exclusive school attended by scions and heirs from all over the country. She can only attend the school because her parents work their asses off to send her there, and she simply can’t wait to get the whole thing over with.

But then she stumbles upon F4, four of the richest and most good-looking boys in school. At first, she falls for Hua Ze Lei—the silent well-read one—but then Dao Ming Shi is the one who truly captures her heart. He’s brash, arrogant, and completely lovable.

Basically, MeteorGarden is like Cinderella with four Prince Charmings instead of one.

My twelve-year-old self ate it all up. I dreamed about finding someone who’d run after a goddamn bus just because I’m on it and he can’t live without me. Well, yeah, he can, but he doesn’t want to. I dreamed about finding someone who would jump in the way of a moving vehicle just because I don’t want to be with him anymore, who would fight for me despite his elitist mother’s threats.

The scene that cemented my love for Dao Ming Shi was the one where he begged Shan Cai to get back together with him after she made out with Hua Ze Lei, his best friend. Or when he asked her to stay when they were standing in the rain and her bags were all packed. Or the time he gave her a shooting star necklace. Jesus, that scene got me every time.

I was a stupid twelve-year-old, and I’m still stupid at nineteen. No one has ever measured up to Dao Ming Shi, and I doubt anyone ever will. He had his flaws, but they made him even more amazing. They made him seem real. And he beat people up for Shan Cai and he was played by Jerry Yan, damn it. No girl can resist that.

Now, seven years later, I still watch scenes from MeteorGarden on Youtube, and dream about finding someone even a little like Dao Ming Shi. I’m not holding my breath, but I can’t help it.

Six Months to Go

I'm currently working on my report for my Poetry class later. I need to report on W.H. Auden's Musee des Beaux Arts and T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Poetry and I have always had a bit of a love-hate relationship. I like reading it, but I can't write a decent poem to save my life. I'm actually looking forward to Fiction, Western Visayan Literature, and English Literature next semester, especially to Fiction.

I don't understand, though, why English Literature deserves to be a subject. Of course, there are a lot of English writers who made great contributions to the world of literature, but we had European Literature last year and we just glossed over all the other European writers. We studied James Joyce, Gunter Grass, etc, but Dumas never even came up in the discussion.

And what about South American Literature? Gabriel Garcia Marquez pioneered magical realism, and we never even discussed him. I think a subject that tackles literature from South America should really be included in our curriculum.

Well, whatever, I guess I'm just sourgraping because I'm graduating soon, and I feel like I still have a ton of writers to study.

At the Beginning

Hi. It’s been a long time.

I want to say that I’ve been busy with my writing, but I’d be lying if I did. I haven’t completed a manuscript in four months, and I’m panicking. This is not good. I should grab a microphone or something and scream mayday at the top of my lungs.

On the other hand, I’m learning how to write news articles, feature articles, and articles. Newswriting seems so easy when I read news articles, but it’s actually pretty goddamn hard.

Especially for fiction writers. See, in writing fiction, you start off by giving the reader tiny, unimportant details and reveal the really important stuff in the end.

Writing news is an entirely different ball game. You have to place all the important stuff at the beginning, and use as few words as possible.

So, yeah. I feel like I’m in writing kindergarten right about now.

What A Day

Originally, I thought today was going to be a majorly shitty day. So, to compensate, I took a picture of something beautiful (ignore the crappy quality). :)

But then…

Things looked up right after lunchtime. I received good news about something I was really nervous about. I celebrated by buying myself a Pepsi (I’m a miser, I know).

Things got even better after school. I went to Robinson’s and found this:

See, I’m a student by day and a tagalog romance novelist by night. The picture above features my first book on a shelf at National Bookstore. Sorry if it’s a little blurry. I had to take a photo before anybody noticed. LOL.

So, yeah.

Post-college

I’m about to embark on my last year of college, and it amazes me that, until now, I still don’t know what to do with my life.

When classes open again, I’m sure I’ll be surrounded by people who have goals and know how to achieve them. I, on the other hand, have no idea what to do with myself after graduation.

Maybe that’s why I’m so listless. I feel like a ship without a mast. I’m just sailing through life without ambitions or goals to drive me.

I’m sure of one thing, though. I want to write, but will that keep me alive in today’s economy?

Sometimes, I feel like I was born in the wrong country with the wrong skills and dreams.

Mamma Mia!

I haven't written anything new lately, and I'm still stuck on Manuscript #5.

On the bright side...

I can't get the songs from Mamma Mia out of my head! I saw the movie yesterday, and I'm absolutely in love with it.

My main thoughts:

• Pierce Brosnan will always be HOT.
• Colin Firth... *Sigh.*
• Meryl Streep is a goddess. I loved her in the Devil Wears Prada, but I never knew that she could sing.
• Lastly, kudos to Amanda Seyfried for being so adorable. I first saw her on Mean Girls a couple of years ago. She played a dumb blond, but, hey, look at Lindsay Lohan now. *Cough* Coke whore. *Cough.*

Sorry if my main thoughts are barely coherent. LOL. :)

And here's Meryl Streep's rendition of Mamma Mia:

I'm Alive! (Again...)

I've been really busy these past couple of days with summer school.

Now, that sounds like another excuse...

But I've really been busy taking in all that stuff about ionic bonds, electrons, protons, cations, and all that chem stuff I have no interest in whatsoever.

I'm still stuck at Manuscript #5. I hope to finish it after the craziness that happens to be summer school is over.

Cheers y'all.

I'm Alive

So, I haven't posted anything in a while. I want to say I was really busy, but that would be an excuse. I was just really lazy.

Here are a few updates:

• I celebrated my 19th birthday a couple of days ago.
• My fourth Tagalog romance novel was accepted. I'm still working on the fifth one.

That's basically all for now. :)

Helping With Words

In high school, my classmates used to call me the "walking dictionary." Every time they didn't know what a word meant, they asked me.

So, as a result, I've always been smug about my vocabulary. Well, that is until I stumbled on www.freerice.com.

The premise of the website is that they give you a word, and you have to pick the correct definition from three choices. Each time you get a right answer, a company or organization sponsors ten grains of rice through the World Food Programme.

Sounds simple, right?

Well, not exactly. The game completely annihilated me.

The first word you have to define is always easy, but they get harder with each level. Here are some of the insane words I encountered:

Appel - stomp.

Bahuvrihi - compound noun.

Balister - a crossbow.

Curtilage - enclosed area of land adjacent to a dwelling house.

Gadwall - a duck.

Pantofles - slippers.

Seel - to sew up the eyes.

Soave - white Italian wine.

Subvene - support monetarily.

Tsuris - an effort that is inconvenient or trouble.

I've been speaking English my whole life, but being faced with these words reminded me that I don't know everything about the language. It is always evolving, and, as writers, we must evolve with it.

Have you encountered these words? Will you ever use them in your writing?

The Magic of John Hughes

I've been watching a lot of John Hughes movies like Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, and The Breakfast Club lately. Sixteen Candles is next on the list.

I think John Hughes completely ruined teen movies for me.

Don't get me wrong. His movies are amazing. The characters resemble people I go to school with, and I can relate to their experiences. Also, the dialogue in his movies sound so real.

But maybe his movies are too amazing.

I used to think that 10 Things I Hate About You was completely brilliant, but it doesn't even compare to Pretty in Pink. Ditto for Get Over It. I saw that movie when I was about twelve or thirteen and I thought it was the best movie ever.

I've come to realize that the teen movies that have been coming out lately don't reach the standard that John Hughes' movies set. They're too clichéd, and the twists and added special effects don't make them any better. I mean, where's the witty dialogue and the geeky boy we could all fall for?

I Loathe You

I'm really, really tired at the moment.

I had two exams today--Ethics and Afro-Asian Literature--and I had to answer nearly twenty essay questions. My brain has literally been drained.

Anyway, I'm still revising Manuscript #4. I planned on submitting it to my publisher on the nineteenth, but I'm having doubts.

I completely hate it.

I don't know if it's the book itself or if the revision process is taking its toll on me. I want to delete every word. Better yet, I just want to delete the whole thing to make it go away. I don't know. Maybe I'll feel better about it or like it a little more in the next couple of days. At the moment, though, I just want it to disappear.

Manuscript #5 update:

3547 / 20000 words. 18% done!

MS #3

Yay!

I got news yesterday that my third manuscript, tentatively titled His Saving Grace, has been accepted for publication. :) Unfortunately, I had to restrain myself upon hearing the news because I was at school. I had a big smile on my face the whole day. I only told two friends, and they can't wait to read it. Thanks, guys.

Anyway, I have to keep this short since I have a European Literature exam tomorrow. I haven't even touched my notes yet. The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus will be included in our exam, and it's making my head hurt.