When starting out a novel, write your first two pages, set them aside, and come back to them a day later to see if your lines sound right. If they don't--if they are stilted and the lines don't flow--it is because you are writing it in the wrong language. Switch to another language, such as Chinese, Bahasa, Hindi, or Tagalog.

If you INSIST on writing your novel in a preferred language, talk to yourself in a running monologue in that language while you are alone in your room. When you think your thoughts, think in that language. Only then should you resume writing your novel.

If you are a serious writer, and if you are truly nationalistic, it is your duty to ensure that your readership extends beyond the border of your own country.

When the heart looks back, it sees its love projected to all four corners of the earth, and unto the sky.

The heart seeks shelter when it rains.

When writing, have in your presence as many colors as possible. They serve as a visual palette. Some items that work are a jar of multicolored candy, a vase filled with crayons, or a bowl of glass pebbles.

What You Cannot See, You Can Feel

I've been knitting for more than 30 years now. While working on projects I noted that the yarn I used had a unique texture depending on what color it was. Pink yarn, for example, feels sticky to me, while red yarn feels rough and sandy. I asked my mother and my sisters if they noticed the same thing, but they said that they did not, or that they did not bother to, and so I kept quiet about it for some time.

In 2013, while I was teaching creative writing in my "Writing from The Heart" workshop at the Philippine National School for the Blind, I remembered my knitting and introduced a new exercise. I asked the participants to peel the paper covers off every crayon in their boxed sets. I then placed one crayon of the same color in their hands, a color at a time, and asked them to feel it while thinking of specific associations. I even allowed them to smell and lick each crayon.

At the end of the exercise I asked the class to raise the crayons that corresponded to my words--Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green, and so on. NINETY-FIVE PERCENT of the participants successfully completed the exercise. The teacher-monitor who was observing the workshop was shocked speechless.

Try this exercise with crayons and with yarn. It heightens your powers of observation.

The heart will thirst for the water of love and the wine of romance.

Never write or paint to compete, but to satisfy a personal need.

The voice of your heart must prevail, whether in your joy or in your sadness.

It is highly inadvisable to think in one language and write in another. The result will sound like a poor translation.

Always keep a set of architectural blocks--or toy building blocks--on your writing desk. Rearrange their configuration from time to time. They will help you think three-dimensionally rather than linearly.

This always helps me envision staging possibilities whenever I am writing plays.

Developing Unique Perspectives

Imagine yourself waking up early one morning and discovering that you are the only man/woman in the world. Write about a day in your life with this given and describe everything through this new frame of reference.

After a few days reread what you have written. What were the major changes in your perception?

Note that if there were no changes, you need to further explore your powers of observation in the service of your imagination.

When the absence of the sun causes sadness, call forth the sun within your heart.

During respites from writing, collect photos of interiors and exteriors that interest you. Don't just look at the photos--visualize yourself in them, exploring them as far as you can go beyond the confines of the camera lens.

Every writer should be capable of penetrating multiple worlds.

It is easy to tell, from looking at his works, whether a painter is near-sighted or far-sighted.

You should be able to do the same to writers from reading their works.

Write about summer in the rainy season; write about the rain in summer. You will find that your work will be more vivid than your having written about summer in summer and the rain in the rainy season.

This is because creative writing relies on memory recall and emotional recall.

It also underscores the difference between the creative writer and the journalist, who must frequently write in the here and now.

Go easy on adjectives--they are mere embellishments. An overdose of them pushes your writing into immaturity.

Explore your nouns and your verbs. Discover how they can be powerful without help from other words.

Careful proofreading is always an assurance of not being unnecessarily misunderstood.

Go with the master who teaches you not to hide behind your writing but to emerge from it, who teaches you not from books but from life, who makes you fear not others but yourself.

Writing is like a martial art. You must first be trained to control your body and your feelings, and only then can your true spirit become free.

Do not write dialogue and then expect your character to arise from it.

First work on your character. Know him or her well. Know how he or she is feeling. Authentically feel what he or she is feeling.

As soon as you authentically feel what your character is feeling, dialogue will be spouted forth naturally, copiously, and uncontrollably from that character's mouth, including his/her particular frames of reference, associations, vocabulary, idioms and idiosyncracies of speech, verbal nuances, expressions, and an amazing power of language that is totally unlike your own.

The sun tells no stories, unlike the garrulous moon.

Clara's Article in _The Straits Times_

Contrary to what others might believe, the heart is not moody. It is as constant as the sun.

Both the mind and the heart labor, but they earn different wages and expect different rewards.

The heart and the mind sing different repertoires. That is why you cannot live to a single melody.

The heart always knows what the mind does not.

I sleep nine to ten hours a night at least twice a week, and I do so WITHOUT medication. A friend asks me how I can do that at my age.

Despite all theories that mention melatonin and seratonin, in all of my creative writing workshops I list down sleep as one of the 21 DEFENSE MECHANISMS. It can be used by you--or any of your characters--either to punish or to reward (protect) the body.

Every serious writer must own a dollhouse that he or she can populate, in his or her mind, with characters.

Links to the July 2016 TheatreWorks Singapore Playwriting Workshop

https://writingandcommunity2016.wordpress.com/category/writing-from-the-heart/

https://writingandcommunity2016.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/its-a-wrap-writing-from-the-heart-playwriting-workshop-2016/

https://writingandcommunity2016.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/its-a-wrap-writing-from-the-heart-playwriting-workshop-2016/

Playwriting Workshop for TheatreWorks Singapore, Monday, July 18 - Saturday, July 23, 2016)

Monday, July 17

This boys' parents are Filipinos, his father from Ilocos Norte and his mother from the Visayas. He was born and raised in Florida. He visited the Philippines only twice, the first time when he was seven, the second only to attend a relative's funeral in Manila. He neither speaks nor understands Tagalog. He now lives in Singapore and teaches English and literature to South Korean students.

Tuesday, July 19

Wednesday, July 20

Thursday, July 21

Friday, July 22

Saturday, July 23

Members of the invited audience participate in the group discussion.

In the center is Ze-An, a high school intern who I hope was not shocked by my emotional truth exercises.

When I said, "Don't pose for my photos," Nanda said , "The most pretentious thing to do is to read the menu on the wall."

Final group shots taken by Ze-An.