How do you encourage a person to write? For this answer, I go back to my experience in college.
Granted, I only wrote then in exchange for something: a grade. So we embraced essays and 555 quizzes with gusto because of this ( and because I was generally weak in all other types of tests, like multiple choice and other stuff that required memorization).
As for writing stories, when did I start? I started with my Creative Writing class with Sir Don. I could remember how it felt like finishing that first story. After completing the last sentence, there was that euphoric sense of relief, of having saved the entire midterm period because of that one single story.
Looking back, that story wasn't much to look at. Among other things, its brevity was the most eye-catching. At two pages only (double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12), some would say it was "underdeveloped" but for the first-time writer Paolo Ray E. Bataller, it took me an eternity to write those two pages.
Yet the best thing about it was that exercise did get me to write longer and longer stuff. Sure, I'm a long way to writing a full-length novel but that early spark of success has sustained me over the years. Even if I'm no longer writing for a grade, I'm still here, writing about a little of everything else.
That's why the one-page story can be a legitimate, even necessary, genre in pop literature.
Moreover, I think it has been done before. In Reader's Digest, there was an article about a guy who, armed with a typewriter, went about typing one page stories to passers-by. He had a lot of fun and I guess the same exercise can also benefit those writers who do not possess yet the time nor the discipline to create lengthy works.
Any creative writing class then could start with writing one page stories first. In fact, I can imagine round table class discussions, where each student reads his one page work to the group, a scenario which is similar to screenwriters throwing brief pitches to would-be producers.
Maybe, in the future, other than a book or an anthology of the best short stories, we can also have another collection, this time, of the best one page stories to date. Or better yet, a one page story writing contest may become a legitimate school event. Who knows, right?
Granted, I only wrote then in exchange for something: a grade. So we embraced essays and 555 quizzes with gusto because of this ( and because I was generally weak in all other types of tests, like multiple choice and other stuff that required memorization).
As for writing stories, when did I start? I started with my Creative Writing class with Sir Don. I could remember how it felt like finishing that first story. After completing the last sentence, there was that euphoric sense of relief, of having saved the entire midterm period because of that one single story.
Looking back, that story wasn't much to look at. Among other things, its brevity was the most eye-catching. At two pages only (double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12), some would say it was "underdeveloped" but for the first-time writer Paolo Ray E. Bataller, it took me an eternity to write those two pages.
Yet the best thing about it was that exercise did get me to write longer and longer stuff. Sure, I'm a long way to writing a full-length novel but that early spark of success has sustained me over the years. Even if I'm no longer writing for a grade, I'm still here, writing about a little of everything else.
That's why the one-page story can be a legitimate, even necessary, genre in pop literature.
Moreover, I think it has been done before. In Reader's Digest, there was an article about a guy who, armed with a typewriter, went about typing one page stories to passers-by. He had a lot of fun and I guess the same exercise can also benefit those writers who do not possess yet the time nor the discipline to create lengthy works.
Any creative writing class then could start with writing one page stories first. In fact, I can imagine round table class discussions, where each student reads his one page work to the group, a scenario which is similar to screenwriters throwing brief pitches to would-be producers.
Maybe, in the future, other than a book or an anthology of the best short stories, we can also have another collection, this time, of the best one page stories to date. Or better yet, a one page story writing contest may become a legitimate school event. Who knows, right?
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