RIP DILG Sec. Robredo (no joke)

Ok, so today is the death anniversary of P-Noy's dad, Benigno Aquino Jr, who was shot to death in 1981, 5 years before the dictator was ousted from the throne. 

But now, there was another death that shocked the whole Filipino population: the death of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary, Jesse Robredo.

Before that, however, Sec. Robledo had one last wish: to catch the awarding ceremony of his child. That led to his decision to fly using his private plane, Piper Seneca, last Saturday. However, because of several glitches, the plane crashed onto the shores of Masbate. Since then, the search and rescue operations began.

The Filipino communities had prayed for his survival, even through social networking sites, but to no avail. His body was recovered this morning at around 8:15 a.m., inside the fuselage of his destroyed private plane. He was then transfered into a body bag by the Coast Guard.

As of now, his remains were now laid to rest in his beloved hometown, in Naga City.

Yep, such a sad loss indeed. First, the man who sparked a flame to start the EDSA Revolution, and now, a government officer who was never greedy for power or fame and simply doing his job.

May your soul rest in peace, Sec. Robledo.... 

8 tips on writing (from Paulo Coelho's blog)

I just stumbled onto this post as I browsed my Facebook, and I thought it'll be good to spread the message.

Paulo Coelho, one of my favorite authors due to his works, has posted something originating from a blog owned by one of a Filipino blogger. It was composed of the author's 10 tips on writing, and the blogger had commented each one of them. But in Paulo's blog, only 8 of these were shown.

Here are the tips:

On Confidence: You cannot sell your next book by underrating your book that was just published. Be proud of what you have.

On Trust: Trust your reader, don’t try to describe things. Give a hint and they will fulfill this hint with their own imagination.

On Expertise: You cannot take something out of nothing. When you write a book, use your experience.

On Critics: Writers want to please their peers, they want to be recognized. Forget about this. Who cares? You should care to share your soul and not to please other writers.

On Notetaking: If you want to capture ideas, you are lost. You are going to be detached from emotions and forget to live your life. You will be an observer and not a human being living his or her life. Forget taking notes, what important remains what is not important goes away.

On Research: If you overload your book with a lot of research, you are going to be very boring to yourself and to your reader. Books are not there to show how intelligent you are. Books are there to show your soul.

On Writing: I write the book that wants to be written. Behind the first sentence is a thread that takes you to the last.

On Style: Don’t try to innovate storytelling, tell a good story and it is magical. I see people trying to work so much in style, finding different ways to tell the same thing. It’s like fashion. Style is the dress, but the dress does not dictate what is inside the dress.

Well, it's definitely something to live by, since I'm a writer myself. I'll keep those in mind.

I hope other writers will get uplifted by the tips too, so that they can become successful and happy as I am.