More about Your Facilitator of Fun

 Who am I? 

I am a creator.

When I was a kid, I thought that the popular Cops and Robbers Game was such a bore. Surely there was something more fun that just sitting in a circle while a “killer” slaughters “villagers” through death winks? 

So I made my own interactive version where three groups of “cops”, “robbers”, and “children” chased each other; faked their identities; and engaged in an intense trade of fire tree flowers, sticks, and golden leaves.

My addiction to creating new things came in handy when I was studying Creative Writing in Ateneo de Manila. There I wrote a poem about my first pimple, another poem about a seductive apple, and a Mallarmé-inspired concrete poem about insanity.

For my fiction class, I wrote short stories about a dystopian society that went crazy for gory Barbie dolls, a chick lit short story (with a feminist twist in the end) about a woman CEO who had to embark on a mad hunt for a husband before her ovaries succumbed to cysts, and a short story about a kinky carnival that puts the concept of freedom into question.

With such written pieces, not only did I graduate Cum Laude, but I also received Ateneo’s Creative Writing Program Award. After college, I decided to become a lifestyle writer, and since then, I have been published in The Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and FemaleNetwork.com.

Now I work as an art reporter for a newspaper. I cover art exhibits, plays, cultural events, and more. I have the best job in the world, but I can’t kick the habit of creating, so I decided to build Freewriting Adventures—a rebel in the midst of classroom-bound writing workshops.

To write creatively, I believe that the learning process must be creative as well. That’s why I’m going to free you from the four corners of your classroom and unleash you into the world. Immersed in the grit of reality, we will write what we see, hear, and feel. Experience will be our ink; the everyday, our muse.

This is the process that I teach because I am an experiential writer. I have a knack for processing, analyzing, and verbalizing personal experience. I am also drawn to ordinary things, to the ugly and unappreciated, to kooky streets, to unglamorous lives.

Yey!

Who am I?

I am a leader.

But, more precisely, a cheerleader.

I want to cheer people on and lead them toward inspiration. As a self-confessed happiness junkie, I often influence others to inject themselves with positive thoughts. Thus, in our writing adventures, I will hand out encouraging comments more than harsh criticisms.

My leadership skills were cultivated at the Ateneo Debate Society(ADS), which, during my time, was the most awarded debate institution in Asia and was consistently ranked in the top ten best debate institutions in the world.

In ADS, I rose to the position of co-director of the Debate Education Program and co-director of the Department of Issues and Policy Analysis. I represented Ateneo in several national and international competitions (in Canada, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Bangladesh), and I gained several achievements including a win in an intervarsity championship, spots in two national semifinals and one national final, and an award for fourth best speaker in Asia.

Who am I? 

I am an educator.

But I hate school.

So I am an anti-school educator.

Don’t get me wrong, when I was studying, I was pretty much a geek who spent all her free time at the library. I loved knowledge, but I hated school. I felt that there was something wrong about the tyranny of the teacher who cracked the whip of grades and offenses. School teaches you to be a master at mimicking. You start regurgitating what your teacher knows and suddenly you’re brilliant.

Freewriting Adventures will not be this way. I have no power over you. I cannot threaten to give you an F if you don’t write a certain way. What I can do is present creative challenges, writing tips and tricks, and productivity hacks, which you are free to use or discard at your own pleasure.

Who am I?

I am your facilitator of fun. If you feel that you and I are kindred spirits, then I am the perfect person to guide you through some awesome and fun Freewriting Adventures!

Ja is the founder of Freewriting Adventures.Freewriting Adventures are writing sessions that happen in unexpected places. What we do is we visit these interesting areas and use them as inspiration for our writing exercises. It is open to young professionals and college students who want to try their hand at writing. The young at heart are also welcome to join.


For updates, subscribe to our blog http://freewritingadventures.blogspot.com. Follow us on Twitter @FreeWrtngAdvtrs and Facebook at freewritingadventures. 

To register for an adventure, e-mail your name and cellphone number to freewritingadventures@gmail.com. Certain adventures have no workshop fee. Slots are limited.


*Note: The opinions expressed in this blog do not represent the official views of the companies, organizations, or institutions that I am associated with. These opinions are solely my own.