Getting Back (Seriously) Into Fiction

I just self-published a short story (in Filipino) titled “Ang Sanlibong Mga Sikulo Ni Mikha Salcedo” (lit: “The Thousand Cycles of Mikha Salcedo”) here on my website. It’s a story conceptualized on the nearly three hour travel between Las Piñas (where my wife’s family lives) and Marilao (where my family lives), and written almost entirely in one sitting the following day. The editing process took much longer, a big chunk of it thanks to the frantic pace at which I had written the thing in the first place.

The writing process for this story took me by surprise, in part because I’ve not felt that much stamina and momentum when it comes to writing fiction in quite a long time. If I’m remembering correctly, the last time I ever sat down to draft a story in a single session was when I came up with “A Firsthand Account Of The End Of The World,” which would later receive the Amelia-Lapeña Bonifacio Literary Prize from my university’s creative writing institute and later published in the Brasilia Review. It’s an ability that I thought I’d lost, now with life being filled to the brim with a lot more concerns than in the carefree days of my college career.

It’s also ironic that I do this now, while on a short break and vacationing with family in the Philippines. Past experiences tell me I’m generally unproductive on such days. Rather, unproductivity is rather the point, as my days are filled up by whirlwind meetings to catch up with family and friends. In the slow hours, however, lounging on the sofa with my siblings who are all growing up and growing old too fast, with the TV playing new music releases by some of today’s finest local artists (the story shows unmistakeable influences from Maki’s “Sikulo” and “Saan”, and especially Bini’s “Huwag Muna Tayong Umuwi” – Filipino pop music has gotten really, really good lately), an idea started to take hold in my mind. And when left to sit down stupidly in the hour-long commutes along Metro Manila’s roads to the expressways beyond it, the idea turns into an itch, and later an urge, as the story begins to write itself.

So, back to “Mikha Salcedo,” the story is a multiverse caper in the style of
Everything Everywhere All At Once (and, according to my wife, Lovely Runner, but I haven’t seen it myself) except I’ve replaced the family and generational trauma with that of a singular man who has lost his wife. By chance he gets access to a watch that allows him to jump to random points in time anywhere in the multiverse, and he uses it in search of a perfect timeline, one where he never becomes separated from his love. The story doesn’t run for very long (it’s about a 19 minute read, if WordPress is to be believed), and this because the story is aware it’s not a very novel idea. It sticks around for just as long as it needs to, and then ends.

While I hate to toot my own horn, I have to say the story, while not exactly being my most original, does carry some fine writing. Most importantly, being able to write it with such a momentum has inspired me to get back seriously into fiction again. Somehow, in the midst of my graduate studies, and working 5-to-9s alongside my 9-to-5s, I had all but set it aside. “Mikha Salcedo” was the proof I needed to show myself that I can still write, that I still do have stories, and by God I better write them. Maybe get back to the completed but neglected first draft of my Japan novel. Maybe get a short story collection out featuring some of my better creations in the last ten years of writing and publishing (the years tend to add up quick, huh).

Finally, for those (if there are any of you) now about to click over to the story after this abortive introduction, I have just one final note to give: the story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to places, events, or people (dead, alive, or famous red-haired pop stars), are all purely coincidental. Having said that, if you’re able to read Filipino, then by all means I invite you to check out the story here.