Donate here: Paypal or here. 🧡🌸
#MahusayStories #Blog
Jane Austen & Writing
Watching Jane Austen’s documentary is heartbreaking mostly because it is something I can relate to.
Jane Austen is probably one of the most brilliant writer I have ever read, for in Elizabeth Bennet and Emma I had learned that it’s possible for a woman to be witty, strong and capable. However, she actually led such a heart-breaking life: a life of frugality, of uncertainty, of modest means. Even when she managed to get her novels published, she didn’t reap the fruit of her own labors and instead had given it up to businessmen. Often, I almost cried as her plight is all too familiar and even all too real.
When I told my parents I wanted to be a writer, a creative writer, my family never really understood what that means. It will not help me earn money, they argued. What job would I get, they worried. Truth be told, they don’t even read what I’ve written.
But their disinterest is not mean nor intentional. My parents were poor. I am poor. We never have the luxury to chase such a nebulous job option. They’re just never conditioned to think that writing novels could actually be profitable. For the most part, it’s not profitable here in the Philippines.
And yet, I continue to write. It was the same zest and desperation that Jane Austen must have felt. She wrote and wrote, even when external validation is hard to come by. She wrote and wrote because in her writings, she had found the freedom and independence to chart the course of her own life. She wrote to free herself from the limitations of her reality.
I do, too. In a world filled with people that want us to needlessly genuflect, I write to rebel. In a world filled with circumstances that keep us bound, I write to soar and to untether myself.
Nowadays, I’m still not making much money directly from my writings. But I have monetized them, yes, in ingenious and innovative ways. And they have given me much accomplishment, an internal feeling of calmness, of peace, of pride.
Before, when I was a kid, when people asked me what I want to be when I grow up, I always answered that I want to be a lawyer. But nowadays, 11 days before I turn 31, this is how I would answer it, “I want to be a National Artist for Literature.”
And just like Jane, I will leave my writings behind, tucked within a small corner of the internet, probably largely ignored, until they find their readers. And they had the luxury of forever to find their readers.
Writer Diary// May 31, 2020
Like what you read? You can support & donate through Paypal or here. 🧡🌸
It was such an overwhelming as well as emotional moment were we could see their ups and downs through the frame of our heart. Each of their names where engraved on it.their journey through our life / our journey through their life , it may be love, anger, disappointment, frustrations, expectations , hope ….everything gone reel by reel … as every teacher feels so proud that they brought some changes in their life that could possibly help them in many ways .