A TEXTBOOK ON CREATIVE WRITING
By Carlos Inigo T. Roxas
Published in the Inquirer Lifestyle, Aug. 31, 2024 (reprinted with permission from the author)
I recently read the book “Fundamentals of Creative Writing (Revised and Expanded Edition)” by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, celebrated author and editor of over a dozen books.
Brainard, who hails from a prominent family in Cebu, has received awards, grants and fellowships including a 40th National Book Award for Best Book Short Fiction English. She runs Philippine American Literary House (PALH) and has taught the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension, University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California and California State Summer School for the Arts. She gives talks, lectures and literary readings at various universities and arts/literary centers. And so, it shouldn’t be a surprise that she’d create a textbook for writers.
In the preface of her book, Brainard narrated her own journey in writing and how she got to where she is today. She shared the fundamentals of creative writing, which she simplified to guide her students.
“I witnessed my students blossom in six or nine weeks. The best students were the ones who admitted they knew very little ... My students would learn a concept or two each week. They would try their hand at dialogue or creating a character, for instance, and next week they would learn some new concepts ... By the end of the quarter, many of them were writing stories or personal essays,” she said.
