Sometime ago in December, I made the brillliiiiaannnt decision to finish the vignette collection by the end of 2022. At the time, it felt doable, but of course life comes up. Some days you just cannot bring yourself to write, and that’s okay.
However, am I readjusting my goal post? Of course not. Because this week, I’m going to push myself to indeed finish it. I’m going to pretend that it’s finals week at uni by truly dedicating myself to spending hours finishing up this project. Truthfully, I think I was one of the few people who really enjoyed the feeling of finals. There’s something really comforting about everybody just studying really quietly in the library, drinking coffee, burying yourself in notes late into the night. (Is my dark academia side showing?)
So yes, there’s an aspect of dedicating myself to a task that I really love when it comes to a deadline like this. Perhaps I’m trying to chase some spark of my college days or maybe I’m just ready for this project to be lovingly finished. Whatever the case, w’a girl is spending long hours working on this. So send your happy thoughts to me when you get a chance. I’m going to need it.
In order finish the vignette collection, I basically have to finish 7 really pivotal vignettes. (There’s an additional few where I should make some quick revisions, but I’m not so worried about those.) These seven vignettes still require a bit of workshopping and many drafts, but I think I can get them all to a really good point before the new year. The six vignettes are:
- Barrio Chases Parts 4-7
- Chicken for Dinner
- Knuckle Down
- Mahalia
There’s a slight chance that I won’t include Knuckle Down, because I’m not sure if the concept of it is easily graspible to be in vignette form. It’s a story that perhaps requires more context and time, which isn’t easily given in a vignette. Everything else, I’m set on including. I’m pretty motivated that I can finish it by the New Year and I’m going to try my best to hold myself to it.
So far, I’m working on Barrio Chases. I worked on re-doing the first draft of them all today. I’m very excited, because I was trying to write something similar to a harana today for a scene.
For inspiration, I listened to Ruben Tagalog all afternoon. Particularly, the Kay lungkot nitong Hating-gabi song inspired me musically. Sino by Unique Salonga also inspired me in terms of lyrics, though it isn’t actually a harana. Prior to this, I did a little bit of research on haranas by watching the documentary Harana: the Search for the Lost Art of Serenade which I do highly recommend. There are some songs in the documentary that still put an ache in my heart just by thinking of it.