What makes a writer

The Philippine Star is 21 years old today.

My first column appeared in this paper Jan. 20 of this year and it has been one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve ever had in my life.

I’ve been a public speaker for years and I turned professional only as recent as two years ago. I had a radio program that has stayed in the airwaves for so many years I’ve lost count but I have always secretly harbored the desire to have a column with a leading newspaper in the country.

My very close friend and mentor Dr. Harold Sala told me five years ago that I need to have a column with a newspaper because the reach would be infinitely wider. That was a great understatement. Dr. Harold Sala of course maintains his own column with The Philippine Star too and he is talking out of experience. The feedback I get. The stories the readers send me. The tales they tell about how the column has made a difference in their lives really confirms what Dr. Sala has been saying all along.

I love to write. Even when I was a little boy I wrote a lot.

My teachers made me write: “I will not talk in class 100 times every now and then.” My mother would make me write my name 100 times every other day so that I could improve on my penmanship. I never did. What my mom did not know is that one day word processors would replace pen and paper. What my mother didn’t know is that one day, I would be called to speak in many medical and pharmacological conventions and they understand the way I write.

Whoever says writing is easy is probably out of his or her mind.

Gene Fowler says: Writing is easy. All you have to do is to stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.

Charles Caleb Colton says: There are three difficulties in authorship: to write anything worth publishing, to find honest men to publish it and to get sensible men to read it.   

However the famous philosopher and writer Epictetus says: But then there are some tips I would like to give you on the subject matter of writing: If you wish to be a writer, write……..

But what makes writing for The Philippine Star so great an experience is the people. They are just so nice. They are fun to be with, they are encouraging, they are respectful and they are just simply…. NICE! It’s a company with a great culture and I am so happy to be a part of the family.

Like a craftsman preparing his tools, or a tailor gathering his things a writer has to assemble his words and choose the best out of his vocabulary arsenal. The work difficult, the effort tiring but when the touch of inspiration causes the outflow of thoughts made concrete into words, and then the exhilarating experience is simply beyond description. Words contain power. In fact word is power. People of the Judeo-Christian persuasion know this.

You can’t separate the Word of God from the God of the Word and this is just a feeble attempt from a man with a miniscule mind and knowledge desperately trying to describe its great potential. This is why the Omnipotent God can never be understood by human effort and accomplishment… only by Revelation. And guess what God uses? Words.

Words have the power to heal; it likewise carries the power to harm.

We’ve seen them at work – both ways. Perhaps we’ve used them too.

We’ve used the printed word to express the cries of the heart.

The expressions are louder and the impact greater for the written and printed word remains as a testimony of one’s thoughts and sentiments.

Some people use the power of words to inform.

The writer is the herald. He is the bearer of news. The writer informs and thus he or she empowers people to make better decisions either for business or for life.

The write is an instructor/teacher. What nobility lies here behind the task.

The writer is now willing to impart to those who have not; the heart given to help others and the selfless soul reaching out to straighten a crooked path. And so he writes.

The writer is an orator. Every stroke of his pen is cloaked with the desire to change the tides of opinion with great flair and drama. His shade of ink and the print resolution of his inkjet or laser printer projects the same volume of voice as that which comes from a great debater/declaimer or perhaps even louder. And so he writes.

But beyond the writer as an informer, instructor or an orator the write is an inspirer. He is a bearer of hope. The writer inspires because he or she knows that the greatest tool of change is encouragement. And so he writes.

This is why the writer is the medium and the medium is the message.

The message must be right but the messenger must be righteous.

It is a great honor to be given the opportunity to handle words. It is a greater honor to be given the opportunity to write for this paper. And this paper’s happy occasion is simply an acknowledgment of thanks and gratitude to  you the readers as you have accorded writers like me the honor of continuing with this noble task.

(Send me your feedback and write me: [email protected] You can also listen to my radio program “Business Matters” aired 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. daily over 98.7 dzFE-FM ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)