HAPPY TRIP 8: Upakan ko manliligaw sa kanya

The little princess turned seven last April 16. When asked how it felt to be 7, she quipped: “I feel old!”

Am I raising a Calvin or what?



Scenes from a birthday party:

BAD TRIP 13: Lost for Words

“Next time, please limit your reports to 750 words.”

That’s the big boss talking, laying down the law. And that goes down the line.

It means that each of the five municipal teams in my command will have to submit to me reports not exceeding 750 words, which I then have to condense into 750 words to submit to the big boss. He, in turn, will have to condense 10 such provincial reports into a country-wide report of 750 words, to be submitted to his boss in the Asia regional office.

And with so many activities and outcomes to report, it’s not easy. Normally we want to cover all angles, resulting to reports exceeding 2,000 words at the minimum!

But in this day and age where people barely have time to read, long narratives are out. As the big boss likes to say, “if you can’t say it in one page, it’s probably not worth it!”

Writing is hard, even for writers who do it all the time. Most times it is difficult to maintain cleanliness, accuracy, and brevity in our writings. But I’ve always found it effective to write in a way that comes naturally, omitting needless words along the way.

Takes practice, I guess.