21st Century Literature (Philippines): CHICK LIT

Me, a Filipino author in the 21st Century

Originally posted on my website minavesguerra.com on October 4, 2022.

Sharing some answers I gave to questions I got from a student interviewing me for their 21st Century Philippine Literature class.

When and why did you start writing novels? has it always been something you wanted to do?
When I was in grade 6 I started writing a teen romance series on notebooks (old school!). The notebooks were numbered up to 20+ and classmates read them in order and passed them around to the next person! But then I went to college and thought that my writing should change, become about darker things, and that kind of dampened my enthusiasm for writing even if I was learning a lot. I started writing novels again when I was in my twenties, because I gave myself a goal to get published before I turned 30, and what worked for me was returning to the romance genre that I loved writing and reading as a teenager.

How long does it take you to write a book?
The fastest is one month (My Imaginary Ex, Tempting Victoria); the longest is three years (Kiss and Cry). Lately I try to write a book between six months and one year, but I'm not strict about my own deadlines.

Which work of yours are you most proud of?
I wrote a young adult trilogy called Interim Goddess of Love, and I'm still proud of how I was able to not just incorporate Philippine mythology and folk tales in a modern story, but also of actually just finishing it. When you're not writing full-time that means you have many distractions and real problems to take care of, and I'm just glad I was able to focus on this for as long as I needed to.

What was your inspiration for writing these stories?
I'm often inspired by what-ifs, which tends to happen when you pay attention to real-life romance stories around you. Lately though I try to notice what's missing in terms of stories we're telling, and see if I can do anything about it. It's why I can't answer when I'm asked what's trendy or what's popular — I'm always looking for the opposite. What's missing? What and who are we ignoring right now? Those stories should exist too.