The Red Pens of Three

The most important part of writing is revising, and it’s easier to revise if you have lots of editors working on your story. Fortunately, I have three. The two of them are split personalities of Ja the editor—Ja the debater and Ja the artist.

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High School Madness: The Weirdest Thing about Me

*Note: If Filipino words are used, they are translated below

It was the first day of class, and we had to introduce ourselves. The teacher asked us to complete the sentence “The weirdest thing about me is…”

Kimmy: “The weirdest thing about me is that my nickname is “Mouse.”

Class: Kimmy Mouse?

*EVERYONE LAUGHS*

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PJAM Tries Friendship Counseling

PJAM (Precious, Jasmine, Johanna, Anna, Marian, Milagros/Trina) met when we were classmates back in grade five. At the end of the year, I was praying that, for some miracle, we’d be classmates again. Our school, Miriam, randomly mixes up the classes every year so that we will have a new set of classmates every time we moved up a grade level. There were times that you could be classmates with the same person for several years, but I knew it was impossible that six people would be classmates again the next year. Still, I was hoping against hope.

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High School Play: Heroic Vandal (Scene 14: Anwaar and the King)

To start from the first scene, click here.

Click here to go to the previous scenes.

Note: In celebration of women’s month, I decided to post this play that I wrote when I was in second year high school. My groupmates helped me come up with ideas, but I was the one who was largely responsible for the conceptualization of the story and the writing of the script. In this play, I talk about two sisters who are awoken to the plight of women and are moved to fight oppression. I also slightly touch upon the issue of honor killings, specifically how raped women (usually in the Middle East) are killed because they have brought “dishonor” to their family. Our group was assigned to write about Pakistan, but in this script, I changed the name of the country into a fictional country because the depiction of this world is not an accurate depiction of Pakistan. I also changed “Allah” to “Azlah” because the god described in this story and the religious practices depicted are not accurate depictions of the Muslim faith.

Anwaar

Scene 14: The king is in one of the rooms of his palace. He is with General Najiya, Anwaar, and a guard. Anwaar’s hands are tied behind her back.)

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High School Play: Heroic Vandal (Scene 13: The New Vandal)

To start from the first scene, click here.

Click here to go to the previous scenes.

Note: In celebration of women’s month, I decided to post this play that I wrote when I was in second year high school. My groupmates helped me come up with ideas, but I was the one who was largely responsible for the conceptualization of the story and the writing of the script. In this play, I talk about two sisters who are awoken to the plight of women and are moved to fight oppression. I also slightly touch upon the issue of honor killings, specifically how raped women (usually in the Middle East) are killed because they have brought “dishonor” to their family. Our group was assigned to write about Pakistan, but in this script, I changed the name of the country into a fictional country because the depiction of this world is not an accurate depiction of Pakistan. I also changed “Allah” to “Azlah” because the god described in this story and the religious practices depicted are not accurate depictions of the Muslim faith.

Scene 13: It is nighttime. Anwaar is in a deserted flea market. She is kneeling before the wall that she had just vandalized. She is examining her hands which have red paint all over it.

Anwaar: I know you are there. Show yourself.

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