On-File: “*We Got Married” Interview Reel
Im Jinah
Week Twelve
“It’s almost your 100th day together,” the PD says off-camera. “Are you planning something special for your husband?”
The smile on Nana’s face is wide. She is ready to answer this question. “Yes.”
“Tell us about it.”
“Today,” she tells her reflection in the mirror as she puts an earring on. “It has to be today.”
She has lost count of the times she’d resolved to break up with Daniel–her boyfriend of almost three months–only for said resolve to weaken and disappear completely the moment he smiles at her. Who could blame her, really? Aside from the fact that her boyfriend’s good looks could so easily land him on magazine covers, he is the sweetest, most attentive man she’s known. (It could be argued, however, that the most dominant male figure in her life leaves much to be desired, but that’s not the point.)
Daniel is not the problem in this equation, no. It’s her. She needs to break up with him because she knows there is no way she could be completely honest with him. And that’s not fair.
I am a writer who dislikes writing endings.
Which is kind of weird, right? As a writer, I should feel happy about getting to the end of my story. It’s an achievement, something to be celebrated, even in the simplest of ways. And yet, during the past few years I’ve realized a trend when I’m about to close a work of fiction: I stall.
Two or three chapters away from my ending, I stop looking at my manuscript altogether. I read or reread books, think of new stories to write, watch dramas or films . . . I do anything to keep myself from writing those last few chapters, and all because I’ve gotten attached to my characters and don’t want to let them go yet.
It’s probably not a good thing, what I do, but hey . . . I’m pretty sure we all have our own quirks. I almost did the same routine with my #SparkNA novella, but I had a deadline to beat this time, and maybe that’s one of the reasons why I joined this class in the first place: to learn to discipline myself as a writer.
And so we’ve come down to this: a month left to go before everyone in our #SparkNA class has to turn in our finished manuscripts for Anvil Publishing to review. Today, we all received a pep talk in the form of an email and while I usually read and re-read Mina’s emails to us several times within the day before moving on with my life, I didn’t do that today. Why?
Because she posed such a loaded question that my mind just exploded. And I had to pick up the pieces all day long.
Yes, while struggling with a bunch of other stuff at work. Thanks a lot, Mina.
Once upon a time, I was a semi-active fanfiction writer in the DBSK fandom (I say semi-active because I put out work every two years or so — I’m very slow!) and five years ago, one of my friends from soomp! invited me for an interview.
It made me giggle to find it again. ^_^v
(P.S. This is really old, so the information posted here is already outdated. FYI. If you wanna reach me, you can send me an email via taratriestowrite@gmail.com.)