Selections from my Franciscan essays (hover cursor over link for source or click for full article)
‘My Crazy Dozen. The Rebel Writer’s Guide For Non-Dummies’

Who am I talking to this time? They would be public speakers, lecturers, PowerPoint presentors, resource persons, debaters, reviewers, essayists, biographers, autobiographers, authors, ghostwriters, columnists, journalists, consultants, managers, even proposal packagers in science. And why is that? All of them must be good writers first before they can be good at what they’re supposed to be doing. Those who can afford can hire good writers, so I’m not writing for those dummies.

The non-dummy reason I will not write a dummies’ book for writers is that you can’t write if you’re a dummy.

A dummy is certainly not educated on the subject – but why educate him on the history, comparison and technical details of Windows when all he wants to know and do is run Windows to write a letter and send it via email?

Dan Brown reports that his book Da Vinci Code has sold 70 million copies worldwide (danbrown.com); multiply that by 2 readers a copy and you have 140 million dummies worldwide.

To balance that a bit, Time reports that JK Rowling’s 7 Harry Potter books have sold 400 million copies worldwide. Multiply that number by 2.5 readers a copy and you have 1 billion dummies. Count me in. I’m unique; I’m a one-in-a-billion dummy.

That’s how science should be told, like magic – science is magic.

This world has gone to the dummies!

The Attorney General has determined that gambling is bad for your health.

From what I’ve seen so far, you’re a dummy if you buy a book for dummies – they’re for professionals, who I would believe are no dummies.

There’s no such thing as ‘a perfect blogger’ – I’m an inveterate blogger and I’m not always perfect.

WordPress is not that smart, and I’m not that dummy.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch – only a free hunch.

In other words, ‘for dummies’ is all hype, and you’re a dog if you dig it, you’re a zombie if you yearn for it, you’re a fool if you pine for it, you’re a puppy if you lap it all up.

Hacking is for crazy whiz kids or insane virtuosos, not dummies like you and me. In this case, I like being a dummy.

The idea of a brainstorm is that you have absolutely no idea!

My Crazy Twelve Commandments Of Writing For Non-Dummies

(1) If you want to begin right, don’t begin right.
(2) If you want to create order, create disorder.
(3) If you want to write well, don’t write.
(4) If you want to be read, don’t read yourself.
(5) If you want to listen to advice, don’t give the advice.
(6) If you want to attract readers, don’t give your vocabulary.
(7) If you want to improve, don’t just improve.
(8) If you want to get more ideas, look where there are none!
(9) If you want to have a good sequence, make a bad one.
(10) If you want to write objectively, you’re a journalist.
(11) If you want to know everything, you’re an encyclopedia.
(12) If you want to give up, you’re a mad genius!

Later, from out of the chaos, I can hear myself say, ‘Let there be life!’ And there is like. And it is enough.

The ideas and information I got from the Internet challenged me, set me in other directions, and otherwise helped me think some more and come up with my own order of thoughts. It wasn’t easy, but then again I’ve had years and years of practice so much so that the pressure has become pleasure. You should be so pleased!

That first paragraph is information overload, too much even for a professional reader. It reads like an ad copy written by Bill Gates himself. Bill Gates is great in marketing, not in copy.

If you believe you have all the wisdom, you’re not real; you don’t exist. End of story.

Contrary to what Dale Carnegie may have said, vocabulary scares people.

That’s why I say science writing is too important a subject to be left to scientists alone.

The Rebel Writer has determined that a wide vocabulary is bad for your health.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholden.

WordPress is not the only blog pusher in the world.

I was a barbarian knocking at the gates for more ideas. Heaven knows I don’t have to be a barbarian but it helps.

Impressions are important: Impressions first, impressions last.

When in Rome, don’t write like the Romans do. Unless I’m sadly mistaken, all journalists try to write objectively – and that explains why they are boring to read.

Your readers are not objective themselves – they root for people, sides, causes. No, you’re a double dummy if you try to write for all kinds of people – you can only write for your kind of dummies, dummy.

Not knowing is a perfect reason for knowing more!

Today, being a writer is easy – talent or no talent, you create a blog and in a minute or two, you’re a published writer.

You’d be mad to give up a high regard for yourself, or your ambition – but you’d be a genius as a writer.

I can share with you that the more you are at peace with the world, the better you become as a writer, not to mention as a human being.

Why now do I write? I want to share my experiences and insights in living and hope to encourage others. Why now do I write for writers? I want to share my experiences and insights in writing and hope to encourage writers to encourage others.

There is so much negative in the Philippines today that to encourage the positive requires that you invest on heroism that of course is a huge risk since it borders on stupidity.

The Philippines needs more geniuses who are foolish enough to give up their comfort zones in favor of their country, to give up their ambitions for themselves. I’m hoping that more such insane geniuses will rise among Filipinos, especially writers young and old – the old, for their own legacy; the young, for own their future. Give up and be recognized!

As for me, I’ve given up on UP, the University of the Philippines, my alma mater; I’ve given up on the fervent UP nationalist geniuses. These are the times for globalization; now, nationalism is local, internationalism is global and the irresistible force.

Age doesn’t matter; you can be a genius at 8, 18, 38, 68, 78, 88, 98? A silly genius for the environment. A crazy genius for God and country. A hero. To be a hero, I suppose you shouldn’t have to be ridiculous but it should help.