Happy Chinese New Year! In honor of the end of the month and the start of the Chinese New Year, I’m gonna give a progress report on my Simplicity Project. As I’ve stated before, I’ve been taking photos every day as part of my personal 365grateful project. Here are what I consider the best photos that I took this month. And as far as novel writing is concerned, I finally found a website where I could submit my work to... Read more
It seems so easy to paint religion as evil in fiction. But in my honest opinion Evil Religion (especially corrupt Christianity/Catholicism) is a cliche that needs to DIE. Ditto with the stereotypical pedophile priests, sexy nuns, loud overenthusiastic preachers, annoying Jewish mothers, and terrorist Muslims. However, I’m not advocating that religion in fiction should be portrayed in the other extreme, with constant Jesus Symbolism and heavy-handed guilt tripping. The best examples of fictional religious works that portray religion as good without... Read more
The names in this screenplay have been changed to preserve the confidentiality of the involved parties. Not based on actual events. ACT 1 Scene 1 At rise: It is a gray, rainy afternoon. A young woman, MARIA, enters S.L. dressed in a long black trenchcoat and black ankle boots. She runs quickly to the building’s entrance and greets the front desk receptionist, JOANNA, a slightly older woman. MARIA Hi. I’m here for the job interview. JOANNA Might I ask who... Read more
As I’ve stated a week ago, I’m blogging in pursuit of getting my novel published. And I’ve been writing with the intent of getting published for a while. But before I started blogging and novel writing, I was writing my thoughts down in journals. It all started with one of those tiny Lisa Frank notebooks that I had in first grade. I now use composition notebooks because they remind me of one of my favorite children’s book series: Amelia’s Notebooks... Read more
Best of 2013, a set on Flickr. Flashback Friday! Check out my favorite photos from 2013! Read more
As you can see from the subtitle of my blog, I am a writer and I am on a journey. But a journey to what exactly? To be frank, I am on a journey to finding my vocation, my calling. If this is sounding Catholic, it’s because I am Catholic. Catholic by birth, choice, and hopefully Catholic til the day I die. I love my faith. Part of being Catholic is figuring out your vocation or calling. Most Catholics assume this... Read more
Today, my friend Mariella Hunt. Catholic writer and editor, gives tips on how to better yourself through writing. In a recent edition of the Paris Review, there is an interview with author Emmanuel Carrere in which he mentions a writing exercise introduced by another author, Ludwig Borne. The exercise goes as follows: Write for three successive days without restraint or hypocrisy. Write what comes to your mind, no matter what it is. Write what you’re feeling and keep going, keep on... Read more
My 24th birthday is on January 13th, exactly 6 days from now. There are a couple of bucket lists out there about things to do before turning 23. One is from Wandering Onwards and another is from K. Beauregard. However, I’m 24 and am not planning to do a lot of the things on either list. I’m not sure what my vocation is yet, but since I’m currently single, I know three things for sure: Whether you decide to marry at... Read more
On Tuesday, I talked about all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things that happened in 2013. Today, I’m gonna talk about my goals for 2014. My overall goal for 2014 is to pursue simplicity. A friend of mine tells me that I tend to overcomplicate things a lot. And I do. I like to analyze things and figure out what they mean. I like to have personal headcanons and interpretations of things I watch and books I read. I live in... Read more
With the new year just around the corner, I wanted to do a personal recap of what 2013 was like for me. This whole year has been a period of uncertainty but it led to a lot of personal growth as well. January: This was the beginning of the third act of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which was one of the best new web series of the year. I also decided to take a hiatus from Once Upon a Time, not knowing... Read more
Monique Ocampo Writes
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