I’ve always believed that creativity is too precious and sensitive of a thing to rush. And mainly because it’s always worked for me – knowing there are people who thrive on instantaneous spurts of genius notwithstanding, taking time to go through each aspect and detail of my creative work is just what has always given me the big pay-off in the end. Back in my thesis days I’d labor for hours on end in the same corner of the nearby cafe, eyes burning through the clear plastic of my macbook – just to come up with a page’s worth of new work. But I’d submit at the end of each project to outstanding rewards – ranging from the casual yoohoo mention from the professor, to the rated-A noted, finished, graded and paraded product. (yeah, i’m a geek. so sue me. :p) And though you can probably credit my overdoing it at times to either my overly-OC journ prof in sophomore year or Dr. Sol in my fourth year of college, it’s really the way I’m hard-wired. Even in my younger days I would always find myself as the last to submit in art or writing class.

So anyhow. Fast forward to the future, a.k.a. the present, where various bits of information can be received, and apparently, created, at hyper speeds. Where creativity is acceptably deep-fried, wrapped in a box, put in a plastic bag, and handed ready to-go.

Welcome to the age of fast food fiction.

The concept isn’t new – not even relatively so (reference to the Fast Food Fiction book series acknowledged) – think classroom set-up, kindergarten days, where you were pressured to come up with your summer vacation story from the time you finish saying your morning prayers, to the minute before your recess bell rings. But now it’s being turbo-charged with the onset of the internet, where anyone can not only claim to be an artist or author in a matter of minutes, but a renowned and published one at that.

I know the tone of my writing so far could have led you to think otherwise, but I am in no way against this type of exercise. In fact, I’m mostly just jealous at people who can sit down and gather their thoughts into a comprehensible creative output within a matter of minutes. I’m usually good at doing that when I have to bunch up my thoughts into words to impress, but if it’s something expressed either through words or pictures, it takes me much, much longer. I mean in less than 30 minutes, with absolutely no prep whatsoever involved, how many people in the world can come up with this?:

Ten years from now, when she looks back at this moment, she will smile and say, “That was where it all started.”

When she looks back at this moment, she will remember, like most girls do, the outfit she was wearing as she sipped her vanilla latte and slaved over her History textbook: a white tank top, light blue jeans, and a floral blue bucket hat. She will remember worrying over the haircut she got the day before- it was too short, too trendy- and she needed the stupid hat to cover it up.

Ten years from now, when she looks back on this moment, she will smile and say “That was where I met the love of my life.”

She will remember seeing, from the corner of her eye, a boy about her age, clad in a black shirt and dark jeans, intently poring over a novel, from his quiet corner of the coffee shop. She will remember finding him attractive, being intrigued by his mysterious aura, but hesitating… there he was looking all cool and artsy, while there she was in a stupid floral hat.

Ten years from now, when she looks back on this moment, she will smile and say, “That was where it all started. That was where I met the love of my life.”

But right now, at this moment, she does not know this yet. Still, she waits for him to catch her eye. And she takes the risk and smiles.

He smiles right back.

Written by Marla Miniano of Candy Magazine, when we had our media launch for our What’s your Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Story?, via a Flash Creativity Workshop last week at The Fort. No, this is not just shameless promotion, I swear (not that this blog is even legit enough to merit any promotion that will matter. Haha.) In fact, I’m even quasi frustrated that I had to work and host at the same time, that I didn’t get to hear what everybody said were fantastic flash creativity lectures that these guys gave out:

I can sort of claim, though, that I had each one give me a private lecture instead, yeah, so I’m good. Haha. If you can call talks over cold, leftover linguine, a photo slideshow exhibit, and a replayed Celtics game playing in the background lectures, that is.

Thanks to Mike Cabardo, Jay Tablante and Dean Alfar for showing us how to create quality works in a flash. Actually, for showing our participants, hindi naman ako kasama. Haha. Nevertheless, I’ll exert an effort to try; I am super left behind on the creative front. I better swallow my old-school slow-roast pride – I literally need to catch up . Or…

baka naman ang role ko lang talaga sa life ay maging talent. Walang output kung walang insipiration, diba? :p Hoot hoot! Panalo talaga si Markku (literally; winning ang entry. Haha!) Dude I guarantee you’ll have all of my personal bookings from hereon. You know what that means. :p