Budjette Tan is a talented young Filipino comics writer. Ad man by day, Comic Book man by night. Tan, together with artist Kajo Baldisimo, produced the Filipino mythology graphic novel Trese, which inspired the organizers of Catharsis: Discovering the Writer Within, and we're pretty sure he will also serve as an inspiration to you.
1.) What were the early influences on your writing and how do they manifest in your works?
My writing is greatly influenced by EVERYTHING I WAS EXPOSED TO, which would range from the books I've read to the TV shows I watched, from the comic book I collected to the movies I watched and discussed with my friends, from the songs I listened to the scary stories I was told when I was a child.The first five or six cases of TRESE were all somehow based on the ghost stories and aswang stories I was told as a child, mixed with my attempt to write my own Batman story / Hellblazer story / X-Files episode.
2.) How does writing change the writer?
Hmmm. Interesting question. I think the act of writing allows one to discover more about one's self. It forces you to try and describe the indescribable. We struggle with words and try to describe how we feel, how our world looks. And because we are limited to only using 26 letters to describe a universe of feelings and events, it expands our minds, makes us think about how other feel. We imagine what it's like to wear the shoes of a thousand other people. We imagine ourselves as rich and poor, as a man, a woman, straight, gay, as a great success, as a sore loser. I think it allows us to understand the world more, the more we write.
3.) In a world full of "clichés" and "tropes", how can a writer stand out?
Here are two of my favorite quotes from Grant Morrison, one of my favorite comic book writers: "You gotta remember in the entire history of the universe ... you're the only 'you' that has ever existed and ever will exist," Grant Morrison said. "... there's nobody in existence who is you, and no one can ever see the world the way you see it and can tell the rest of us how it looks. And it might be so different and so beautiful that it changes everything."How do you stand out? By putting a little piece of yourself in the story. By telling it your way, from your point of view.And here's a quote from Morrison about why it's important to retell stories in your own way:"In Australia, Aboriginal artists, every generation goes in and repaints the cave paintings. And they all tell the same stories over generations. And that's what we do. The human species tells the same stories over and over again. Stories of heroes and villains. And I think we have to update them for each new generation," said Morrison. "Any fans who cling on to maybe a version of something they read when they were children are really just hanging on to a past. The world's moved on. There's new children. They want their version of it. So I think it's very important to freshen these things up and to update them and to move them forward and to look at them in the context of all the things we're interested in now." –Grant Morrison
4.) What are the ways to step out of the comfort zone and achieve flexibility in writing (especially when a writer is stuck on using one genre and one style only)?
Someone once said, write about your greatest fear. It might not have to be for a story or something you will publicly share, but just write about it. Write how you feel about it, what thoughts fill you whenever you confront it. It's a thing that you tend to avoid, but if you can write about it, then it lets you see that you can write anything, allowing you to step out of your comfort zone.
5.) What can you give as an advice for the aspiring writers who are still discovering the writers within themselves?
Let me get some help from one of my favorite writers, Neil Gaiman:We are creators. When we begin, separately or together, there's a blank piece of paper. When we are done, we are giving people dreams and magic and journeys into minds and lives that they have never lived. And we must not forget that.I don't want to sound like an inspirational speaker here. "Be you." be the best you that you can be." But this is really important. It's something that we mostly lose track of when we starts, because when we start in comics, we're kids, and we have no idea who we are or what our voices, as artists or as writers.Young artists want to be Rob Leifeld, or Bernie Wrightson, or Frank Miller, just as young writers want to be Alan Moore, or Chris Claremont or, well, Frank Miller. You've seen their portfolios. You've read the scripts.We all swipe when we start. We trace, we copy, we emulate. But the most important thing is to get to the place where you're telling your own stories, painting your own pictures, doing the stuff that one-one else could have done, but you. Dave McKean, when he was much younger, as a recent art-school graduate, took his portfolio to New York, and showed it to the head of an advertising agency. The guy looked at one of Dave's paintings—"That's a really good Bob Peake," he said. "But why would you I want to hire you?" If I have something I want done like that, I phone Bob Peake."You may be able to draw kind of like Rob Leifeld, but the day may come, may have already come, when no-one wants a bargain basement Rob Leifeld clone any more. Learn to draw like you. And as a writer, or as a storyteller, try to tell the stories that only you can tell. Try to tell the stories that you cannot help but tell, the stories you would be telling yourself if you had no audience to listen. The ones that reveal a little too much about you to the world. It's the point I think of writing as walking naked down the street: it has nothing to do with style, or with genre, it has to do with honesty. Honesty to yourself and to whatever you're doing. Don't worry about trying to develop a style. Style is what you can't help doing. If you write enough, you draw enough, you'll have a style, whether you want it or not. Don't worry about whether you're "commercial". Tell your own stories, draw your own pictures. Let other people follow you.If you believe in it, do it. If there's a comic or a project you've always wanted to do, go out there and give it a try. If you fail, you'll have given it a shot. If you succeed, then you succeeded with what you wanted to do.
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For more updates and information regarding Trese, you may visit their blog: http://tresekomix.blogspot.com
