We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeehan Quijano. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeehan below.
Hi Jeehan, so excited to have you with us today, particularly to get your insight on a topic that comes up constantly in the community – overcoming creativity blocks. Any thoughts you can share with us?
The main thing is I don’t torture myself over it. There are days that are going to be like that so I accept it and let it go. There are a few things that I do and one is that I work on other projects. My main focus at the moment is my novel, so if there is some blockage there, I turn my attention to essays that I have been working on and have set aside. Another thing that helps me is reading poems. I don’t know what it is about poetry that gets me back to writing. And if all that fails, I go and live life. I go to museums. I talk to people. I play the piano or learn a new piece. I watch something funny. Plant seeds. Visit the sea. Take long walks. Life-enriching activities, essentially.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I wrote a novel, The Unfolding, that was published back in late 2018 by New Meridian Arts. I am now finishing my second one. I also write essays. I was born and raised in Cebu, Philippines, where my love for reading and writing began. I always knew at a young age that writing was going to be a part of my life. But back then, I didn’t think that I was going to be a novelist, or that my essays were going to be featured in literary magazines. I was always writing something – musings, essays, terrible poems. Then eventually I started writing short stories but I found it incredibly challenging. It was a good practice though. Then one day I found myself writing a novel, and here I am still writing, officially an author. I’m also a pianist, and I like composing short piano pieces.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
One is being a voracious reader. I don’t have a formal creative writing background but I read a lot, and I gained knowledge from reading not just my favorite authors, but reading books in general about various topics.
Another is that you have to keep showing up and do the work. It requires discipline and devotion so you can’t be governed by caprice or mood otherwise you won’t learn or achieve anything. A wise mentor once told me that talent alone is not enough, that one must also possess patience, humility and the commitment to put in the hard work.
Rejection is part of a writer’s life especially if you’re just starting to put your work out there. Before my first novel got published, I had never been published at all. When I was sending out queries for my manuscript, I had to write my publication history. I didn’t have any, and I was incredibly self-conscious about that. I succumbed to self-defeating thoughts about how I’ll never be good enough to get published. But there was that soft, inner voice that kept telling me to persevere, and I chose to listen to that voice. Self-doubts will always be there but don’t give in to it, believe in yourself because you’ve put your heart and soul into your work, and somewhere along your journey, you will be rewarded for your hard work.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played an important role in your development?
In high school, we read Noli Mi Tangere, a novel by Jose Rizal who is considered one of the Philippines’ national heroes. Some of the main themes of the book are colonialism, reform, power, social justice, isolation. It made me realize the importance of storytelling, how it fosters awareness about the human condition and the society that we live in. It makes us ask the right questions, and inspires us to do better individually and collectively. In my 20s, I read Journal of Solitude by May Sarton. She writes about her inner and outer world, and I was taken by how I resonated with a lot of her sentiments and feelings. It made me feel like I’m not so alone in the world. I realized that there might be others out there who’d find your stories or words comforting or they might find some sense of camaraderie and make them feel better. Also, I admired her courage and honesty. For example, she wrote “I feel inadequate. I have made an open place, a place for meditation. What if I cannot find myself inside it?” Another one is “We are terribly frightened of admitting that we have been wrong, of admitting weakness; yet only when we can does the light flow in like a pardon.” I think that a writer always has room for introspection. What do you want to tell the world? What do you want to find out about the world? What have you observed, discovered, and what remains a mystery? That book is full of insights. And she was disciplined about devoting time to writing, about putting in the work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jeehanquijano.com
- Instagram: jeehan_quijano
Image Credits
Haila Alkhamis Adrien de la Touche
