TV writer and book author Noreen Capili, known for her best-selling books, Parang Kayo Pero Hindi and Buti Pa ang Roma May Bagong Papa, is back with her latest book, The Goodbye Girl.
She wrote the screenplay for No Boyfriend Since Birth or NBSB for Regal Films starring Carla Abellana and Tom Rodriguez. The film reunited her with Joey Reyes who directed the film whom she met at ad workshop conducted by the director. This later opened doors for her to write for a TV sitcom then for soap operas.
While her first two books were the result of years of hard work as a blogger, a contributor to a university-based online community, a love advice columnist for a lifestyle magazine, a similar job for a maritime company, and a writer for a local television network, Capili, also known as Noringai, has to come up with fresh material for her new book, the title of which she got from the hit song “Goodbye Girl” by David Gates of Bread.
Capili explained how different her latest book is from the previous ones, “In the first book, there’s a feeling that ‘Parang Kayo Pero Hindi’ stage is okay than not having any relationship at all. Don’t settle for anything less. In the second, if you’re tired of waiting, still don’t settle. You’ll never know what you might get.” In her third book, she stressed it was time for a more mature outlook. “Time heals everything. Just give time to heal…time to move on,” she revealed.
“All of those I have written in my books are based on real experiences. I neither invented nor imagined them. If they are not my experiences, they are experiences of my friends. Maybe that’s why many people can relate to them because they really happen. The stories were not fabricated. Some came from my blog,” Capili shared on why her books became popular.
A BA Creative Writing graduate at the University of the Philippines – Diliman, she wrote This Side UP a column in Peyups.com, the now-defunct online UP community, under her pseudonym Noringai. It gained a cult following so Karl and Mimi de Leon, the website’s husband-and-wife administrators, compiled her articles into a book. However, the plan did not materialize. “When I submitted my book to Anvil, I still asked permission from them. They gave their approval. I still own the rights to my articles but I felt I needed to seek their permission,” Capili said.
Anvil used Noringai, her username for blogs and Peyups.com, to give some sense of anonymity. Capili sensed that her publisher initially wanted a female version of Bob Ong, whose identity has still been kept secret to this day. However, her appearances in TV shows to promote her book slowly made her recognizable to her readers. She also had talks and book signing events at the annual Philippine Literary Festival, at the recent Manila International Book Fair, other events organized by National Book Store, and even school-initiated ones.
When Capili appeared on TV to promote her book, Kris Aquino called her a “love guru.” She has been reluctant to take on the role. “I feel that I am not qualified. Before this, those who sent me messages on Facebook only inquired about how to become actors or how to make it to It’s Showtime or Pinoy Big Brother. Now, they share stories about their love life. My high school classmates also ask me who the unnamed people I wrote about in my books were or if ever they were part of them,” she said. She also shared a funny incident when a date she had asked her if she would include him in her next book.
Capili advises young writers not to give up easily. “I was rejected many times when I was just starting out. It’s not easy being a writer. It’s not mechanical. You should read a lot. You need to be curious of what is happening around you. You can get a lot of stories from what you hear. You need to be observant.”