I'm actually typing some of my blog entries in Google Docs (because when I copy/paste from Microsoft Word to Blogger, the text loses its formatting when I'm using a Mac [but works just fine on Windows]) and I find that I have a copy of last year's entry stored in the archive. When that story didn't make the cut, I was really tempted to post the story online since I thought "hey, no one's going to pick it up anyway" and I honestly thought some readers would enjoy reading that piece. There was also a sense of self-gratification in there and I needed to hear praises for my work. But long story short, I didn't and perhaps it was for the best.
Anyway, here I am, the third time around. What I can be proud of is that my writing habits, if not my actual writing, is actually improving. In 2005, my submission for Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 1 was more or less written in the week of the deadline. I was actually surprised that Dean thought to short-list it, mainly because I thought it's not my best work (but it was the best that I could write in that time frame). The succeeding year, I actually didn't plan on joining, but during the week of the deadline, inspiration hit me and so I simply started writing. Anyway, this year, the story was written a month back but it's only during the past few days that I got around to my second round of revision. For me editing is what makes or breaks my stories (last year's spec fic entry was perhaps the exception in the sense that it didn't end up having a major overhaul when it comes to edits). Having that extra time to re-write your story is a big boon on my part.
I'm actually done with the second round of editing but I'm still not satisfied with it. I want to move on to the third editing phase but the work is still too fresh and what seems obvious to me might not be too obvious to the reader. So I need to spend time away from my text before moving on to the third round of editing. Hopefully that's enough time to meet the deadline.
No comments:
Post a Comment