I Hate Deadlines

The past month or so has been quite stressful for me and my classmates in Thesis Writing 1 Class. The deadline for submission of thesis proposals is uncomfortably close - its face merely inches away from ours, its warm breath fogging up my glasses. Yesterday, a Saturday, I had to secure all the necessary endorsement forms. Last night, after proofreading a friend's report, I had to make some minor adjustments to my proposal, making sure all all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed. My tendency to obsess didn't really help, as it forced me to keep reading the manuscript multiple times, page per page, afraid that I may have missed something. After the constant obsessing, I printed four copies. Thank God I had recently bought a printer that can print thousands of pages without requiring an ink refill. The printer didn't give up on me, and there was no power outage. So I consider myself lucky. Finally, I thought to myself, I can breathe again. Earlier today, I had the manuscript book bound. It took about an hour. My husband said now I can stop obsessing. But knowing me, I don't know if I can do that. 

University Photos

Thought I'd share some pictures taken at my university, University of Santo Tomas, Manila.

Manuscript Revisited

Perhaps the scariest thing I have ever done (to date) was to revisit a manuscript I had written years ago. I used to maintain a blog, mostly for family and friends, and was told that I could write. So armed with a newfound confidence, I ventured into creative writing, convinced that I would sell the manuscript right away. Why wouldn't they be interested in me? I was funny and witty which, I thought translated to my protagonist's sense of humor, charm and wit.

After finishing writing the manuscript, I sent it to two publishing houses, one in Manila, and one abroad. At around the same time, I started attending graduate school, with the prodding of my sister. She had told me that if I really wanted to write, then I should study how to write.

This was four years ago, and just yesterday, I finished rewriting the very same manuscript that I had submitted to the publishers. The whole process was horrifying, as my original work read like a work of horror. What happened? And then I realized something... My character was me. Bitter, overweight, loveless, (at the time), old me. I didn't know how to separate myself from my character, perhaps a blunder that neophyte writers often commit. Also, there was no plot (something one of my professors told me after she had read the first few chapters, which kind of bruised my ego, but then I moved on). I had written pages upon pages of detailed descriptions of characters and what they are going through, explaining why they behave a certain way.

Thank God for people who critique your work for free. Thank you, Ma'am Jing. Thank you, Ms. Ines.

Yesterday I sent the revised manuscript to Ms. Ines of Summit Media. She has already replied and says she is looking forward to reading it.

After four years, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.