Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Status Check

It's one-thirty in the morning. I have a short story on the back burner that doesn't look as though it'll be finished anytime soon, and I have a contingency story on tap. If I don't manage to finish my main offering by tomorrow afternoon, I'll be submitting my contingency measure.

I think I've hit upon why I've had too many unsuccessful tries for this one: Pressure, plain and simple.

I've had a lot of miscues coming into the final days of the Fully Booked contest, but for some reason, I've only been able to write freely once I had the backup story prepared. Was I resting secure in the knowledge that I would have something to submit regardless of anything? Perhaps that was the case.

That would make a good lesson for the next contest, I suppose: Ready the contingency plan first. Seeing that the Palanca awards are accepting entries already, and knowing that I already have my story seeds for the 4th L5R Ficathon, I'll have ample opportunity to try this out. It feels strange having to work on a backup for a non-technical case study, but I suppose that writing is a pretty sensitive endeavor to begin with.

My head is spinning again, for that matter, and this is the first time it's happened to me without the benefit of strenuous physical activity. It's obvious that I've been writing for too many straight hours, so I'm going to take a breather now and head straight off to bed. (Thankfully, I can now afford to do this.)

It's funny, really, how you can be writing for over half your life and still have to figure out a number of lessons from the business. Then again, I suppose, it would be a pretty boring way of life if we didn't learn something from every task we tried to take on.

8 comments:

Dom Cimafranca said...

You are taking this too seriously, that's why. See how much different it is writing a story for P100K as opposed to a ficathon?

Sean said...

Dominique: I take a lot of things seriously. Some of them have a P100k purse attached, and some of them don't. I think the better approach, though, would involve identifying exactly where one pressures oneself.

And hey, why didn't you tell me this weeks ago? You could have saved me a lot of trouble there. :) Harsh lessons indeed.

That said, I'm handing in my contingency work tonight. I read through it a couple more times this morning, and for some reason it felt polished enough to warrant a spot.

Dom Cimafranca said...

Ah, but a P100,000 makes all the difference in how you approach things, never mind that you take other matters just as seriously.

Anyway, don't worry about it, Sean, your work is excellent.

I've decided not to have anything to do with this, though. Too many coniogothics (present company excepted) participating.

Sean said...

Dominique: You're assuming that I'm pressuring myself for the sake of a paltry hundred grand, I think.

But come to think of it, I probably am. :) I've done far stranger things for much less.

banzai cat said...

Coniogothics? What are coniogothics?

Heh. But haven't you heard the saying that pressure creates diamonds out of coal/carbon (or something like that)?

;-)

Sean said...

Banzai Cat: Yeah, but the last time I checked, pressure also creates a lot of slag. :)

Besides, you'd need a lot of pressure to form a diamond out of coal. Just ask Superman. :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for reminding the Palanca. I almost forgot about that. Hehehe.

Again, good luck on your entry

Sean said...

Ferdz: Hey, good luck on yours. :)

One of the better things about the Palanca Awards, now that I think about it, is that they accept previously-published stuff. Of course, they still don't have a proper web site, but I suppose you can't have everything...