I. L. Chang

Progress

Story 1 – Takashi (submission draft done, possibly)

Story 2 – Camila (rewrite done, to be rewritten again)

Story 3 – Vivian (first draft done)

Story 4 – Stephanie (1/3 of the story completed)

Story 5 – Ka Chun (submission draft done, possibly)

Other than “How are you doing?”, the most common question I get asked is “How is your writing?” The first answer to the question is always, “Good!”

I am surprised I haven’t given up on writing after eight months. I pride myself as a hard worker, but underneath that, I am someone who loses interest easily if I don’t see my hard work bringing immediate success. As I have mentioned before, endurance is the hardest for me and after eight months, I am happy that I am still consistent with writing. I owe a huge thank you to my co working friend for making this less lonely.

There’s been great progress in my writing. Exponential growth in ease and skill. Unsure if I can measure it by the industry standard, but for what I can see myself, there’s been improvement. I get stuck and unstuck many times. I learn by reading. I experiment with my writing style and am still trying to find my voice. I write to find out what my character wants.

The process of writing renders me vulnerable. It exposes the thoughts I am too afraid to say out loud and it convicts me of what I truly think. But this is the process that I like. I imagine myself ten years later, working with a team, an editor and publisher that believes in my projects. We come together to analyze, critique and discuss ideas. But for now, I have two unofficial editors, my sister and my brother (whom I must wait a while for his lengthy analysis).