Sobriquet 38.8

The following post was originally published on 1/8/08.

Well, I finished transcribing the pile of quotations I had been working on. Twenty-two pages! Single-spaced, no less. Seriously, for a section I had planned to be between five and ten pages in the dissertation, it seems absurd to have spent so much time preparing notes and such.

I also revised the edited version of the essay I submitted. I found that I agreed with several of my editor's changes. I also came to realize that I may have written the essay in a style not wholly consistent with the publication's format. In the end, I changed quite a bit of my own work, took several suggestions I thought were really helpful, and tried to write a revision that fulfilled my editor's vision of the piece while still retaining my voice and vision.

As a writer of sorts, I suppose that this is the sort of thing you have to do. You know, accept criticism gracefully. And I think I have. Still, it has been amazing to reflect upon the changes I found most offensive. You learn a good deal about yourself when you consider why certain phrases or word choices are sooooo important...I think it turned out nicely, though. I may, however, keep the original version as a piece to use on this website (it is, after all, not just this blog) because I rather like that version, too.

So, I am going to call it a night.

I will, however, direct anyone who may be interested in such things to Six Sentences, a neat little blog run by Robert McEvily. Basically, the premise is simple: you write a complete story in six sentences, no more, no less. I thought it would be a fun way to blow off some steam, so I submitted a flash fiction piece, which appeared today.

For tomorrow: Wrap-up the pre-writing. Have some fun.