It Is Time

I stumbled into serious writing (please forgive me for the cliché) quite by accident. That was two years ago and I was a student that time in UST. The chief editor of a publication resigned from his job and I was approached to replace him.

Why they chose me? Good question. I don't know too. I had no track record then of having edited any magazine or even published any of my writings to a reputable publication. But I think luck has something to do with it. The word was passed around of my singular nerdiness and that those same people just wanted to take their chance on me rather than took the risk of editing a (supposedly) scholarly magazine themselves. And besides, they were proposing to launch a huge commemorative issue with an equally huge budget in the next three months. They chatted with me in earnest. I accepted the challenge and delivered the publication on time.

Two years have passed and with several of my works appeared in The Philippine Star, UST’s Inter Nos, and other less known publications and Internet websites, I am now here living the precarious life of a writer.

Yesterday though, I earned my first $18 for one day. That’s a whopping 828 php in a day’s toil! The good thing is I can improve on my productivity and I am working on it. I am targeting to earn at least $25 a day, or at least $500 in a month.

We have yet to see what will happen. I will continue to keep you posted on my slow progress as a writer. As Chekhov once put it, “What is needed is constant work, day and night; constant reading, study, will… Every hour is precious for it. Drop all vanity, it is time.”