It was a day like any other. Riel being teased and mocked by Runa, Leila being nitpicky, Anna being the mediator whenever there’s trouble especially between Elrick and Leila. Luna being an angel like always and so on so forth.

“Sigh, I see that everybody’s here.”

A short silence before Riel continued

“The other day I taught you about the importance of names. This time, we are going to deal with the topic of EDITING. Any thoughts?”

Leila was the first one to raise her hand

“Writers creates rough drafts. Rough drafts are the very first version of our written work. Regardless of whether it is a document, a novel, short story, contract form. As long as it hasn’t been edited for the first time, it will remain a rough draft. Editing is an absolute necessity for writers because it is what allows us to improve our writing. Writers who produce impeccable results don’t just rely on their editors. They themselves; as writers, need to edit their works to reduce errors and to increase consistency as much as possible. It is said that the best works in history had been edited more than ten times by their writers.”

“Ohhoh… Great explanation right there.”

Leila earned Riel’s praise. Praise was something that Leila never needed in any department of her life, but when it came to literature, praises were an important factor which fueled her drive and motivation to keep writing. The huge amount of time that she had put into research proved helpful and useful, but would she learn more from her teacher?

“Now then, when do you think should you start editing?”

“Sir, Sir! I’ll answer!”

Elrick raised his hand as he vocalized his intentions.

“The earlier we edit, the better. We should edit our works right after we are done writing them.”

Riel wasn’t satisfied with the answer that he had just heard, but he gave credit to Elrick for being cooperative. Since Riel didn’t get the answer that he was hoping for, he believed that it would be better to let the other members give more insight. Just then, Anna raised her hand.

“Sir, I agree with what Elrick said. I believe that it would be best to edit our work the moment we finish writing.”

The usually quiet and timid Luna decided to participate for once. With Luna around, the shock never ends.

“Umm… I don’t really know how to explain it.. B-but…!”

Riel gave her a slight push so she could be brave

“Don’t worry. Any and all opinions are accepted. There’s no right or wrong here. Although there are optimal ways to do things but to each their own.”

“I believe that we should wait before editing…! L-like, 3 days after writing…”

[Heh.. Luna isn’t just cute. She’s a genius!]

Riel allowed Luna to sit down after hearing an answer that could satisfy him.

“Out of all the answers that I heard, there’s only one that satisfied me.”

“And I thought there’s no right or wrong.”

Elrick muttered. Though he didn’t really mean much by it.

“Of course, there’s no right and wrong, but there are optimal ways to go about things.”

Riel said those words with his head held high as he wore a smug look of fulfillment.

“What Luna said just now is none other than the most optimal way to edit one’s own work.”

Riel paused for a moment in order to gauge his club’s reaction but continued anyway when everyone seemed ready to listen.

“There’s one thing that all writers have in common. We feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment RIGHT AFTER finishing our work.”

Everybody silently nodded to the Riel who had been explaining.

“And THAT feeling is exactly why we shouldn’t edit our work just right after we are done writing. That feeling of accomplishment that we feel after writing is caused by a surge of feel-good chemicals like dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin. The overwhelming sense of fulfillment and accomplishment forces us to have a positive bias. We enter what they call The Writer’s High. Writer’s High is especially powerful to beginners and amateurs who are still beginning their writing careers. It doesn’t matter how much we re-read our work. Re-read it over and over again, but the feeling of accomplishment would hinder our judgment. Everything we see is correct. Everything we read appears to be appropriate. What we see is a perfect draft devoid of errors and inconsistencies, but that’s wrong.”

He stopped to take a breath before bombarding his students with more information.

“Hide your written work and DO NOT touch it for a couple of days. Once you feel like your sense of accomplishment is already passing, read your work. You’ll be surprised by how much you’ll end up fixing.”

Riel didn’t waste a second. He gave his members a task to do right after the explanation. Without even the time to take notes, the students are forced to look at their short story compilations. The goal was to criticize their own work from a month ago or older.

“WHAT’S THIS?! I swear this wasn’t how I read this before! Ughh! The typos and the wordingsss!”

Elrick was the first to realize the wrongs of his writing.

“Let me see.” was what Riel said. Elrick asked him not to laugh and Riel quickly agreed.

“Oh, you repeated some words more than four times in a single page. Like for example, this character who kept looking around. You can use some other words and term that has the same meaning as *Look*. Also, I notice redundancies. Phrases and sentences that would not change the context, meaning or the overall tone of your story regardless of whether they are there or not.”

The next one who sought Riel’s opinion was Anna.

“Hmm? Typos are a big problem for you. Stop typing or writing in the dark. It’s also healthier for your eyes if you can get ample of light.”

“Sir, please have a look at my work.”

This time, it was the cool Leila.

“Hoohh… I see neither spelling nor grammatical errors, but you have the same problem as Elrick.”

Riel could hear Leila clicking her tongue upon hearing Elrick’s name.

[Scary…]

“Riel, go take a look at mine.”

“I refuse.”

“Why?! Come on!”

Runa was forcing Riel’s hand open so that she could hand her work to him, but Riel didn’t give up.

“You’re just going to show me something that won’t make sense.”

“Please give me a second chance! I swear, I did a good job on this one!”

Riel then proceeded to give himself a big sigh before entertaining Runa.

“...”

“...”

“This is Luna’s, right?”

“Oh, I got found out? Tehee!”

“Tsch. You obviously wouldn’t have any work of at least a month old. You just joined the club, after all.”

“Yep! Actually…”

Runa whispered to Riel the truth. The fact that Luna couldn’t bring herself to hear Riel’s opinion on her story on a personal level.

“Hmm…. Among the ones I’ve seen today, this one’s the best. I can still see some room for improvement, but honestly, this might be a good material for competitions.”

Everybody got curious as to what Riel was talking about. The literature club’s goal and dream had always been to someday enter a writing competition. For starters, it’d definitely good to enter either a flash fiction contest or a short story contest. Writing contests in the Philippines sadly isn’t popular, but it’s possible to submit one’s work to international competitions via the internet. Usually, there would be contestants from all over the world. The Wordsmith Champion, or in other words, the winner of the competition can choose the venue for the awarding of the contestants. If Luna’s work somehow gets the Gold, it would mean so much for the school and for the club. It would also reflect Riel’s teaching skills. However,

“No! I don’t want that…”

Most of the literature club got taken aback by Luna’s words except for her sister who knew what was happening.

“I’m… I’m going to make something.. Something much better.”

Within Luna’s meek expression lies the determination and the resolve to create something that would far surpass her previous work. At that point in time, nobody but the twin sisters knew the thoughts that dwell from deep within their hearts. Riel could only respect Luna’s decision and wait in anticipation.