I can still remember my first blog post, written when I was at Macdonald's for hours, stuck outside because I forgot my house keys and here I am typing once again, thankfully at home.

This writing lab journey has be a sheer joy to be a part of. I've had such wonderful teammates who make every Thursdays and Fridays so much fun, laughing like wackos for no reason in class all the time.

But when it came to grinding out the technicalities of our work which included story schedules, layout sketches, flat plans and photo-taking, we still had fun and got the job done.

Here's the lowdown on some of the things I've learnt through this practicum:

- Sometimes you have to craft your interview questions differently, according to the interviewee.

Some people are more open than others while some tend to need a bit of warming up before they can share their stories, so beginning an interview with small talk or a joke is actually a nice way of getting started.

- Cutting articles are not easy.

Word count: 789. Desired word count for magazine: 450. It was hard removing large chunks of text or quotes from already seemingly well written articles. The challenge was cutting it, while not diminishing the whole angle and purpose of the story. Through this, I've learnt to take out quotes that may seem long. Shorten sentences while keeping the meaning the same instead of removing them wholesale. And any digression from the topic has to be deleted. Tough, but manageable.


- Editing is not a one-time thing

After I proofread all the articles, I was confident that there were no errors. Boy was I wrong. It was like a new magical discovery that every time I scanned the new magazine again, my not-so-good eyesights somehow spots a typo or error in certain articles. So yes, editing has to be done over and over again until the magic show ends.

- That Byline Joy

I mean, it's always nice to see hard work paid off with a "By: Gerard Michael". Just these 3 words satisfy me.

- I need to brush up on my design skills

Yes, I'm still at it, not so long ago I complained about my lacking ability to design and here I am once again reiterating on my need to do better. I think I just need more practice.

- Make friends and be connected

I'm thankful for knowing certain friends who have helped me in this project. A couple of them are featured in the magazine. It can be frustrating not being able to find the right person to interview.


- I can't cook

So the salt and pepper crew decided to have a cooking session in Phoebe's house, to be featured in the magazine. Spaghetti and meatballs. I was in charge of handling the meatballs but I think the team would have been better off without me.



- Lots of room for improvement

I feel that at times I take too long pondering how to form my sentences or sometimes I make basic errors while writing, be it typos or grammatical mistakes. I aim to work on it, read more books and papers, and you know, better myself at it.


Conclusion:

I had no regrets taking up this practicum. Salt & Pepper magazine was just an idea. But as a team consisting of Justin, Sharen, Phoebe, Amanda and I, we made it come to fruition.

Regards,
Gerard Michael