I have stated that I am a fan, author and artist. I will freely admit that one of the things that has kept me away from posting here more in recent days is my work with a story that was due… well, let’s just say it should have been in a lot sooner. The difficulty was that I didn’t understand what the editor was trying to say.

I don’t “show” my emotions online much. I don’t like putting that sort of thing out for the inspection of others. In this case I think it’s important. I was frustrated. I was mad – both at myself and the editor. I went seeking the reassurance of very close friends and asked their advice on my writing. In short, I struggled. I don’t like feeling that way. It affected other aspects of my creative drive.

So, here’s the pro tip I learned the hard way: Know your tools.

Why the struggle? I wasn’t seeing the whole picture. I didn’t get the comments that were made in Word because I was using Open Office. Apparently the two don’t play nice together for certain aspects of the programs. The most ironic portion of this whole thing is that my day job as a software application engineer deals daily with how programs interact with each other and knowing all the available tools for each. Forgive me if I don’t mention this to the other app engineers.

Fortunately, it worked out in the end. I turned in the story after actually getting to read the full set of comments, not just the stuff in red at the end and got a contract back. Coming soon: Defending the Future: Dogs of War!