A Literary Life Starting from the First Year of High School

February 15th, Tuesday, the first day of the second semester of Grade 11.

Winter vacation is over. Thirty days is neither long nor short. Lin Shubai finished writing "The Wrong Station", reviewed all the manuscripts for the literary society, and prepared to publish "Four Generations Under One Roof". He spent more than twenty of those thirty days sitting at his desk, writing until his fingers ached. Wang Xiulan said he was "obsessed".

Eleven people were sitting in the activity room of room 204 in the administration building. On both sides of the long table, members of the literary society took their seats one after another, some holding folders and others holding notebooks.

The blackboard read "Final Review Meeting for the Inaugural Issue of 'Hope'".

The term "final review" sounds a bit formal, but Lin Shubai felt it should be more formal. This wasn't a casual club activity; it was the final drafting meeting before the magazine's publication. Everyone's manuscript would become printed material in a few weeks, to be read by the entire school. He understood this pressure of being "seen" better than anyone.

"Today is our first meeting of the new semester, and also the last meeting before the publication of the inaugural issue of 'Hope'." Lin Shubai turned around and looked at everyone present. "There are three main things to do: First, each group will report on the final review results and the finalized manuscript list; second, we will determine the timetable for typesetting and printing; and third, we will assign the task of collecting feedback after publication."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the people present. "Who wants to go first?"

Yu Xingzhi was the first to raise her hand. "In the campus story group, twelve stories passed the initial review last semester. After a review during the winter break and communication with the authors, six stories were finally selected. Five of them were submitted by students, and one was an excellent piece of writing recommended by the Chinese language teachers. The themes covered three directions: family affection, campus life, and growth insights. The shortest story was 1,100 words, and the longest was 2,400 words, all within our set range."

She flipped to a page of the form. "Of the six rejected papers, the authors of three said they would revise and resubmit, while the authors of the other three did not respond. I wrote specific revision suggestions for all of them and gave feedback to all the authors I could contact."

Lin Shubai nodded. He had read all of Yu Xingzhi's rejection feedback during the winter break. Each point was written in great detail, not just the usual platitudes like "not well written" or "keep trying." She even wrote nearly three hundred words of revision suggestions for one of the rejections.

"Thank you for your hard work. If the authors whose manuscripts were rejected can revise them well, they can be given priority consideration for the second issue."

Yu Xingzhi sat down, and Zhao Lin immediately raised her hand.

"The 'Book and Film Review Group' has four entries that passed the final review: three book reviews and one film review." Zhao Lin opened her black hardcover notebook, speaking a little faster than Yu Xingzhi, but with equal clarity.

"Okay, pay close attention to the film review. If it's well-received, we can increase the length of the film review in the second installment."

Zhao Lin nodded and sat down. Zhou Yutong stood up, holding the folded A4 paper in her hand. Her expression was more relaxed than last semester, but her voice was still not loud. "Poetry and Youth Group, eight poems passed the final review. Five of them were submitted last semester, and three were newly submitted during the winter break."

Lin Shubai looked at Zhou Yutong, "Okay, these eight songs are settled. Also, tell them that if there are any other works, they can submit them again in the second round."

Zhao Lei gave the final report: "In the Hoshino Group, four articles passed the final review. Adding Lin Shubai's 'Night on the Galactic Railroad,' there are a total of five articles. Among the four student submissions, one was from another school. It was a science fiction article about time travel written by Lu Zhixing, a second-year student from Jiaotong University Affiliated High School. It was quite well written."

Lin Shubai remembered this manuscript. When he first read it, he thought the author had a strong ability to create the story, but the narrative rhythm was a bit off. It was like a good car but the driver didn't know how to shift gears. When he submitted it for the second time, the boy almost rewrote the whole thing, expanding on every key plot point and adding details about the characters' psychological activities and the environment. The effect was much better.

"The other three are from our school and grade level, and they are of good quality, but not as good as Lu Zhixing's," Zhao Lei added.

"Okay, I'll highlight Lu Zhixing's article."

Lin Shubai wrote the number of final articles for each group on the blackboard, then turned around and said, "Total number of articles in the inaugural issue: 6 Campus Stories, 4 Book Reviewes, 8 Poems and Youth, 5 Starry Night, plus 1 Foreword, totaling about 35,000 words and 38 pages."

He put down the chalk, returned to his seat, and opened his notebook.

"The second thing is the timeline." His gaze swept over Shen Yue. "Shen Yue, when can we submit the final cover draft?"

Shen Yue crushed the milk carton in her hand. "I can hand it in today. I finished it during winter break. I'll show it to you later."

"Okay, Shen Yue will send the final draft to the printing room before next Monday. I have already communicated with Teacher Chen. He will confirm the printing details with the printing room. The printing cycle is about one week. We will receive the finished product in early March and distribute it throughout the school at the end of March."

Lin Shubai turned to the next page of his notebook. "The third thing is that after the inaugural issue is published, we need to collect reader feedback. Each class will be given a feedback form, and the group leaders will be responsible for collecting it. The feedback should be collected within two weeks. The feedback should include an overall evaluation of the publication, favorite columns and articles, and suggestions for improvement. This feedback will be used as a reference for the improvement of the second issue."

He picked up a template of a feedback form and held it up for everyone to see. The form was very simple: column name, rating (1-5 points), most popular articles, and suggestions for improvement. He didn't want to make it too complicated, because no one would want to fill in something too complicated. This was something he learned from the reader feedback form of "Story Club"—a good feedback form should be filled out by readers within three minutes.

The meeting room was silent for a few seconds; no one asked a question.

Zhao Lei suddenly raised his hand. "Lin Shubai, I have a question."

"explain."

How many copies of the inaugural issue were printed?

Lin Shubai had thought about this problem. He had discussed it with Lao Chen, who said, "You set a number first, and the school will support you." He had also mentioned it to Principal Zhou, who said, "Print them, print them and distribute them, then print more when you run out." But he didn't want to waste it. If he printed too many and couldn't distribute them all, they would just pile up in the activity room and gather dust, which would be throwing school money down the drain. If he printed too few and there weren't enough to distribute, the students who wanted to see them wouldn't get them, which would be a waste of everyone's hard work.

"Print 300 copies first. Give five copies to each class in grades 10 and 11 and put them in the book corner. Put the rest in the library reading room for all teachers and students to borrow. If the response is good, print a second batch." This is the number he came up with after calculation. Five copies per class, twelve classes in grade 10 and twenty-two classes in grade 11, a total of 120 copies. With the library keeping copies and spares, 300 copies is just right.

Zhao Lei nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

Lin Shubai glanced at the clock on the wall; it was almost time for school to end. "That's all then, meeting adjourned."