One Year Later
Just over a year ago I had my first story published (well, first speculative story as well as first story I actually got paid in more than copies anyway). I haven't counted recently, but I think I'm somewhere around twenty stories now, between those that have been published and the few that have been accepted but not yet published. For many things it seems like time flies, but it's hard to imagine that was only a year ago. It feels like my writing has changed and improved dramatically in that time.
I don't mean this to be a brag post (though I'm not above bragging when something warrants it!). Rather I see this as a wake-up to myself of just how early in my writing career I still am. So when I get frustrated that those pro sales and impressive novel advances aren't forthcoming yet, I have to remind myself--look where you were only a year ago. And then I have to push myself to improve myself, to grow in my writing as much in the year ahead. Suddenly this feels like a New Years Resolution post. So I'll just end it.
Just over a year ago I had my first story published (well, first speculative story as well as first story I actually got paid in more than copies anyway). I haven't counted recently, but I think I'm somewhere around twenty stories now, between those that have been published and the few that have been accepted but not yet published. For many things it seems like time flies, but it's hard to imagine that was only a year ago. It feels like my writing has changed and improved dramatically in that time.
I don't mean this to be a brag post (though I'm not above bragging when something warrants it!). Rather I see this as a wake-up to myself of just how early in my writing career I still am. So when I get frustrated that those pro sales and impressive novel advances aren't forthcoming yet, I have to remind myself--look where you were only a year ago. And then I have to push myself to improve myself, to grow in my writing as much in the year ahead. Suddenly this feels like a New Years Resolution post. So I'll just end it.
Comments
Lion, I'd been writing for a while and submitting sporadically, and even had one mainstream story in a pay-in-copies magazine about 6 years ago. But it wasn't until 2 years ago that I started submitting much more seriously, researching markets much more closely (and writing a lot more short fiction than I had been!). So it took about a year of that before I got my first publication (though it had been accepted some months earlier, maybe in March or April).