My wife might argue with me about this, but I’m specifically talking about growing up as a writer.
When I first started down the writing path I can honestly say I had visions of fame and glory. Mind you, those visions didn’t last very long as I started to research the entire writing life. All the research I did served to make me more paranoid about my own writing’s quality and the actual chances any of it would ever see the light of day.
I (somehow) managed to get past the paranoia and self-doubt and kept writing. It wasn’t great, but it continued to get better. I began to submit the occasional piece. When I did so, I waited and stressed. When it (invariably) came back rejected I was crushed and spent countless hours evaluating what went wrong and gradually built my writing confidence up to the point where I started writing again.
That continued on for some time with the amount of stress I experienced decreasing marginally and the time I spent with my self-confidence in tatters decreased too. I moved from sending out a story and not writing until I received the next rejection to where I could send something out and actually work on new stuff (at a reduced level).
I’m finally to the point where all the evaluation is going away and I’m able to submit more than one story at a time. I’m also actively writing while the work is out in the wild. Case in point, I have three stories out currently: a YA novel, a fantasy novel and a fantasy short. I’m also writing and podcasting. Oh yeah, and I’m NOT stressing about the stuff that’s out there (well, not too much, anyway).
And it’s working for me. I’m no longer paralyzed by doubt. If a story isn’t accepted by one publisher, there are others that might like it. It’s a good place to be.
Where are you at in your writing life?
Personal Update
As I mentioned above, I have three stories out right now. I should hear about the YA Novel contest soon (good or bad). I already have another market lined up for it if it is rejected.
The fantasy novel was sent out as a partial a couple weeks ago and a full last night. I’ve been told to expect a response in the next three weeks. I’ve got to line up another market for it if it’s rejected.
The short story was resent two days ago and I will probably hear back within two weeks. I already have a couple places to send it should it not get picked up.
That’s not even including the new writing. In long fiction, I’m still writing and podcasting ‘GalaxyBillies’. I will be spending some time polishing some of the short fiction I wrote a while ago to send out too.
Busy times. Fun too.
Where am I at? Well I’m writing more the last few weeks and I’m finally thinking of ways to make money. For me maybe that looks like self publishing some shorts and anthologies? I’m not so sure submitting shorts to traditional venues gets me what I want $$$-wise. The paying markets I’ve found don’t pay much. And most of those seem to have truly MASSIVE slush piles.
For my longer stuff I think small publishers is the way to go for a start. Once I edit Archangel, now that it’s done, I’ll start shopping to those and to agents.
I’m completely with you. I want to start with a small press too because then I’ll have to develop and learn to flex my marketing and promotional muscles. I’d like to get involved in a couple anthologies, but I’m not quite to the point where I want to publish my own. I need a few (several?) more polished short stories first.