2010 - Setting Myself on the Path of Professionals

Whenever I look back at where I was a year ago, I have a strange shock. I knew I loved to write. I knew I could finish a first draft. In fact, I had just realised I could manage two stories in the same month when I set my mind to it. I knew I had a lot to learn, and that I needed to do so through careful editing of my novel.

I had no idea what was waiting for me. 

I wanted to clean up the novel in time to get my free copy. With two months, I should be fine, right? Haha-ha... ha. When I realised at the end of January how little I had accomplished yet, I finally caught a glimpse of how much work there is behind a novel.

At that point I must have tripled my efforts, and somehow I finished by the end of May. I had something that was slightly better than your typical first drafts, though I knew there were still mistakes all over the place. I also knew that although I had finished my line edits, I would not return to the novel.

At some point in March 2010, I decided to look up the publishing industry and promptly found myself on Nathan Bransford's blog. I must have read 80% of the archives, if not more, and I was finally confronted with the realities of the publishing industry.

The overwhelming odds only boosted my desire to be a part of this industry. I decided I was a writer. 

It's strange, to realise I made this a conscious decision less than a year ago, because it feels so obvious to me today. It's not a distant dream. It's right there, closer to my heart than any other potential job. 

In 2010 I decided I wanted to be a professional writer. I edited a novel, wrote a script, doubled the number of books I read, planned another novel, wrote it, realised it was all wrong, replanned it and a third, started this blog, wrote the two novels during NaNoWriMo,wrote and edited a handful of shorts, and began replanning WHITE ECHOES for the third time.

I feel I've come a long way, but it's a tiny bit of what is yet to come. Writing has become this second job, and I give 10 to 15 hours to it every week (in addition to the real job and the classes). This isn't going to change, unless it's to write more.

Hopefully, at the end of 2011 I will be able to repeat myself, and say I've come a long way.

Happy New Year to all of you, readers, and may we never falter!