What rollercoaster?
Trying to get published!
Yes, that’s right. October the 4th is my official “writing anniversary”. Yes, I’ve been making stories since I could draw rudimentary pictures with crayons. Yes, I wrote my first full length novel at 14. Yes, I wrote fanfiction for 10 years after that. But October 4th, 2012, was the first day of the Writer’s Digest online workshop “12 Weeks to Your First Draft”.
In no way, shape, or form did I have a first draft in 12 weeks, btw. Although I’d love to go back now and take that workshop again (and would, if it weren’t so damned expensive) with my current skills. After four successful NaNoWriMo’s, 12 weeks is an ETERNITY! But, what that workshop DID teach me was that I had a solid foundation of writing ability. It taught me what I was great at already, and key areas I needed to improve … which I promptly added to my ever-growing knowledge base about what makes good stories. But the best thing was that 12 weeks of having to be accountable for my original writing went a long, long, long way toward developing a writing habit.
And the intensity of my first NaNo in 2012 solidified it.
Four years of regular writing on my original works now. After the first year of starting all this, I wrote a summary post where I outlined my accomplishments for the year. Since then, I’ve gotten a lot more lax in tracking my progress. Recently, I’ve gotten downright horrid at it. The funny thing is, I feel the same now, four years later, as I did back then. As in … I feel like I haven’t accomplished much. Except this time I don’t have handy numbers to pull out of my back pocket to convince myself otherwise. 😛
Of course, despite the fact I don’t have 5 novels published by now (like I’d hoped) and still don’t have a single SFWA-approved market publication (like I’d hoped) and don’t have a traditional book deal (like I’d hoped), I do have lots of other (though considerably less tangible) things now.
For example, I’ve learned a great deal about self-publishing. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know before, but boy, I sure didn’t know a whole freakin’ lot. There’s a reason there’s 100s of books out there on how to Self-Publish. The short version: it’s not actually easy. In fact, it’s really, really hard. It’s exhausting. But also rewarding.
I’ve found some fabulous people in the indie author community I now consider role models.
I’ve continued to build my Twitter community, and it’s honestly one of my favorite places to hang out with fellow authors now.
I’ve taken on a partnership role with my own publishing company, officially making me a small business owner. (TAXES, YAY!)
I’ve helped host two workshops for fellow authors.
I’ve spoken with high school students about writing and self-publishing. (Note: Last year I was terrified of such a thing.)
I’ve been a panelist at a local writing convention. (See note above.)
I gave my first live reading. (See note above x100.)
I sold my books for the first time at a local SFF convention. (Also see note above.)
Oh, I actually had a book to sell, even if it was only one.
I self-published two short stories.
I’ve had two flash fictions published in anthologies.
My short stories, written in one hour, have placed in 3 of the 4 years I participated in the Story in a Bag challenge at our local writing convention.
We have scheduled our first book signing for November 19th, 2pm, at Reader’s World.
We’ll be at our local community college for their annual Literary Festival too as panelists, doing readings, selling our books, and likely hosting a workshop there, too.
I’ve completed the first round of edits on my sci fi novel, am eyeball-deep in the second round of edits, have a few more short stories under my belt, a children’s book in the process of being illustrated for publication, a poetry book in the works, and a list of 27 other novel ideas ready and waiting in the wings.
I’ve had 6 paid freelance editing gigs now, too.
Oh! And I got a pretty new website!
So, while it seems at first that my writing progress has progressively slowed over the last 3 years, I don’t think that’s really the case. I think instead it has simply expanded in scope. Moved outward as well as upward, I’d say, especially over the last year. I’ve experienced a lot of personal growth recently, and in addition to that, I’m no longer just writing books.
Getting myself to consistently write was the challenge of Year 1. That’s now firmly in hand. Since I managed that, I’ve now moved on to editing, formatting, coordinating covers and illustrations, publishing, marketing, maintaining my platform, building a mailing list, networking with other fabulous writers, with artists, with podcasters, with cover designers, with storytellers, with bookstore owners and colleges and convention organizers, with agents and editors and publishers. And then there’s the workshops, the workbooks, the online courses.
Thankfully, I went into this knowing it would be a tough road and a long haul. But the thing is, the longer I do this, the more and more I love it. The more it expands, the better it gets.
Overwhelming at times, yes. Exhausting at times, for sure.
But brilliant.
There are a lot of things poised right now on the verge of happening. Remember how four years ago I mentioned I’d read somewhere it took career authors 5-7 years to get their break?
I’m starting in on Year 5 now. I have a pretty good feeling about this year. 🙂
Leave a Reply