Anyone with me? Bunch of Hatrackers broke loose this year. I am proud of them. I have seen many make so much progress in there own writing.
I think I am ready to put my head down and make a name for myself this year. I know a few around here that are as well. Even if they don''t know it.
So lets hear you crow if you are going to dive in headfirst and really have belief in your abilities!
Hope I am not being too corny. Cheerleading is fun some times.
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
Not yet ready. Another eighteen months to go for fully realizing a major project in progress.
Posted by History (Member # 9213) on :
Don't think this will be the year. Perhaps 2013 or 2014 (if the Mayans are wrong ).
However, I do hope to complete a handful of stories in 2012, while I continue to work full time.
Mazel tov to all who have broken through, and those who have the dedication to make this "their" year.
Respectfully, Dr. Bob
Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :
I'm sure going to try. Sometime in early 2012 I'm going to start querying SEVEN STARS. I really do think that's my best novel yet. Fingers and toes crossed that some agent thinks so, too.
Hmm. That means I really have to get to work on the synopsis. Drat.
There's also a good chance that I'll be trying my hand at e-publishing BLOOD WILL TELL.
Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :
Always ready to break through in some area. Perhaps not as a pro writer but in some other field. 2011 has definitely been a pivotal year in my life, but I do hope 2012 will be more enjoyable.
And for the record, I wouldn't worry about the Mayans being right. Their calendar doesn't end next year, just restarts. Think of it as a new beginning, a chance to make matters right.
Posted by EVOC (Member # 9381) on :
This year has been good for me. I broke into the writing industry with two short story published. Still hoping for that pro rate acceptance letter before 2012, but hey there is always next year.
Posted by Foste (Member # 8892) on :
Well I did get some publication credits.
Time to expand on that. Gotta work on myself. Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :
quote:So lets hear you crow if you are going to dive in headfirst and really have belief in your abilities!
I have a decent amount of belief in my abilities. I just don't have the belief that my abilities have much to do with anything, as far as publication etc. That, I believe, is more or less outside of our control, besides having the persistence to continually submit. Which I do.
Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :
This has been a breakout year for me, albeit in a small way. Since I've elected the self-publish route, I've committed to have 12 books up on Amazon by the end of next year.
A good deal of that will the conversion of my ever-present WIP. I'll have three anthologies and a short story series (already published) up and eight novels. Four or five will be MG and half-sized.
My strategy is to have lots of books up making modest amounts. My Sword of Spells book is averaging 40 to 50 sales a week. If I have twelve times that it would be 500 to 600 books a week. Of course, some will sell more and some less.
If I attracted an agent last year, I'd still be two years away from being published.
Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :
Me.
Posted by enigmaticuser (Member # 9398) on :
Due to my work schedule, I'm with Owasm, but I'm working hard to make this the year of my first Epub. Then my goal after that is to keep up 1k a day so that it doesn't take me 3 years to finish the next one. So far so good.
Posted by MattLeo (Member # 9331) on :
I think I'm a little different. I don't harbor any particular desire to be a pro writer, other than to someday receive some pittance which could not possibly pay me minimum wage for the time writing has cost me.
I got into writing because I was an avid reader and I wanted to understand how my favorite authors did what they did. I finished The Wonderful Instrument (a satirical fantasy set in the 1930s about the relationship between romanticism and fascism) as a kind of laboratory for my ideas. The responses of people who managed to slog through the book made me think that I ought to complete *something* that was publishable.
I continue write because there are certain things I want to write about, not because I want to be a writer. Sometimes it feels a little like an addiction; it's something I don't entirely have a choice about doing. I'd love to be out of things to write about because then I could go back to focusing work which doesn't have more talent than the world needs trying to make a living at it.
My original goal was to be like Harper Lee, to publish one novel that said pretty much everything I wanted to say, and did that so wonderfully I never had to write another one again. I now think I might have two or three of the unholy things in me that need to be exorcised.
Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :
quote: I continue write because there are certain things I want to write about, not because I want to be a writer.
I actually identify with this somewhat, although in a slightly different way. Although I use the term, I think of myself as a storyteller before being a writer...the written word just happens to be my medium...and I feel that separates me a bit from much of this community which seems often more focused on the craft of writing than on storytelling.
Likewise, I write because I have things I wish to say, and stories in me that want telling. However, I don't think I ever run any chance of running out of either, or creating any single work that comes close to saying all I want to say. Also, I have a strong desire for my work to be shared with as many people as possible, and I do come at it from the perspective that it'd be awfully nice to get paid along the way, up to and including making a living off it.
Posted by Ken S (Member # 9010) on :
I don't know if I'll break out in the coming year (some of that is up to other folks) but it's definitely going to see an increase in opportunities for me to break out.
Posted by Crank (Member # 7354) on :
I spent most of 2011 redefining and rebuilding my connectivity and my relationship to the artistic world. I made plenty of mistakes, but the knowledge I gained in the process has proven invaluable.
At one point, it occurred to me that I haven't felt this clearly focused and intoxicatingly energized from my interactions with the artistic world since my days as a performing musician. Actually, even more so now. That alone was enough for me to deem 2011 as my true breakout year.
Now, let's see what I can do with that momentum.
S!
Posted by Heresy (Member # 1629) on :
I already kind of think of 2011 as a breakout year for me. I quit a few things that were getting in the way of my writing and had some major epiphanies about myself as a writer and my process. I'm homing in on the end of my first attempt at nano, which has already been wildly successful, and currently figure i'll have my first ever completed novel done in around mid-December.
But I'm hoping to improve on all of this in 2012, to continue the upward trend in my writing life. I'm hoping to be querying this novel by spring, summer at the latest. Plus writing more of them. We'll see how that goes.
-Heresy
Posted by MAP (Member # 8631) on :
I'm in. With my fingers crossed.
Posted by Bent Tree (Member # 7777) on :
Uncross those fingers, MAP . I was hoping you would show up.
Posted by andersonmcdonald (Member # 8641) on :
(gulp) I'm in.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
I could use a break this year (as in break out not as in take a break) I've been a little discouraged since I a book very much like one of my works in progress just came out. It isn't the first time this idea has been used, it won't be the last, but this is so close to mine that I can't see selling this book for a few years at least.
I'll submit like crazy though. I just wish I didn't have school and work, my brain is just tired.
Posted by telflonmail (Member # 9501) on :
Next year's goal:
Perseverance to complete stories.
Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :
Me! Though as my daughter keeps telling me, I've got to send something out if I want to be published...
Posted by Osiris (Member # 9196) on :
Last new years, I told myself I'd finish the first draft of my WIP novel. Didn't do that. I also thought I'd make my first story sale this year.
For 2012, I'd still like to make my first short story sale. I've mostly been targeting pro markets, so I've set the bar very high, but I think it is time to think about certain respected semi-pro markets. Finishing that WIP novel would be nice too.
Posted by Heresy (Member # 1629) on :
Unwritten, I am totally with your daughter on that, though in my case it begins a step earlier. I have to finish something in order to send it out so I can get published. Oh well, almost there.
-Heresy
Posted by RoxyL (Member # 9096) on :
Me.
Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :
Oh for heaven's sake, I haven't made it yet? Dangit....I've been trying to make this my NY resolution for like 5 years... (historical perspective: the only reason I write is because I made the NY resolution in 2007 to try writing as a means of expressing myself...)
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(historical perspective: the only reason I write is because I made the NY resolution in 2007 to try writing as a means of expressing myself...)