My own personal Catch 22

[Laine]

Writers are a funny lot, aren't we? I was asked recently why I bothered to write if I didn't try to get published. My answer seemed reasonable to me at the time. I said, "I'm not published because I'm not polished enough yet. I just need more time and practice." As I said, seems perfectly reasonable, does it not? Then another question was lobbed at me that has my head still spinning. With all the sincerity in the world, this sweet little librarian said, "But how will you know when you are 'polished enough' if you don't try to get your work published?" Hmmm. Sounds like a Catch 22 to me.

How simple is it to write and write and revise and revise and then shove that story into a drawer and blame it on my muse's poor work ethic. It's been my pattern, up until now. While I still consider myself to be a beginner in the writer's world, I'm at least leaning towards doing more than has been my norm. I want to write for publication. It's a goal, and goals are good things, right?

Now that I've put that goal out there for any and all to read, it makes it 'real' in a way. Something I've committed myself (in public) to do. Going public makes it harder to blow it off, blame my muse, and crawl into a dark hole and just do nothing. You are all my witnesses. I'm committed--let's see if it gets me anywhere--anywhere straight jackets are not a common fashion statement, that is.
Have a good one folks...till I have something else to say...
Laine

[Laine]

Thanks Jannie!! I am not exactly in the same spot as you are yet...I've entered a couple of short stories in contests and that sort of thing...most of my work that has been published has been my poetry. Found its way into a few magazines and a "Deployment Guide" or two floating around the military bases on the planet, but that's about it. Never got paid a dime for any of it, either. But at the time, that wasn't why I was writing, either. Times change! LOL

I'm glad you dropped by my spot...come back often!

:D

[Jannie Balliett]

Hi Laine. I'm exactly in the same stage as you are. I'm not a published novelist yet, but the mss is almost complete. I'm at the stage of learning all I can about the proposal and agents, and the publishing world at large, before submitting. I've had stories published in magazines and one in a anthology that will be in bookstores 2008. That is an entirely different world than the book publishing world is. Nice to meet someone else in the same place that I am amongst these wonderful published authors. I've already learned alot from them and made new friends.