Becoming A Fiction Writer scores a century
Sorry to all non-Commonwealth nations there for using a cricket metaphor … but I’m an Aussie and I grew up on cricket, so my blog can score a century if I want it to!
What I’m trying to say is that this is the 100th post on Becoming A Fiction Writer, which I started back in December 2006 when I boldly proclaimed “I’m gonna be a fiction writer!” Since then I’ve been rattling on about my procrastination and time management dilemmas and trying to learn some more about fiction writing in general. I had a big breakthrough when I decided, on the spur of the moment, to draft my novel in November 2007 as part of National Novel Writing Month, and since then, I’ve been able to get a bit of fiction writing done at fairly regular intervals.
But I definitely haven’t become a fiction writer yet, which is lucky, really, because otherwise I’d probably have to change the name of this blog. I’m not sure when the “becoming a fiction writer” goal is actually reached: is that when I have a novel published and on the shelves in shops near you? I guess that’s a good amount of the way there, although I have a feeling that becoming a writer is a lifelong process.
In any case, thanks for following through the century of posts. I adore getting comments from readers of this blog, especially utterings of sympathy, so keep them coming! It’s nice to know that there are other people out there going through similar fiction writing struggles as I am, or simply people who are interested in following what I’m up to. Thanks and keep reading and commenting!
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Comments
Agreed, Ian. Maybe a several-lifetimes-long process, if you’re so inclined. And blogging does seem to distract us from doing other writing, it certainly is a problem for me.
My problem is I’m hooked on the short-term kick I get from blogging. Newspaper reporter’s occupational hazard? For really longer projects like a novel, the feedback might take years to come in.
I can totally relate to that. Blogging is so instantaneous, you see your words up there looking pretty, and then people actually make a comment … but they will probably forget about it tomorrow. A novel’s going to sit on their shelves and gather dust. I guess I want to create dust gatherers!
The line that sticks out here for me is: becoming a writer is a life-long process.
Never written fiction but thought of fictionalising a lot of incidents/adventures/scenarios I’ve survived. If only I’d stop blogging about them…