I have been writing short stories for about 10 weeks now and I am starting to wonder how long I can keep this up. I know that 10 weeks is nothing. I haven't even heard back on most of my submissions and won't for a while. I have been putting so much time into this and don't really feel like I am getting much out of it. I don't see myself quitting, but at the same time how long is an appropriate time to have a go at this?
How long have you been at it?
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I'm not sure I understand your question. What do you mean by "at it"? Writing in general? Also, I don't know what you mean by "appropriate time." Sorry, I'm dense.
What do you hope to get out of writing?
What do you hope to get out of writing?
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You've been writing for 10 total weeks and you have submissions out already? Or did I read that wrong?
I've been writing, short stories and others, for 12 or 13 years (I'm not counting the fantasy epic I wrote in high school. We needn't speak of that). Submitting, I did for awhile from 2003 'til 2008 or so, and stopped sending stories out for awhile, but did not stop writing.
Sometimes I only work on short stories. Other times I only work on a novel. Because I haven't been published, and am essentially "playing", I can be as serious or not about something as I'd like. I imagine I can do this indefinitely.
I've been writing, short stories and others, for 12 or 13 years (I'm not counting the fantasy epic I wrote in high school. We needn't speak of that). Submitting, I did for awhile from 2003 'til 2008 or so, and stopped sending stories out for awhile, but did not stop writing.
Sometimes I only work on short stories. Other times I only work on a novel. Because I haven't been published, and am essentially "playing", I can be as serious or not about something as I'd like. I imagine I can do this indefinitely.
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I have been doing this since 1991. My first published story came out in 1993. (I sold it in 1992.)
Ten weeks is like drawing in a single breath and not even exhaling in the writing/publishing business.
Ten weeks is like drawing in a single breath and not even exhaling in the writing/publishing business.
I've been writing for as long as I can remember. My first publication was in my primary school newsletter, I was six. I wrote many many short stories, most abandoned, and a completed (but terrible) novel when I was 21.
I only started subbing my stories in 2008.
I only started subbing my stories in 2008.
Have a go at what, fortune and fame in writing? 10 weeks does seem like an unfathomly long time to have put up with it- I say everyone packs it in and schleps it to law school!
Out of curiousity, how old are you, gettingby?
Out of curiousity, how old are you, gettingby?
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I don't get it either. What do you mean by appropriate time? If you're wondering how long you should stick to it then you should stick to it for as long as it takes to get to where you want to be, I suppose?
Of course, if you don't really want to go anywhere, you could always stop right now. It'll make people wonder why you ever bothered to sub in the first place, but that's another sort of discussion.
Of course, if you don't really want to go anywhere, you could always stop right now. It'll make people wonder why you ever bothered to sub in the first place, but that's another sort of discussion.
Writing and submitting shorts since 2000. Sold my first short to a paying print magazine in 2001.
You really have to want to write the stories and not give up if you get a few rejections.
You really have to want to write the stories and not give up if you get a few rejections.
Well, I began writing about 3-4 weeks ago 
Didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I do though, time will tell how long it's appropriate (= I still enjoy it).
Didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I do though, time will tell how long it's appropriate (= I still enjoy it).
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I've been writing and submitting short stories since 1997. First story published in 2000. 20 published total. I'm not particularly prolific.
I hear that loud & clear, especially the part about the adolescent fantasy epic. I co-wrote (shudder) two of those.
I write very few short stories. I have sent out 3 or 4 over the past 10 years, none of which has been published and some of which I've given up on. I also write novels, and for the past few years have started doing a lot of newspaper writing, which is a whole different -- and much more profitable -- ballgame.
Okay, yes. I would like to become a little famous in the short-story community.
As for how old I am, I don't understand how that makes a difference.
Well, I began writing about 3-4 weeks ago
It's nice to hear someone is close to where I am. Good luck with your stories.
I submitted my first story to a commercial publication (Twilight Zone Magazine) edited by TED Klein sometime between 1982 and 1985. I submitted my first idea for a comic book to Marvel Comics when I was 9 or 10. Assuming I was 10 and that submitted idea counts, I've been at this off and on for 42 years. I ain't famous, or rich, yet.
Well, how old you are does make a difference. If you're fifteen, give yourself ten years to either succeed to a reasonable degree, or to fail miserably. If you're eighty-nine, you'd best succeed by next Thursday. If you;re somewhere in teh middle, adjust accordingly.
But a better way to look at it is by how many stories you've written and submitted. Of those short story writers who do succeed, very few do so before they've written and submitted fifty stories. Many take a hundred. Some take even more.
Remember William Saroyan, The Daring Young Writer who received four thousand rejections before selling a story?
Honestly, I don't even know why you're asking this at ten weeks? You're asking a ten year question, not a ten week one.
One the other hand, quit whenever you don't want to do it anymore. The thing about being a writer is that if you quit before you succeed, no one is ever going to miss you or your writing. Outside of close friends and family, no one will even know you tried, and they couldn't care less, even if they do know.
People only miss writers they've read and enjoyed.
So when it's no longer fun, why keep at it?.
I'm not a long term kind of guy, either, even though I've been at this for thirty-three years. The only reason I stuck with it is because I started selling immediately. But, really, if you expect to succeed before you've written at least a hundred stories, and until you've sent those hundred short stories to every magazine you can find, you're probably kidding yourself.
I've been writing stories since I was able to read (just about literally; I couldn't read until about 8 years old and started writing stories when I was 10).
Now, writing well didn't start happening until I was in my early 30s, and I'm 41 now. My first story was published in 2008, and since then I've had half a dozen stories published. I'm nowhere near 100 stories, so it doesn't have to take that long. The market matters, too. None of my shorts have appeared in pro-paying markets although I've tried; only in nonpaying and semi-pro. Since I only do this for fun and have no illusions (fantasies, but not illusions) of ever making tons of money from it this pace is fine for me. I'd like to be more prolific, and if it becomes important to me then I will be. James is right, however, that the only way to improve is to keep doing it and learn as you go.
Now, writing well didn't start happening until I was in my early 30s, and I'm 41 now. My first story was published in 2008, and since then I've had half a dozen stories published. I'm nowhere near 100 stories, so it doesn't have to take that long. The market matters, too. None of my shorts have appeared in pro-paying markets although I've tried; only in nonpaying and semi-pro. Since I only do this for fun and have no illusions (fantasies, but not illusions) of ever making tons of money from it this pace is fine for me. I'd like to be more prolific, and if it becomes important to me then I will be. James is right, however, that the only way to improve is to keep doing it and learn as you go.
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I've been focused on shorts for 3 or 4 years. I've published a handful of things, at token pay i guess- in one venue I was paid $20 and bought 25 copies at $2, so my stories cost me as much as $30. but every time I've felt like an artist, and i am. the places I've been published turn down 98% of what they see.
I make good money at my real job, so I'm not doing this for money, but I would like to hit bigger markets, and a Pushcart would be super cool. I don't write as regularly as I should but I will go back. (lately I've been diverted by oral storytelling, which is more immediate feedback).
James R. and Jaksen are very positive influences here, but you need to keep things in perspective- they both got published in top markets immediately. I think that's rare, James R's post to you tells you of a writer that got thousands of rejections, then got famous. In 10 weeks you cannot have received enough rejections to have reason from the rejections to quit, For that matter you probably haven't written long enough to be doing good work (again, unless you are the rare immediately published writer).
Quit or not? my first rejections pissed me off more than discouraged me. The acceptances are sweet enough as to make it worth keeping up.
I suppose it really depends on what you are looking for.
I make good money at my real job, so I'm not doing this for money, but I would like to hit bigger markets, and a Pushcart would be super cool. I don't write as regularly as I should but I will go back. (lately I've been diverted by oral storytelling, which is more immediate feedback).
James R. and Jaksen are very positive influences here, but you need to keep things in perspective- they both got published in top markets immediately. I think that's rare, James R's post to you tells you of a writer that got thousands of rejections, then got famous. In 10 weeks you cannot have received enough rejections to have reason from the rejections to quit, For that matter you probably haven't written long enough to be doing good work (again, unless you are the rare immediately published writer).
Quit or not? my first rejections pissed me off more than discouraged me. The acceptances are sweet enough as to make it worth keeping up.
I suppose it really depends on what you are looking for.
I started writing when I was a kid and took some classes when I was in college. After I graduated in '99 (with a completely unrelated degree), I started submitting whatever I had - both short stories and novels. The novels weren't good enough, and most of the short stories weren't either. It took me well over six years before I had my first acceptance. To date, I've sold a dozen stories.
You've been "writing" stories for 10 weeks, and have already submitted things somewhere, and you're frustrated at the lack of response? SRSLY??????????
caw
Have you edited/rewritten anything? Has anyone critiqued your work and made suggestions? Are you firing off unedited first drafts to potential publishers?
If not, you're not "writing". You're typing.
Ten weeks may seem like ten years to you, but it's half a heartbeat in the publishing business. You haven't even begun to really work at becoming a writer.
Many now famous writers took ten literal years, and more, to reach publication. There are writers here at AW who have taken that long, and more. Your post is naïve at best. and approaches being insulting to those here who have worked so long and hard at their craft.
caw
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