Graduating from beginner status

[Felicia Beasley]

I am curious as to when people stop considering themselves beginners (or considering others beginners) with writing novels. Is it when they finally become published? When they are best sellers? Or when they finish their first novel? Or where in between?

Personally, I'm not sure. I'm still waiting for that feeling of "Wow, I'm no longer a beginner", but who knows when or if I'll ever feel that way. I know after I finished the first draft of my first novel, I finally felt like a writer. Than I reread it and felt like a hack :cry: Now going through the process of rewriting and editing and working on new works, I constantly feel like there is so much more to learn, which I think is a good thing.

Just trying to promote discussion and sate my own curiosity. Now back to the writing! *cracks the whip*

[Azraelsbane]

I learn new ways to improve my writing every day. See the word counts in my sig? I still feel like a beginner, but I also feel I've come a long way from the beginning.

I don't think there is a line separating beginner/intermediate/advanced, but one separating those who think they are one of the three.

[JoNightshade]

I don't have any novels published, but I personally don't consider myself a beginner. I have a BA in Literature, I have a job writing for a travel company, and I've published short stories and a non-fiction college guide. I've written four or five novels now, and I'm at the point where I'm submitting two of them to agents. I've also done enough research and learned enough that I know how the industry works. So... there was no dividing line for me, but I would not consider myself a beginner.

But I do consider myself a LEARNER. I think that's the important thing. If you ever stop learning, no matter what stage you're in, you're dead. :)

[Toothpaste]

This question will no doubt spark an interesting debate, but my answer is kind of dumb. I always asked that question of myself as both an author and actor. And then one day, I just knew it. I'm professional. Doesn't mean I don't have more to learn, but I suddenly just felt like, yes, today, I am no longer aspiring. I am.

[ChaosTitan]

I never thought of myself as a beginner, even when I banged out my first (dreadful) stories in junior high. I've always just been a writer. Unpublished writer, mind you, but a writer.

Granted, if I had ever thought of myself as a beginner, I left that behind six novels ago.

[ClaudiaGray]

The more I write, the more I know -- and the more I realize I have yet to learn. I'm published and hope I am still at the beginning of developing my work. I know I've come a long way, but I think it is important always to focus on where I need to improve.

[johnzakour]

I'm still consider myself if not at the beginning stages then at the early stages of my writing career.

Whenever I'm asked to do a book signing at a convention or give a talk I keep thinking to myself "why would anybody want me to sign or talk about anything. I'm still trying to figure this game out???"

Hey if we're not learning we're dead.

[javili]

A friend of mine is a really great painter. He always says memorable things about the life in the arts. Regarding this, he once said,

"I knew I had become a journeyman when I realized that if I don't know how to do something there is nobody I can ask."

[Dave.C.Robinson]

I don't know if it's a matter of leaving beginner status or something else; but there's one thing I do consider an important milestone. Finishing your first novel. Until you've finished at least one you can't know for sure if you can finish a novel. It's one thing every successful novelist can do, so for me it's the big milestone to pass before you can progress.

[Felicia Beasley]

I agree with finishing your first novel being an important milestone. What would you think the next important milestone would be?

Maybe your first query sent or the first time an agent asks for a full? Or something before that perhaps, like your first full edit?

[Azraelsbane]

I'd think the milestones from there would go partial, full, agent, book deal. :hooray:

[Chasing the Horizon]

I consider myself intermediate. I've completed, rewritten, and polished my first novel until it's pretty shiny (at least I think so, for whatever that's worth). I have a solid knowledge of the basics as well as more intuitive things like characterization and pacing. Of course I'm always learning new tricks, techniques, and ideas, but they at most help me with a given scene, and never cause me to do major revision on what I've already written. I firmly believe I've found my voice and my best genre.

But I have no experience whatsoever with the publishing industry and can't for the life of me figure out how to write a decent query letter. So I certainly have some more learning to do (but first, I need to procrastinate a while longer. I always work on the query 'tomorrow')

I don't think there's a decisive thing you do to stop being a beginner, though. A lot of it has to do with how much time and energy you devote to learning how to write and practicing writing, as well as how much natural talent you have (as in, how quickly you find your voice and which styles work for you).

[pepperlandgirl]

I still consider myself a beginner, and I have a BA in English, I'm half-way to an MA in Literature, I teach writing, my part-time job is writing content for webpages, and my sixth novel for the year is being released tomorrow.

Maybe when I have books with bigger publishers I won't feel like a beginner. Maybe when I finish my Masters. Maybe when I'm making a living at this. Maybe when people actually seek me out to ask questions. I don't know. Maybe I'll just feel like a beginner for the rest of my life.

[Shady Lane]

I've written seven books, and my first one is coming out in less than two weeks, and I still feel like a new writer, or a beginning writer, or even an unpublished writer. Maybe it's because of my age.

[blacbird]

I'm never going to be anything but a beginner. I began something just today.

caw

[OverTheHills&FarAway]

I done began a long time ago.

I think I stopped feeling like a beginner when I was able to slip into the daily routine of writing without feeling like I ought to be doing something else. When I was able to sit down and just write for hours on end, and have something to show for it. And do this, day after day after day.

Finishing that first novel sure helped, too.

But it was mostly, for me, getting into the habit of writing and being able to quickly slip into that frame of mind that before would have taken me an hour or more of freewriting to attain. Now I can switch on the computer and immediately get into my story. No preamble. Just write. And good write.

[johnzakour]

I know this may seem a bit superficial (but at least its quantifiable) , but this looks like it's going to be the first year as a writer I actually make more money than I made at my old job as a web guru.

If this happens I will consider myself at the next stage whatever the heck the next stage may be.

[Shadow_Ferret]

I'll be a beginner until I've finished.

[NeuroFizz]

Why worry about personal labels, or about what others might call you, or themselves? This business is full of so many people who don't play to win. Instead, they play to not lose. There is a huge difference. Just snap on your helmet, lower your head, and write to your goals.

[Joe Moore]

I am curious as to when people stop considering themselves beginners (or considering others beginners) with writing novels.For me, never.

[Prawn]

I am 2/3 done with my third novel, and I am sending out queries on my first. I still consider myself a beginner.

[Bufty]

Every so often I see a post by someone either with far more experience than I or something written so beautifully I have to acknowledge I'm still a beginner.

Am I still a beginner? I haven't finished learning the craft so I guess I must be a beginner, just a little farther along the road than someone else who is just beginning. In addition I suppose each of us starts with a different quantity of tools in our toolbox so who's to say when a beginner is not a beginner? And where does the road end?

ach! - I'm an unpublished writer who's still learning, just like everyone else.:snoopy:

And if I keep learning, one day I'll be a published writer -who's still learning.:hooray:

[OverTheHills&FarAway]

There's still learning (which I hope I'm still doing when I'm old and mostly senile) and there's being a beginner. Ask any accomplished anything, and I bet they'd tell you they're still learning the finer points of their trade. That should never stop. Santana, as amazing a musician as he is, still sits down and practices for several hours a day, alone, not trying to thrill or entertain. Just practicing. Just learning.

Thinking you're done and know everything is dangerous. Nobody knows everything. The people who know better are those with enough humility to acknowledge they don't know everything.

But when do you start to get a handle on things, when do things start getting a little easier to get the good stuff? I think that's close to where being a beginner stops and being an, um, intermediate, uh, begins.

[Bufty]

Yes! Yes! OTHAFA:Hug2:Thankyou. I'm an intermediate.

Wait a minute - what's that? Is that a question I see in the middle there? Damn! - back to being a beginner. :rant:


....But when do you start to get a handle on things, when do things start getting a little easier to get the good stuff? I think that's close to where being a beginner stops and being an, um, intermediate, uh, begins.

[OverTheHills&FarAway]

Why can't it be like the Jedi, who get an entire council of masters to tell them they're no longer beginners.

Oh, and by the way, you're a master now. It's official. Congratulations.

[Scothoser]

I guess I haven't really thought about it before, since writing is a form of expression, even if there are rules. I suppose I could say I'm a beginner with the rules of getting published, writing a book for publication's sake, etc., but as for actually writing I don't think I am.

As for how I perceive others, since the only way I can judge another's writing is after it's published, and as I haven't accomplished that particular feat myself, I think that publication is a good way to show that you are at least adept at being published. ^_^

How's that for a rather round about answer?