Rejectomancy

gettingby said:

Forgot to mention that was rejection #50. How many more of these before someone buys my fiction?

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You know, it took me a while to reach a point where I was writing fiction people wanted to pay for. Looking back over the past four years I can say that I reached a point where the improvement from month to month and even year to year has slowed.

Prior to that point (about the fall of 2008) I could see the difference/improvement in my writing almost from one story to the next. (And not to say that I don't continue to improve but the difference is much smaller now from week to week, story to story, month to month.)

After that point are the stories that I've been successful at selling. The bad news? I'd been writing fiction (with varying levels of dedication) for nearly 20 years at "that point". I think most writers don't take that long to develop (and I had a few things published prior to that but not in paying markets) but that's how long it took me. (If you look at the really serious years I spent writing that two decades turns into a more reasonable 8 years.) Thank god I'm stubborn as the day is long (and then some).

I'm going to say that you are at that point where writing because you love it is your most important asset. It will keep you satisfied until that first sale comes. At least, that's how it did with me.

Aggy, think this glass is half-something (maybe lemonade?)

zanzjan said:

I think it's *always* one of the most important assets, the other being stubborn persistence. Once you start selling stuff, you may not need the persistence quite as much, but when you lose the love of writing, you'll lose whatever readers it took you all that hard work and time to earn.

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This is true. I just found that before I sold stuff there were times when stubbornness was not enough. I HAD to rely on the fact that I was doing something I enjoyed - regardless of whether or not anything came of it.

Once I sold my first story (for $3, I might add) I was determined to do it again even if it took years. That's when stubbornness became my biggest asset because, personally, after that first sale then I had to deal with the fear of "Maybe it was a fluke" which was harder to deal with than "Maybe I just suck." Odd, maybe, but the idea that my "success" was just a mistake was more... crippling than the idea that I might not have the talent at all.

For what it's worth. YMMV.