Tempus Fugit



 


"We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener."
Samuel Beckett. Waiting for Godot.

The last time I visited this blog, I was dwelling  (perhaps a little overmuch?) on the speed with which life was hurtling by. Well, it will come as no surprise that it hasn't slowed down any. If anything, it seems to be accelerating, like my foot is to the floor and there's no way of lifting it off. 

I can't believe that it has been ten years since I made the decision to 'take my writing more seriously'... ten years since I won a writing competition which led to the publication of my first short story, and which gave me the confidence to try to establish myself as an author. Over that time I have, like most writers, been trying to fit my writing around work and family commitments, meaning that there have been whole swathes of time when I haven't managed to put any words down on paper at all. I have also, over this period, got married, moved house, acquired a dog, lost a parent, and managed to avoid Covid 19, while coping with fifteen months worth of lost income due to lockdowns. I have also, through the power of Zoom, managed to rejoin my former writing group, and I can't begin to tell you just what a lifesaver that has been.

Now, Christmas 2022 saw the publication of  'Bleak Midwinter: The Darkest Night' by the wonderful folks at Quill & Crow, which included my little tale 'Relke of the Russet Hair' - and I have two more stories due to come out in different publications during the course of this year, so that's a reason for celebration if ever there was one!


So I thought, having reached this significant anniversary, I would crunch the numbers in order to see just how well (or not) I'm doing on the writing front. Certainly, when boiled down to raw statistics, it provides food for thought, but also (I think) provides a certain amount of reason for optimism. 

So... over the period Feb 2013- Feb 2023 I have written 28 short stories, 2 Novels, and 1 Novella, which I have been sending out to agents/publishers on a fairly regular basis throughout the 10 years. Over this entire body of work, I have:

  • Had 6 stories accepted and published (or contracted to be published)
  • Received 76 rejections - 23 of which came with very positive feedback, while 13 submissions had no response at all
  • Had 3 stories shortlisted for publication, but ultimately rejected
  • Won 4 writing competitions
  • Have 8 'live' submissions that I have yet to hear back from
So what can we glean from this? Well, the first, and most positive thing to take from these statistics is that with 6 stories published (or in the pipeline to be published), I finally feel able to shake off the ever present 'imposter syndrome', and actually call myself a writer. The second thing to note is just how unbelievably hard it is to get anything accepted for publication. Those who know me will know that I spent the first 12 years of my career as an actor. Now, actors are used to rejection, but believe me, finding work as an actor is child's play compared to getting a publisher to take your work. And although most publishers tell you not to expect feedback as they receive such a vast volume of submissions, I have been heartened by how many have taken the time to do just that.

So my conclusion? All things considered, I'm not unhappy with the journey so far, and as I've already said, the coming year looks like being a good one, publication wise. But I'm telling you, if I haven't had at least one of my novels published by this time next decade, there'll be hell to pay... 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Out of the woods?

Image
  As those who have read my previous posts will know, since suffering a devastating personal loss last year, I have not been able to write - having neither the motivation nor the concentration required to create a story, much less to hone and edit until it is fit for human consumption. But I have been recording snippets of how I have been feeling on my phone, and once Christmas was over I listened to them back.  They are, as you might imagine, quite soul-wrenching and I wept many new tears as I listened, but it also occurred to me that perhaps they should be transcribed into a form which might pass for a book. I have read several books on grief over this last year, but because grief is such a personal thing, and everyone reacts to it differently and in their own way, in any one book there tends to be only a few passages that chime with you. So while you can appreciate and empathise with the writer's own experience of loss, it does not necessarily mirror what you are personall...
Read more

And Darkness Covered the Face of the Earth...

Image
  My last post on this blog was in March, and was pretty optimistic and upbeat in tone. Well, what a difference a month makes... for in April my world crashed and burned. Before I continue, I want to say that I have not written what follows out of any sense of self-pity, neither do I seek to elicit pity from others, nor to justify these words by hoping that others in a similar position may find comfort in them (though should that prove to be the case, I wish you well, fellow traveller along this darkest of roads - you are not alone). Rather I am writing as nothing more than a form of therapy for myself, to try to express a little of what I have been holding inside over these last few months. Nothing more, nothing less. So what's it all about?  For those that don't know, April was when I lost my best friend, my soulmate, and the love of my life... and the darkness closed in. Since then, I have been struggling to make sense of a life which seems directionless and empty. One of t...
Read more

The long road back...

Image
  So, the little book on grief that I spoke about in my last blog post is all but finished (as far as these things ever can be...). It's been an incredibly tough 18 months since my devastating bereavement, during which time I have taken part in 2 bereavement courses, had two rounds of counselling/therapy, read countless books on the subject, have been supported throughout by a wonderful peer support worker, and am booked onto a grief 'retreat' this coming November... so no one can say I haven't grabbed hold of every bit of help and support that I've been offered. And yes, things have improved, but I am no nearer being able to function as I used to, am still floundering through what passes for my life, and still searching for answers that I will probably never find. I'm afraid that I'm having to come to terms with the fact that I am no longer the same person as I was pre-bereavement, and that life, to use a well-worn cliché, will never be the same. However, d...
Read more