Dear Mers 1994, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003:
Sit down. In the chair. Finish some stories. Submit them to the highest markets, and when they are rejected, go second-highest. Keep submitting. Or, don't--write some novels, if that's easier. Submit those, too. Stop wasting your time gaming. You know that other people are fulfilled from gaming, but you aren't, so get on it. Also, stop believing that just because you haven't done X, you're unqualified to get on with life. So, go. Seriously. Go now.
-Mer 2011
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Dear Mer 2005:
If you don't WRITE, you won't get better. At this stage in the game, it's all about the PRACTICE. No amount of career navigatory planning is going to get you the practice. GET ON IT.
-Mer 2011
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Dear Mer 2007:
Remember how all those authors said that you should enjoy your time before the deadlines hit? That is not something authors say because they're trying to make YOU feel better. They are JEALOUS AS HELL of you, that no one is going to yank your WIP out of your hands to turn around the galleys.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be a working writer. But still. Time to call your own is precious.
-Mer 2011
Sit down. In the chair. Finish some stories. Submit them to the highest markets, and when they are rejected, go second-highest. Keep submitting. Or, don't--write some novels, if that's easier. Submit those, too. Stop wasting your time gaming. You know that other people are fulfilled from gaming, but you aren't, so get on it. Also, stop believing that just because you haven't done X, you're unqualified to get on with life. So, go. Seriously. Go now.
-Mer 2011
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Mer 2005:
If you don't WRITE, you won't get better. At this stage in the game, it's all about the PRACTICE. No amount of career navigatory planning is going to get you the practice. GET ON IT.
-Mer 2011
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Mer 2007:
Remember how all those authors said that you should enjoy your time before the deadlines hit? That is not something authors say because they're trying to make YOU feel better. They are JEALOUS AS HELL of you, that no one is going to yank your WIP out of your hands to turn around the galleys.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be a working writer. But still. Time to call your own is precious.
-Mer 2011
Profile
merriehaskell- Mer, rhymes with bear
- Merrie Haskell (it's dot com!)
Comments
- 17 Apr 2015, 17:29Hallo!
- 17 Apr 2015, 17:28Aw thanks!
- 17 Apr 2015, 17:28::wavesback::
- 17 Apr 2015, 17:28;)
- 17 Apr 2015, 17:27HEY MRIS HEY
Comments
I try not to regret my years of gaming, becuase I *did* enjoy them. But they also delayed the point where I got to do what I'd always wanted - and I'd wanted to write stories long before I discovered RPGS. Writing and running games pressed the same buttons, but they were easier, and no one rejected you.
And that comment about the lack of time, of not being able to make a book as good as you know it could and should be, because now you're on a schedule? Shit, yeah. It's good to hear someone else say this, because when I find myself cursing lack of time to do a book justice, I start to feel guilty, because I should just thank my lucky stars someone is publishing my books, shouldn't I?
This should have been my letter to myself in 1997, 2001, and 2008.