Day One
Ok, so maybe I am a little late to the blogging scene. Like, two decades late. But I'm here now, and like any good blogger, I assure you I have more to say than anyone could possibly care about.
I guess I'll start with a little summarizing round-up. In 2013 (5 years ago, from this post), I decided to seriously pursue writing and music as a career. At the time, I wasn't really sure what that meant except working on my craft everyday. Now I understand it means a future of happy poverty, a constantly shifting understanding of jazz music and fiction, and the occasional doldrums of burning out from too much rejection. All in all, though, I don't regret it one bit. Let's look at the numbers!
Writing!
First off, you can read my stories here. For the most part, I write speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
Since 2013, I've written ~60 stories, two of which are novels. The rest are short stories or flash fiction. I've published 18 short stories and no flash fiction. For you SF/F folks out there, only three of those have been "professionally" published, that is, paid at over $0.06/word. I have won 1 award, and achieved negligible non-winning titles in many other award competitions.
My first novel is still floating around in discussion with 1 agent and 1 small publisher. It will probably require substantial revision.
My second novel is floating around on my computer. It definitely requires substantial revision.
Ok, blah blah blah. Writing is a lot of work.
Music!
The Gentlemen's Anti-Temperance League
I've recorded 4 albums, and released 3. For me, playing music has proven more financially viable than writing fiction (but I don't think there's much money in short fiction, that's probably equivalent to trying to make a living playing free-form improvisational space jazz on a theremin).
Uhhhh, I'm not sure what other numbers are relevant. Possibly financial info, but I'm already not fond of digging around in money numbers. Later, maybe.
In Conclusion:
These numbers aren't really important, for the most part. I hear a lot of shitty rules (especially in writing) about how much one needs to write every day, or how many things need to be published, or whatever. For the most part, all these rules are a hot trash fire of unnecessary advice.
What I think all these numbers (and all that useless advice) illustrate is the importance of doing. To be a writer, all you have to do is write. To be a musician, all you have to do is play music. Everything else is up to you. The act of doing these things has kept me out of nasty depression, allowed me to meet incredible people, and generally just been awesome.
Ok, if you made it all the way down here, WOW, congratulations. I'll do more rambling blogs in the future.
gg no re
