Lately I've been thinking about my progress, or lack thereof, with my fiction writing. I'm not sure if it's because of my slight productivity increase over the past week, or whether it's because Wiscon is less than a week away. Last year I got all fired-up about writing after Wiscon, then went into a slump that lasted the rest of the year. To be fair, the writing slump came about from starting a new job in June, followed a few months later by buying a house, and I'm only now finding a little time to write.

It's a frustrating thing, this writing business. Sometimes I've got the urge to write and I'm filled with story ideas, but events preclude it. Other times, I just don't seem to have the motivation, and weeks or months pass before I get stuck into it again. I'd be kidding myself if I thought this was just something that affected me--life is so fast-paced these days, it's a wonder anyone finds time to write stories!

So, I thought I'd take a look back at my progress, in an attempt to motivate me to do better in future. This retrospective is primarily for my benefit, so any insightful or useful information you might discover by continuing reading will be purely accidental :)

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As a child, I wrote prolifically. I churned out comic books and stories by the dozen, and one of my ambitions was to be a writer. The arrival of a computer in the house (around 1986/87) overshadowed all this, and before too long I was playing games and programming rather than writing stories. In high school, reading fiction took a back-seat to school work and computers, and there was certainly no fiction writing, other than anything we might've been assigned for class. It wasn't all bad though--the computers led me to get a degree in Computer Systems Engineering, which is a cross between Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, with an emphasis on computer hardware. That, in turn, led to my present career in the software industry.

I did a lot more fiction reading from the university years onward, mainly because of the long commute via bus or car. I recall reading the uncut version of Stephen King's The Stand (around 1000 pages, or thereabouts) in just over a week, thanks to a 1.5 hour bus trip each way :) I had neither the time nor energy for writing fiction, despite thinking in hindsight that perhaps I could've.

It wasn't until late 1999 that the fiction writing bug struck again. I was on assignment in the US through work, along with a co-worker I'd known since I was a kid. I'm not exactly sure how it came about, but we decided to write some stories during lunch breaks and after work. It was all largely forgettable stuff, but it was the first real awakening of those fiction writing ambitions I'd had years earlier.

Upon returning to Australia, I continued puttering with the writing for awhile, and began what would later turn out to be a decent-sized novella. In mid-2000, I again returned to the US for another work assignment, this one much longer than the previous two. I decided to get a laptop to continue the novella, and also so I could do some web surfing :)

The novella was finished in early 2001, and as far as I can recall, I didn't get any fiction writing done for the rest of the year, owing to my busy social and sightseeing schedule outside of work. The assignment wrapped up at the end of November, and back home I went.

I did significantly more writing in 2002 than in previous years, writing several short stories, and beginning a novel. I began to research fiction writing markets, and for the first time started thinking about submitting my stories for publication. Life got quite hectic in late 2002, with my immigration to the US and wedding preparation, but things eventually settled down in early 2003.

Being unemployed after the move and not being allowed to work until I'd obtained authorization from the powers that be, I had a lot of time on my hands. I did a lot of reading, and wrote short stories with an eye for publication. I sent my first story to Asimov's Science Fiction magazine on January 29, 2003.

I wrote steadily throughout 2003, writing a third of a novel (before abandoning it last year), and several short stories. I was also a member of the Critters critique group until early 2004, when I joined a newly formed online group. For the first half of 2004, the pace slowed substantially as I devoted most of my time to job-hunting.

In March 2004, I joined a great online critique group (of which I am still a member), and proceeded to write a story every week for about six weeks. I was very highly motivated during that time, and I'm convinced my writing improved another order of magnitude in terms of style and quality while writing at such a fast pace.

2004 was a busy year, as I've said above. Likewise, 2005--I'm still trying to surpass my output from this time last year, and I'm way behind where I was at in 2003. It'll be interesting to see if I can boost my writing output substantially for the rest of this year. I certainly intend to try!

I remain unpublished since my first submission in January, 2003, and have managed to rack up a modest total of 47 rejections. I was hoping last year I'd make my first sale, but it was not to be (I reckon I'm getting close, though). I'll just need to keep plugging away at writing and submitting stories, doing what I can to improve my output in terms of both quality and quantity.

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The other day I updated the Projects page to reflect where I'm at now with various writing projects. I've tended to neglect that page, but I'll try to keep it up-to-date more frequently from now on.

Now I need to get off the computer, and go and do some shopping before we go out to dinner! I'll be working on some critiques and some new stories tonight. It should be a good weekend. Later!

2005 Stats:

2005 Word count:	18,892
Stories written:	2
Total submissions:	8
Total acceptances:	0
Total rejections:	6
Waiting for response:	3
Books read:	7
Fiction Mags/Chapbooks read:	7
Audiobooks:	11