It has been 13 months since I started writing full time. When I put it that way, it just utterly blows my mind.
In that time, I've completed National Novel Writing Month twice, and also completed one instance of Camp NaNoWriMo. That's 150,000 words in 13 months, not counting all the other writing I did every single day of those 13 months.
I'd like to thank everyone who's been reading this stuff I throw together and put out there, and especially everyone who comments and gives feedback on it. Your numbers may not be large, but I can't begin to tell you how large your impact is. I wouldn't be the writer I am now, nor would I be the writer I will be tomorrow, without all your feedback and support.
I'm just about recovered from this latest NaNoWriMo, so it's time to think seriously about what I'm going to work on next. I have two books well under way; The Price of Entanglement still needs to be finished, and though NaNoWriMo's done, The Diffident Hero isn't even close to done. I have several works in progress from months ago that I need to return to at some point, and the feedback I've gotten from the short fiction I produced over the autumn has been nothing short of mind-blowing, so I want to do a lot more of that too.
Did I tell you all about that? One of my heroes from when I was a teenager, Scott Murphy, ex of Sierra Online's Space Quest series and half of the Two Guys from Andromeda, bought and read My Abstract Life and really liked it. He very kindly gave me permission to quote him on it.
@gordmcleod The My Abstract Life story you wrote reminded me of Ray Bradbury and the Twilight Zone. Good stuff.
— Scott Murphy (@SlashVohaul) November 27, 2012
The path ahead of me isn't looking very easy, and I'm sure it's not the last time it'll look hard. But every time I hear back from someone who's read what I wrote and enjoyed it, or cares enough to point out a problem in it that I can fix, or takes the time to say "Hey, thanks," it just shows me more and more clearly that easy or not, this is my path, this is what I have got to do. And it makes it all worth while.
Thanks, everyone.