Writerly meme

[anghara]

The matociquala/autopope/rolanni pro-writer career path meme:

Current Status as of this morning:
On a break. One Big Novel completed this year, I have the next in the back of my brain and even some bits and bobs of it written, but nothing coherent yet. It probably won't be begun properly until January.

Age when I decided I wanted to be a writer: I don't REMEMBER. I think I always knew I wanted to write. I don't think that I ever decided I "wanted to be a writer", that being-a-writer thing kind of decided it wanted to be me. Age when I knew I wanted to ba a full-time published author, that this was the life and the lifestyle I wanted, was probably when I heard Lynne Reed Banks tell us about that life when I was 15 and she came to my school for an author visit. I watched her talk about it with her eyes shining and I knew, I *knew*, that I wanted to do this when I grew up...

Age when I wrote my first story: Again, I don't remember. Age at which I wrote my first poem is five. I know my stories were winning prizes by the time I was 12. But I've always scribbled. Define "story"...

Age when I got my hands on a typewriter: very young. My grandfather's, originally - and if it wasn't a Royale it was close to it. Then my dad's, a more modern Olivetti. Then finally my dad gave me my own, a funky sweet little Olivetti which typed in cursive - which was great but it was a toy more than a serious instrument, really. I really came into my own with a computer - before that my writing was mostly long-hand, and transcribed later any which way it could be...

Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: nine, I think

Thickness of file of rejection slips prior to first story sale: I didn't know I was supposed to count 'em [grin]. Let's just say, for the record, LOTS.

Age when I sold my first short story: professionally, in my twenties sometime. EARLY twenties.I have the magazine it came out in, I could go look, but let's say... 22, 23, thereabout.

Age when I killed my first market: I don't murder markets. Hasn't happened yet.

Approximate number of short stories/novelettes/novellas sold for cash money: I don't really write SHORT all that often, actually. Maybe 20 or so all told.

Age when I first sold a poem: I was a teenager. Don't remember exactly.
Poems sold: more than a hundred

Age when I wrote my first novel: first complete one, not surviving to this day, really bad - about 11 (that's in ENGLISH. I probably did something of the sort in my own language before I 'learned' English, which would make it something like 8 or so...) First DECENT one, still surviving, in longhand, in PENCIL, in three hard-cover notebooks - 15.

Age when I sold a first novel: 36
Novels written between age 6 and age 36: eight
Age when I wrote the first novel I sold: 36
Age when that novel was published: 36
Total number of novels written (discounting juvenilia, counting collaborations, counting fixups): 17
Books sold: 10 (one short story collection, one non-fiction autobiography, eight novels)
Books published or delivered and in the pipeline (including novellas published as independent books): 10
Number of titles in print: 8
Number of titles fallen out of print: 2

Age when I became a full-time novelist: 36
Age when I returned to the day-job because of economic implosion: not yet
Age now: 45

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Seems to me writing may be as good as a day job for weathering economic downturns, anyway. There are a lot of us who put books just above food and shelter on the list of things to cut back on (though we're probably much more likely to wait for the paperback in bad times) whereas downturns make day jobs much scarcer anyway.

[artimahadanna.livejournal.com]

As a writing student, to hear this is inspirational. We always wonder whether our juvenilia will even mean anything in the long run, but to see that it can be valued as part of the process like this, as you've done, is worth interesting. :)