Summer Dreamin'

2004-08-30 - 12:13 p.m.

I'm feeling like I might be getting ready to make the leap from "writer who sometimes writes but really doesn't submit anything" to "writer who sometimes writes but does submit things." I've been doing a bunch of writing this summer, and laying down groundwork to keep me writing even in the dark, oppressive winter months (which, in my own, unique way, I'm looking forward to: my apartment is cosy, and this year I'll have two warm cats for the duration of the winter. Also, January of 2004 was spent with me sleeping on the floor of a new apartment with no furniture. I think I'm prematurely viewing 2005 as a year to make up for the mediocrity of 2004. We all know how those sort of expectations work out).

Take this summer as an example. I've written two complete short stories, two non-fiction essays, plus a smattering of unfinished (but finishable) other works in progress. This is more than I usually write in a year (novels excepted).

I feel like I'm approaching some kind of critical mass, that another few stories and I'll become the sort of writer who writes regularly and always has a story or two (or dozens) doing the rounds of the publishers. I would like that very much.

Right now, I have the image of myself, cosied up in my apartment, one cat on my lap, the other on the back of the couch next to my head. I'm surrounded by warmth while it snows outside, I have a pad and pen nearby with the scrawlings of my latest story ideas, and I'm leafing through a sheaf of rejection letters (in my fantasy, the rejection letters all say "We really liked your story, but couldn't publish it just yet. Because you're clearly a superior writer, we encourage you to resubmit your rewrite which we will undoubtedly publish upon receiving it. Thank you."). Heaven!

Cheers,

The Magus

previous - next