Hope

[valyssia]

I consider the last week in May to be my anniversary. I began to write fiction five years ago. My early attempts were kind of scattered and broken making it impossible to ascertain an exact date.

I had this conversation with a friend of mine tonight:

(6:28:49 PM) Valyssia: I'm lead around by Taming the Muse.
(6:29:10 PM) Valyssia: It's the whole ‘I must post at least one thing during the week’ mandate.
(6:29:19 PM) Valyssia: I’m 20 weeks into that.
(6:30:12 PM) Valyssia: So, yeah...that was the meandering way of saying ‘busy.’
(6:33:24 PM) Tamoline: I'm really impressed that you can do this.
(6:33:30 PM) Tamoline: I'd have burned out long ago.
(6:33:43 PM) Tamoline: But then there's a reason I very definitely do this as recreation only.
(6:34:40 PM) Valyssia: Yeah. It’s kind of rough. I've been doing exactly this for 5 years now.
(6:35:02 PM) Tamoline:  *hugs*
(6:35:08 PM) Valyssia: Treating fanfiction as a job. I really am an idiot.
(6:35:34 PM) Valyssia: I started writing at the end of May in 2007.
(6:35:36 PM) Tamoline: Well, apparently people need 10,000 hours to become really proficient at something.
(6:35:46 PM) Tamoline: And writing is writing.
(6:36:00 PM) Tamoline: Happy anniversary!
(6:36:09 PM) Valyssia: I have more like 15,000 now.
(6:36:30 PM) Tamoline: Congratulations, then.
(6:37:04 PM) Valyssia: At 60 hours a week, which is very conservative…
(6:37:08 PM) Valyssia: 15,600.
(6:37:29 PM) Valyssia: I writes guud fer a resun.

I count myself fortunate for all of the ups and downs I have to have the latitude to pursue a dream. That’s really what this is. More of a pipe dream, actually.

Don’t envy me. I don’t live well. I exist and I do this.

Most of what I know, I’ve taught myself. I’ve had a few people stop through and show me a thing or two.

Howard has been by my side for nearly the entire ride. He and I have learned to tell a story together. That much is really cool. I wouldn’t be where I am were it not for his patience. He taught me the finer points of punctuation. In fact, the story that served as a Petri dish for that lesson was the original Bloodletting.

Mad-Hamlet taught me to play with point-of-view. That’s why Flood begins with a primarily omniscient viewpoint, and then narrows after a few chapters to limited view. He taught me a number of other things about capturing voice and trimming a narrative during that time.

Once those early lessons were completed, I just kind of blossomed. I’m still experimenting, even now.

Anyway, thank you to all of the people who have helped me along the way. And thank you to my audience.

Here’s to the hope of five more good years.