Some time around 2001 or so, I had someone here at TW make am odd and unexpected reply/comment to me on a thread...
Quote:
GreasyBoy, if you aren't writing for a living, you are doing the world a disservice.
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I can't recall who said that to me, and have no idea how I'd find the thread now, but that statement has haunted me for the better part of almost 20 years.
Were they being straightforward? Felt that way.
Were they being encouraging? Even after all this time, I have no idea.
Were they being sarcastic? Possibly, this is TW afterall.
Were they being all that? That's the most likely scenario. We
are talking about writing afterall. You gotta abandon a lot of pretenses and notions about what you think writing is, and then just "sit down at the typewriter and bleed"...as Hemingway put it.
It's a lot to think about. I've always wanted to write, yet had never done so, I had never publicly expressed a desire to write, and certainly not here at TW, so what in the **** did this **** mean by what they said to me?
In 2015, I started writing stuff here and there in some random places, in late 2016/early 2017 I started blogging, and in November of 2017, I sat down and committed myself to start writing my first ever short story to submit for consideration in a book of short stories to be published in December of 2017.
I started concocting and writing this story just two days before the deadline for submissions. I hadn't a clue what I was doing, nor how to do it.
After two days of writing almost non-stop, I submitted what I had, the publisher gave me an additional two days to finish it, and I wound up writing an 18,000+ word "short" story in those four days. It was accepted, and published.
Just a few days ago, I had my 8th and 9th short stories published, so in a little over a year I've had 9 short stories and 5 poems published in 5 different books.
Just thought I'd drop by and say thanks to whoever that was for the encouragement. Doesn't matter what you meant by what you said. I mean, yeah, it does matter...but no, it doesn't. It has haunted me enough that I eventually gave it a whirl, some people have taken some interest in some of the tales I've come up with, and what you said to me all those years ago has played a part in that path and getting me to where I am. Hopefully, it'll keep me straight enough to keep going, but not so straight as to keep me from being twisted enough to spin some interesting yarns. ;-)
VVT/VGT/VGRT...or whatever in the **** it was...
...whoever in the **** you are...
...thanks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUzVCw8BEXA