Determination

Determination...such an innocent word.

It's also a hard word...like rock or stone or even steel. It's what gets you past the hardships and hurtles of accomplishing your goal. That's what I'm writing about today. Determination.

And the drive to become published.

One has to have both the drive and the determination. They won't work alone. That may sound over simplified but, for many of us, it isn't. Some of us are lucky to get our projects in front of the right editor at the right time. And for them, that's instant success. But for others of us, the vast majority I think, well, we need that drive and determination combo to get past the endless wait-for-response times, the rejections that, even if good, hurt and the parade of published books that we 'know' isn't as good as ours (and that's another subject.)

On one of my email loops, another author wrote: Ten years seems to be the magic number. This was brought to my attention by a (large) chapter celebrating its 10th anniversary, saying that the last of their original members who were still active members had gotten published that year. I don't know of any romance writer who has been writing and submitting stories for ten years who isn't published. There are plenty who have been "writing" a book for ten years or more. Or who try it for a few years, and either get lucky right off the bat, or quit. But if you can keep up your enthusiasm and improving your craft for 10 years, you're pretty much guaranteed to catch one of the periodic buying cycles in whatever subgenre you write in.

I don't know how true the above it and I cringe at the idea of ten years but I have been writing novel length fiction for five years so...maybe my period of apprenticeship is halfway complete. One can hope, can't one?