# How Serious Are You About Writing?



## Philip Overby (Sep 11, 2012)

Just wondering, how serious you are, on a scale of 1-10 about your writing.  

EDIT:  Just to reiterate when I say "published," I mean any form of published:  traditional or self.

1.  I don't really care about my writing that much.  I like it, but I do it when I can.

2.  I care a little bit about my writing, but not enough to try to publish any of it or spend any significant time improving my craft.

3.  I want to be read, but I lack the confidence in my abilities to do so.  I will probably never have the confidence, so I'm just fine writing for fun or for my friends and family. 

4.  I think my writing is getting better, and I have visions of trying to publish some of my writing in the distant future.  I still think I have a long way to go, but I'm serious about getting there.

5.  I've submitted to several places with mixed results.  I tend to get rejected and get discouraged for a bit, but then usually bounce back.  I sometimes flip flop on my enthusiasm for writing as I have other hobbies I really like or other things that keep me busy.

6.  I write everyday or almost everyday with the intention to have myself published or at least be widely read in some fashion.  However, I've had my fair share of rejections and heart-breaks so I don't submit or circulate my writing as much as I'd like.

7.  I have a schedule that I utilize everyday.  I write until I finish something and I am very serious about my craft.  I've been rejected and experienced set-backs, but I don't let them phase me as that's part of the game.

8.  I consider myself a writer first and foremost.  Even though it may not be my sole source of income, it's what I eat, sleep, and breathe.  I am constantly churning out material and trying to get it published or read no matter if I'm getting paid or not.  

9.  I've never wanted to do anything else.  Regardless if I die poor and alone, I'm a writer.  I will do anything I can to have my material out there in the world.  

10.  Why am I reading this?  I'm supposed to be writing!!!  

I'd say I'm number 10.  Time to go write!   

Not really.  I wish I was number 10.  I'd probably say I'm number 8.  My job is just a way for me to make money so I can write.  

Where do you rank?  Elaborate if you'd like.


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## CupofJoe (Sep 11, 2012)

As I don't want to be published then I must be a 2...


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## Butterfly (Sep 11, 2012)

I think I'm at number 8. But I haven't submitted anything yet. I will wait until it's finished and edited as much as I can first.


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## johnsonjoshuak (Sep 11, 2012)

I'm at an 8


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## Chilari (Sep 11, 2012)

I'd say I'm a 4.5 and working my way up, with some elements of 5 and 6 minus the rejections because I've only ever submitted one thing for publication (a short story) and that got published in an online magazine (I got paid Â£1.46 after Paypal took its cut). I want to be serious. I've let myself get distracted in the last week or two, but I've got a plan and I've calculated approximately when I can expect to complete the first draft of my WIP by writing 500 words a day to begin with and incrementally increasing this to 1667 in time for NaNoWriMo in November; I'm just worried I'll run out of material before I reach the end of November. But there's another story I can work on if I do.

The Blood Pact has helped me get serious about this. If I'm going to be published by the end of 2014 I've got some work to do. I'm hoping to have a relatively polished manuscript ready for beta readers by this time next year (after some editing as determined by myself and my alpha reader, my fiance, who while not a writer is very logical and very good at pointing out plot holes or irrational behaviour.)

I also have a secondary project lined up ready to start work on in the time frame between completion of draft one and starting editing for draft two, because I feel I will need space and the chance to get into a different headspace and forget as much as possible of draft one. I will also work on that secondary project, or a new project if it doesn't work out or I get a better idea, when I send the manuscript out to beta readers.

As for my actual job, yes it's a way to make money to pay to bills so I can write. Not a bad job. Not something I really want to still be doing in ten years time, even with promotions or whatever. Excuse me while I daydream about the future in which I am rich and my fiance and I and I guess by then our two adopted children are happy and healthy and the kids are called Jenson John and Luke because Matt gave up on vetoing Jenson...


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## Ameronis (Sep 11, 2012)

I think I'm a 4.5 as well, and I intend to get higher up the scale, but I'm so easily distracted, it may take much longer than I'd like...


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## ArelEndan (Sep 11, 2012)

Somewhere between 5 and 6. I don't write as consistently as I should, but I have been trying to get published. So far, all my stories have been rejected, but I have a couple more sent out that I'm waiting to hear back on.


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## Endymion (Sep 11, 2012)

Definitely 4. Hopefully will become 5 or more in three months.


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## Anders Ã„mting (Sep 11, 2012)

I fluctuate a lot. Honestly, all these tiers feel familiar. 

I think the problem with this question is that it assumes the level of effort you _want_ to put into your writing is equal to the level of effort you _actually _put into your writing.


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## Penpilot (Sep 11, 2012)

I'd say I'm an 8. I have a planned schedule and write pretty much every day and feel guilty when I miss a day. I have goals and that one day writing will be what I get paid to do.


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## Lorna (Sep 11, 2012)

9. I'm thinking 8 might be saner. And 7 would be rational.


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## Ireth (Sep 11, 2012)

Definitely an 8. 8 is a nice number. ^^


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## Christopher Wright (Sep 11, 2012)

I'm an 8. I think.


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## Vidar (Sep 11, 2012)

Being very new to all of this I will have to say I'm a 4, hopefully one day I'll be a 9 or a 10.


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## The Dark One (Sep 12, 2012)

I think your scale really only goes up to 9...

I'd be somewhere between 8 and 9. I make money from writing, but not enough and I _do_ care about being poor. But having generated an audience and made some money I can absolutely taste the ultimate goal of being a full time professional writer. It is that close that it invades my daydreams all the time now...beguiling me and potentially imperilling my (reasonably) highly paid day job.


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## Vidar (Sep 12, 2012)

Dark One, I'm not envious of you; honestly! heh


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## JCFarnham (Sep 12, 2012)

How serious?

_Apparently_ not very...


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## Hogin Yodeler (Sep 12, 2012)

_Maybe_ four. . . . I genuinely think my writing is very slowly getting better (it still sucks), and I do dream of myself one day at least publishing a book, but I just can't find the time between everything else I'm doing to write more now. I'll probably finish my book when I'm old and retired. Like Bilbo, except I won't have the privilege of living with the elves.


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## The Dark One (Sep 13, 2012)

Vidar said:


> Dark One, I'm not envious of you; honestly! heh



And neither should you be. A little bit of success is a dangerous thing. It makes you utterly crave for a bigger, more permanent taste...to the point where you can't focus on anything else.

I sometimes see myself as analogous to the Lame Boy (a recurrent figure in my literature) who's had a glimpse inside the magic mountain but is doomed never to get inside for good.


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## Darkfantasy (Sep 13, 2012)

I don't fit into any really. I have 'winding' down breaks like now.
My routine is usually an idea psrings into my head and wont go away. I plan, and write it. When I'm in the planning phase I'm like an athlet warming up. I gradually do a bit more each day, until my brain is living and breathing the story. I'm not always done planning when I get this feeling, but I start writing straight away, becuase if I wait that 'power' phase will pass and I'll go flat.
Then I write like mad for a month. I just get it down in one really crazy typing marathon, all day, all evening, and sometimes all night until ike 3am.
Then I have my 'winding' down phase. I just muck about and do other things, this can last and month or two. Then an idea springs to mind and I'm off again.
It rarely takes me over a month to finish something, my last book was just short of 120,000 words. Some writers take a year to finish, some do it in mad bursts - thats me lol. And I would love to be Published, not for money or fame or even for people reading my work. But I think when you have anything you're really passionate about you want to be good at it.
For a violinist it might be playing at the Royal Opera House, For a jockey making the Grand Nationals on a speed Horse, for a writer it's getting Published.


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## FireBird (Sep 13, 2012)

I think four fits best for me. My only goal is to have something completely finished and polished by the time I get my Bachelor's degree. I want something that I could submit to a publisher immediately by then. I'm in no rush, writing is something that I do in my free time right now. If I get published in the future I do, if I don't I don't. I have hopes that my writing will be good enough to publish by then, but I am in no way depending on it.


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## Chime85 (Sep 13, 2012)

I’m realistically a 6. I do fantasise about being a full on 10 (don’t we all).  My main problem is confidence. I could have ten or more glowing reviews (I wish haha) and one cruddy review, I would focus on the latter. 

In some ways, I guess that gives me focus to shoot for the stars, so to speak, when my writing is concerned. However, like many things in the 21st century, paper does not equal practice. 

I would say that I am capable of throwing out 3k words a day. However, I also throw out about 2k of that at ay given time. I’m one of those people who knows the plot, the characters etc, but can yet to grasp the pros and tense. 

I’ll Admit, this haunts me. As a writer (like we all are) I have ideas. Its putting my mind to paper in a satisfactory format, that I have an issue with. Once I am content (I can live with content), with the work I have done, I will reply to this question with a 10

x


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## MamaZia (Sep 15, 2012)

In the past I've been like a 2, but I've recently increased it to around a 7. I really want to write something. I don't care if it ever gets published or not, I'm really in this for personal satisfaction of completing something that I actually worked hard on. My whole life, I've had a hard time following through with things I start.  Now I want to have a completed story more than anything. It's just a matter of putting in the time and effort.


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## Devora (Sep 17, 2012)

I"m more of a 5.5


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## Mindfire (Sep 17, 2012)

I'd be a 4 easily. But when I finish this book that's been nearly a decade in the making, it'll be a masterpiece!


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## ncpendergast (Sep 18, 2012)

Make that "writer and artist" (I draw comics besides writing), and I'm an 8, turning 9, as I'm currently working on making this a business. Previously I was too timid (and too busy otherwise) to consider publication.


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## ellenosb (Sep 18, 2012)

I'm probably a 7-8.  I understand the hard work and graft involved but sometimes the sheer hugeness of trying to achieve the goal is overwhelming... Even when that goal is not even just to get published, but to improve and get better and write something worth reading.


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## sugarpixie (Sep 21, 2012)

Probably a 6...but I want to go higher!


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## J.P. Reedman (Sep 22, 2012)

I'm 7 or 8 with elements of  9 and 10. I have always wanted to be a writer since I wrote my first story when I was five, but I do have loads of other interests, which I've sometimes pursued to the detriment of my writing, though they are slowly receding and the writing come more strongly to the fore once again. My first novel is coming out shortkly, and I do a bit most days on book two.


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## Guru Coyote (Sep 22, 2012)

Reading the descriptions... I'd currently put myself 5-6 ... only I can't say much about rejections. I only really submitted two flash fiction pieces to an 365tomorrows and both got accepted... 



Chime85 said:


> I would say that I am capable of throwing out 3k words a day. However, I also throw out about 2k of that at ay given time.



One thing I recently did was to do a daily sessions of "750 words" - just sitting down and writing three pages of long form ... and not caring about the result much. The key is that you actually "throw away" anything you write - at least you write in that spirit. On most days it was like just finger practice. The writing not having to count was very freeing for me! And out of these sessions came one full story (the first draft anyway) and several scenes for other stories I have been working on over the years.

My take away from my daily 750 words might be: as soon as you stop taking it all too seriously the wrting improves


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## srcroft (Sep 23, 2012)

I am a 10 when in the zone. Have been a 9 until i got married and had a kid, and now settled on 8. I make good money, which gives me the most precious writing tool--time. I study the craft constantly, and I am working on my phd In Lit with a minor in Creative Writing. Im 33, not like 60 btw--lol just wanted to throw that out there.


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## Guru Coyote (Sep 23, 2012)

srcroft said:


> Im 33, not like 60 btw--lol just wanted to throw that out there.


HA! When people say stuff like that usually the average of both is true... so you'd be like (33+60)/2=46,5. Good, that's older than me


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## srcroft (Sep 23, 2012)

No no I'll be 34 in October *cries* heh. And that's usually women with age, and men with intimacy partner count.


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