I've alluded to this in a few other posts & the main page of my website, but it bears stating explicitly: one of my main focuses for the next year(ish) is to publish my writing. I'm not leaving software engineering behind completely. It still scratches a very specific itch. But if I'm being honest, I prefer the recent reversal of making writing the main focus and software the hobby. My main goal is to successfully place the manuscript of a novel I've written with a publisher, at the same time I've got short fiction and essays I'm shopping around. (Fighting the battle on multiple fronts, I guess you could say.)
Like any work, accomplishing this goal is weird admixture of preparation, connections, and luck. I've made good progress on some fronts — most notably landing my first paid essay, which published at the beginning of last week. This felt like a really big milestone! I wrote my thoughts down and someone liked them enough to give me money in exchange for sharing them with a group of readers. The experience of working with the editorial team at Reboot was positive, and while the essay didn't hit all the notes I wanted it to, I do feel like they helped sharpen some of the arguments I made. It's given me the juice to keep pitching other essay ideas to other outlets.
That being said, I'd like to be more than just an "opinion-haver" on the internet. But the literary publishing industry is a more difficult nut to crack. At the moment, I've paused querying literary agents and opted to close out the year polishing up my manuscript. I'm also attempting, with some temerity, to build more relationships in the industry[1].
Listen. I get that these goals are not unique. I know there are a hundred thousand people who look and think like me sending the same emails. At the end of the day, though, I feel most fulfilled when I am thinking and writing, and I'd like to share the fruit of this labor with more people. If I can find distributors willing to help me hone the work and then share it with a bigger audience, that'd be grand. Of course, if I make it to the end of next year without making any headway, that's also fine. It won't diminish the sense of fulfillment I get from writing. The compulsion to write is a constant. It'll be here regardless. Failure to achieve things in this time frame just means these goals will need to take a backseat to finding a more stable source of income.[2]
Since I've been so focused on writing and placing more serious fiction & non-fiction, I haven't had too much time to tinker with other small projects. So let me give you a quick rundown of my personal backlog:
copy link to highlight & drop the link into a page's markdown file then have it automatically turn into a blockquote element that's formatted properly and linked to that text fragment.#travel filter tag.I tinker with my website when I'm procrastinating on other things. You may have noticed a few changes around here since the last time you visited. Here's a quick run down in case you were curious:
I don't intend for this to become a site dedicated to cataloging the trials and frustrations of making headway in an unfamiliar industry. I find that going that route tends to be a sinkhole where I spend all my time writing about that process and not focusing on the quality of my writing. The writing about the work subsumes the actual work, &c. So please consider this post an anomaly.
That being said, this website is very much a bin I throw random thoughts so that they no longer take up space in my mind. I can make no promises or guarantees about the quality or content of future notes.
As you can imagine, this is a bit difficult to do while based in India and focusing on U.S. publishing. I'm feeling my way through it, but if you are or know someone who'd be worth chatting with, drop me a line!
At the moment I'm relying on savings and the generous patronage of my wife.