keep writing and carry on!

I came across a quote today on a Facebook group I had decided to stay away from for a while but couldn’t help taking a sneak peek at when this post popped up on my newsfeed.

Don’t quit. It’s very easy to quit during the first ten years. Nobody cares whether you write or not, and it’s very hard to write when nobody cares one way or another. You can’t get fired if you don’t write, and most of the time you don’t get rewarded if you do. But don’t quit. ~ Andre Dubus II

Dubus was an American short story writer who passed away before the turn of the century.

I’m not one of those writers who grew up knowing precisely that they’ve always wanted to be a writer. In fact, it was only after two years into working life that I started to ‘dream’ of making a living from writing fiction. This was way back in 2007.

Eleven years later, I self-published my debut novella in 2018.

And it’s only now, in the spring of 2020, that I’m seriously starting to write more than I dream of writing. It’s only now that I am beginning to learn about the business aspects of writing and selling books.

Looks like ‘the first ten years’ that Dubus II referred to in the quote above have only just begun for me. Here’s to brilliant beginnings and one helluva ride!

Attribution: Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash