Baby Steps

After finishing “Watchmen,” I wanted to knock out “The Fault in our Stars” by John Green, for no other reason other than it has been recommended too many times for me to ignore. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the film just came out, so there are no copies available at the library. I’m reading “Catch-22” by Heller instead.

Additionally, I’m writing a résumé and including all of my publications (exactly one), which made me go back and read it again. It was an ambivalent experience for only one reason; I wanted to fix it. My submission was as good as I could possibly make it at the time. I wrote it quickly and did some light editing, but there were few changes I could find. Now I can find a lot. Sentence restructuring, word reduction, tailoring for the audience, it could have been tighter and thus more effective. This is a good thing. It means I’m better now. However, it also means that I released inferior work and it’s now part of my permanent record. Same for the guest blogging I did for the cloth diapering people. Not exactly bad work, but flawed and that’s a little embarrassing. Maybe even negatively impacts my shot at a job.

Still, it’s publication and that’s better than nothing. I'm not sure if guest blogging counts, and I have one more article under review. It's all non-fiction, and I haven't been paid for any of it. I still have a long way to go to selling fiction.