New goal

I've started a new endeavor for 2008. Not a New Year's resolution, per se... more of a goal for the year.

I've harbored the desire to be a professional writer for most of my life. I've taken writing classes, gone to arts school, entered in contests and won. In college, I was granted a scholarship for my writing. But even though I'm now in my thirties I still haven't been published. I'm still working some Corporate America office job, marking off the hours in the day, watching my life disappear minute by minute. I hate it here. I hate the mundane inanity of it, the way it sucks the life out of you, one spreadsheet at a time.

But I believe I have the ability to eventually shake free of these bonds. I've decided that there's absolutely no reason why I should continue on down the same path I've been laying for so long, career-wise. So, I've made an initiative for myself to get published in 2008.

Now, I don't mean publish a book (not yet, anyway). The writing business is much like any other - you have to get your publishing creds, prove to agents and editors that you have the chops for the industry, before you can really consider getting published in a serious, money-making way. The more creds you have, the more likely you are to get a paying gig. So the best way to break into the business is send out pieces of writing and do your best to get them published. The more you send out, the more likely it is that you'll get published. It's a statistical inevitability.

So, my goal for this year is to send out 50 submissions to publications around the country. That may seem overly optimistic, but if you break it down it comes to one submission a week. And it's not fifty pieces we're talking about here - as soon as one piece is rejected by a publication, I'll put it right back into rotation and send it to another - just 50 subs. I've already sent out my first sub, cast the first stone into the water. Let's hope that the ripples from that throw ultimately change the course of my life for the better.

The writers' group I meet with on a weekly basis has agreed to march right along with me this year and do their individual bests to meet this goal as well. I hope we can all stick to it.

I'll post occasionally on the progress of my goal, but I don't plan to write much about it here. If you'd like to see how things are going, I've set up a blog that the other members of the group post to as well. So far, there are only four posts, but after all, it IS only the third week of January. The blog address is http://50subs.blogspot.com. Check it out if you like.

Wish me luck, guys.