for the newbies and the proto-professionals:

[lagilman]

Brilliant advice from Jim Butcher:

"There is an enormous weedout factor for wannabe writers. The good news is that you aren't competing with every published schmoe out there. You're only up against the rest of the wannabes, and it's like the old axiom about being chased by a grizzly bear. You don't have to run faster than the bear to get away. You just have to run faster than the guy next to you."

Is true. You don't compete against the Known Published World. You compete against your own weight class. Okay, so it's not 100% true. It's true enough to live by.

And now I have to go and put down some more words. Words words words words...

Comments

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm still too new to figure this out, but I don't consider myself as competing against my peers at all. I may envy their sales, gnash my teeth at their success, engage in all sorts of nonsense pissing contests ("So how many stories do *you* have out, Bob?" and "Well, my last rejection from Analog's was a personal note from Stan"...), etc, but in general I think newbie writers are weeded out as they face perils such as self-doubt, impatience, lack of persistance, failure to work on craft and failure to really commit. Your thoughts on that?

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

I believe in the flatworm theory.
I am going to go kill, mash up, and eat some published authors, so that I can gain their talent and success. :)