Wish Upon an Evening Star

Writing is scary. Writing in the public eye is really scary. Writing for a readership you genuinely like and care about is terrifying. Writing fiction for said folkses is beyond my capacity to describe. If you think bad beats in gaming or sports feel awful, well...bad beats in the arts feel that intense or worse. I have had one rejection of a piece of writing, and it was back in 2007. It took me five years to write another piece of fiction and put it out there for public consumption. Which is ridic, because I recently spoke to an extremely talented poet friend who has dozens of rejection letters and got turned down by every MFA program he applied to. Whew! Bad beats in the arts are so personal...it feels like someone ripped out your heart and spat upon your entire sentient existence...because basically that's what you're pouring into your work. It's your life's blood, your most private thoughts, your tears in the dark, your shortcomings and weakness, your vulnerabilities all carefully crafted into what you hope is an aesthetically pleasing house of cards that retains some kind of inherent worth when unceremoniously dumped into the wide river of human intellectual property as it has flowed since the beginning of our collective creativity...

That was an overly long segue into the real topic of this post: I gave away some prizes to people who supported my first fanfic, and here are the pretty pictures:

So, as my friend told me, you have to keep trudging along. Keep fighting, keep putting yourself out there to get the wind knocked out of you in whatever realm you're trying to conquer. Surround yourself with good people who will offer valuable constructive criticism when asked, and a shoulder to cry on when needed. What I learned from talking to my poet friend is to stay humble and that I'm not trying hard enough. I should have way more rejections! That would mean I'm taking more risks.

I still have two of the Kokushos left, and much more fanfic to post. So keep your eyes and ears open for the next series to start up. I so appreciate friends, readers, and fellow writers in the MtG community. When I've had a crap week and feel low energy, all I have to do is chat with you or read some articles to get inspired again. Thank you.