Spills On A Page

Wow! After three months away, here I am again. I think that NaNoWriMo and the holiday season hit me a bit harder than I expected this year. January has been particularly brutal with it's gray color and no holidays to look forward too.

I've been in a bad, bad place with my writing.   Two weeks ago, I even went so far as to decide to quit writing all together.

GASP!

It's true.  After a year of trying unsuccessfully to publish, I decided that it was time to hang up my keyboard for a while. So what changed? I got some wonderful news that rekindled my writing flame.

I"M GETTING PUBLISHED!

Now, before I begin to make you think this is something bigger than it is, I will disclose that it is not an epic novel or future New York Times Bestseller. It is a flash fiction piece I wrote last year that has found it's way into an Australian publication. It is due out in May, so I will save any more details for another time.

Even though the piece is small and will go almost completely unnoticed in the global writing community, it is amazing it has lifted my spirits! I now feel a renewed validation that maybe everything I write isn't complete crap. Maybe, just maybe, I write things that other people want to read.  It's a good feeling.

Now I'm left with a couple of questions.

First, is one year about the right time to be working at this before getting something published?  What is the average for flash fiction? Novels? Novellas?

Secondly, I wonder how many authors out there are about to quit before getting the good news? Are there others out there like me? Or are there more that quit before they get to that point?

Just some points to ponder.