A bewildering number of people think they are writers. Sadly, I am one of them.

Why do people write? It's hard to say. My rumination on the subject can be found here.

One thing about being a writer: most people don't understand how much work is involved. I certainly had no idea. What follows is my personal saga as a writer. Some folks may sympathize. Others will not. Many have already hit the browser's "back" button, or have realized their mistake and gone back to Google to find more useful search results.

Phase 1: This can't be that hard, can it?

Shortly after I got out of college in 1996, I decided to try my hand at being a writer. As a kid, I'd displayed a modicum of talent, and I felt certain all I needed to do was focus my energy and I would be a success in no time. Ha ha.

Phase 2: Living the cliche

Common wisdom says that most writers start out with short stories before moving on to bigger and better things like novels. After reading a bunch of short stories, I figured heck, why not, I might as well give it a shot. Couldn't be that hard, could it? So I sat down and wrote a bunch of really bad short stories, which I submitted to any magazine I thought might be remotely interested.

Phase 3: Thank God I didn't quit my day job

Of course, I was rejected over and over again. After awhile, I gave a few of my stories to my family and friends, all of whom -- with the notable exception of my mother (I love you mom) -- told me flat out that my writing sucked. So, sometime in late 1998, I put the stories away and focused on poetry for the next decade, with a slightly better success rate.

One thing I've realized is that it's pretty important to get feedback on your work. Most folks aren't going to write great stories in a vacuum. If you can't even get a few of your sci-fi-loving friends interested in your writing, there's a good chance the professionals will dismiss you out of hand.

Phase 4: Back to the drawing board

After about eight years of beating myself against the poetry wall, I came back to fiction. Why? I can only attribute it to Melanie Rawn. The first book of her Exiles trilogy (duology?) pissed me off so much I decided to try and write something better. That was in 2007, when I was doing time in Kuwait on a military deployment. I started writing and have continued (slowly but surely) since.

Phase 5: At least my wife likes my stuff now

I've got a fair bit of speculative fiction moldering in my desk drawer. My "oeuvre" consists of a couple novels, two dozen or so short stories, about a half dozen pieces of flash fiction and a number of half-baked ideas. So far, I've got a couple of flash fiction pieces in the newsletter of a local bookstore and a story pending in the Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. I also have an Honorable Mention from the Writers of the Future contest, which, on the awesomeness scale, is slightly better than being second runner up in my third grade spelling bee. No pro publications yet, but I'm working on it.

I've only recently started trying to publish my work after a long hiatus. I've definitely grown quite a bit as a writer since my first flounderings more than ten years ago. Of course, I'm still collecting rejections at an alarming rate.

I try not to let it get to me. I can always console myself by saying that my wife, at least, likes my stuff. Some of it, anyway.

Phase 6: Keep on truckin....

They say every writer has a million bad words in them. I'm only up to about 300,000 or so, but I think I've made some pretty good progress. You can find links to a few of my pieces at the bottom of this page.

I also have some links for aspiring writers. Enjoy!

My work:

• "Flash Hole" -- a piece of spec flash fiction published in the Infinitas Bookstore newsletter (they are located in the Central/Western Suburbs of Sydney ... very cool place, check it out).
• "False Dogs" -- another piece of flash fiction that was published in the Infinitas newsletter.
• "Flight Lessons" -- this is not a very good piece of flash fiction, but I'm posting it anyway because I find it mildly entertaining. I couldn't even get this thing published by a site that pays absolute shit ($3 payment, $0.03 cents per word). So it must be really bad. One of the problems with being a writer is that you have no idea how bad you are. Which is a good thing, sort of, because it means I can continue writing, blissfully ignorant of my own suckitude.

• The Rejection Page, where I talk a little bit about rejection and what I do to cope.
• Finding a reader -- how to get outside feedback that will actually improve your writing
• A list of useful writing books -- I found these books helpful; you might, too