How many times do you/would you revise the same story before deciding that somehow it doesn't work?

I don't think I've ever given up on a story. I might rewrite it until it doesn't resemble the original.

Is it crazy to pick out pictures that kinda/sorta look like how you imagine the characters in your novel? Scrivener lets me paste in pictures so I did. It does help me a little when I come up with descriptions even if they don't really match exactly.

Gud, I'd say use whatever works for you.

But what do I know? my writing is strictly factual magazine artcles for a trade pub.

Lots of authors clip pictures to use as character inspiration. LOTS.

And erika, I think you have to revise a story until *you're* happy with it. If it doesn't sell after that, put it away for a while and work on the next thing.

I was reading something, somewhere (yes, I'm precise, aren't I?) where an author was quoted saying she was a re-writer - that she'd rewrite and revise until she had something she felt hit the mark.

Of course, this was someone (Judith Viorst perhaps - I read a long article on her) who had books published. I'm sure there are writers who are in a constant state of revision with nothing final.

I came out of Worldcon this year with an epiphany: I have wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, and, goddammit, I am going to make that happen. From the time I wrote and illustrated The Disastrous Dino War, it's all I've ever wanted from my life. I had practically given up on the notion, assuming that I would never see my name in a bookstore. See, I wrote nothing but sci-fi/fantasy/horror fiction until I took creative writing courses in college, where they frown upon genre fiction. Granted, I improved greatly as a writer as I wrote these realistic stories, but as a result, I figured that my writing future lay in literary fiction, which was ~*respectable*~. When I started writing plays, however, I fell back into genre without even realizing it: Vishnu Claus, an epic sci-fi drama on a spaceship, superheroes in a bar, a talking beer, a talking bow, etc. It was calling me back. I focused on playwriting because I found a supportive community who would believe in my work and bring it to an audience, and at Worldcon, I realized that I have a similarly supportive community in SFF. Saladin Ahmed let me present "Origin Stories" with him as a show of support for a new author of color in SFF, and I intend to become one. I can be diversity in SFF. I can create diversity in SFF. I haven't written a short story in five years, but my fiction drought is over. It's time to make my dreams come true. Today is my birthday, and it's my gift to myself: this time next year, I'm going to be a published author. Is that too ambitious? Oh well, I'm living by Stina Leicht's motto: Dare to suck.

P-C, I think it's great you want to write again -- when we first met, you were still writing those stories. But write because you have a story to tell, not to "be diversity" in SFF, you know? A mission is the quickest way to write falsely.

Write the story you want to tell, and write it as well as you can. That's the first step.

(I realize I may sound like a huge downer, but setting goals too high is the easiest way to break your own heart. I'm not saying don't dream it -- dream it! do it! -- but don't put a timeline on it.)

I knew I could count on you for a reality check! I just know that the only way anything is going to happen is if I just go for it, and I will find the stories I want to tell; I actually have an idea for a book for the first time ever. And I have always needed some sort of goal to strive for, some glimmer of hope in the distance to spur me on, and I think this is a space where Things Can Happen for Me. My first project is submitting to this anthology, which I was going to do to break my fiction drought anyway, but I hope to keep that momentum going and just keep writing stuff.

I am pretty terrified, but I figured if I tell everyone I'm doing this I will hold myself more accountable for following through and not just being lazy.

Yeah, letting people know you're doing it is a good motivator. And submitting to an anthology (or a contest, or something else with a deadline) is a great way to kickstart yourself. I wrote the first novel I ever actually finished for a contest. Didn't win, but after that I knew I could a) finish a book, and b) make a deadline.

Goals are excellent! Just don't say, "On Sept. 12, 2014 I will looking at my first book in a store!" Because that's unrealistic for a whole lot of reasons.