Professional fiction writers! A random question: Assuming your path to this point has not been a series of unqualifed successes, if you went back in time and met yourself as a kid, what would you want them to know – or not know – about their dream career?
I'd remind my young self of Hofstadter's Law: it always takes longer than you expect, even if you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
Everyone's chiming in here with advice. I should have worded my original post better: How much of the reality of the life should your younger self know, or is it better if they stayed ignorant of it? How much of that dream has to be a fantasy in order for us to put in all that work chasing it?
This question was at least partly prompted by how much new writers can find out about the writing life now, and what influence that might have.
It's a terrible way to make a living.
It's something I've thought a lot about! I think if my younger self knew it would take her literally 20 years of trying before she'd get a novel published, she would have despaired, and maybe given up. On the other hand, maybe she would have ditched the backup career and just gone harder on fiction.
I think the part that'd be helpful to know early on is that no one is going to "discover" you and become your mentor and benefactor who lifts you up the ladder. You have to do the work. You have to send your work. You have to connect. You have to find the resources.
People will ask “have I heard of you” and mostly you’ll be saying “probably not” because being published doesn’t mean fame and fortune unless you’re v lucky (and luck has a large part to play)
"Kid, everything you read or do will be useful in your writing, so pay attention and journal if you can."
Don't run from success (I missed so many opportunities because of this) SO much luck is involved - but you can try to make your own luck.
I think if I'd known at the start what I know now about publishing - in particular the excruciating glacial rate at which everything moves, the non-linear progress etc - it might genuinely have put me off pursuing writing. I'm an advocate of writers staying sweet summer children as long as possible