I don’t have a lot to say on my own usually, but give me the right question and I will open my mouth and things will simply spill out :’D I was working full-time most of the time! I’m not anymore due to the uh, economy, but I am financially secure enough at the moment to not worry for awhile, so I’m focusing on just writing for now.

I hope you find some great people!! I met all of my friends online, across every time zone, and I would not be here today without so many of them.

:’))))))) this is a very nice message to get while i'm fixing the Entire Middle Third of my book

The first thing that comes to mind is: you should try to be in a community/group that largely writes for fun before you enter a community that writes for some form of profit. The former is healthier for your actual creativity, and you want to make sure that part of you is strong before wading into any place where people worry about marketability, or deadlines, or the next big thing, or making a living. The worst that can happen is killing your original love for writing. Be aware of whether you want to make your hobby a career, because you will have to make compromises and concern yourself with a lot of non-writing things. (I didn't pursue visual arts because my gut knew I would hate having clients dictating the things I designed, I also didn't have a certain drive in wanting more of my art/designs out there, which I do with my stories).

I think you should be certain of what you want in a creative friend/critique partner before seeking those out, too. It's important to find others who are on the same page. Years back, I specifically sought out writers who were also in the process of writing a manuscript, who had posted writing excerpts that I liked, and who seemed relatively confident about their writing. I didn't become friends with everyone—maybe because we didn't totally vibe or maybe because I'm not what they're looking for, etc. But that's fine! I made a few really good close writing friends and a lot of other kinds of friends, because not everything has to be about writing.

When I started this manuscript, I knew I wanted to get an agent with it. I also thought, it's okay if I don't, and I can always revise more or write a different story. I'm lucky in that I already had a great support from readers before I ever tried to do this. Many aspiring and debut authors haven’t had the experience of having their writing widely read, and it can cause a lot of anxiety and hunger—wanting that validation from readers and not being sure if people will like your writing (even if a publisher buys your book, from that point it’ll be two years until you see it on shelves). I don't have those feelings almost at all, and it's EXTREMELY freeing. Even if people didn't like what I wrote professionally, I know that I've written many things that people DO like, and even just that shields against anxiety.

(Midway last year, I got into fanfic again briefly because I fell in love with Claude von Riegan of Fire Emblem—it happens—and it was really nice writing oneshots in a day without really thinking about them and posting them and getting comments again. It was a wonderful reminder that I could, in fact, write, during a time where my manuscript was yelling "you have no idea what you're doing." Sure my fandom detour delayed my manuscript completion by a few months, but it was creatively and mentally worth it. I have friends who are active in fandom and fanfic the entire time they're pursuing pro publication as well).

I'm always improving my writing. I'm revising my entire middle third right now, because my brain finally understood how to make a story Book-Shaped instead of being a loosely connected set of scenes like fanfic is. I'm picking up a lot of holistic skills I never had before. Everyone's writing process is different and you need to be actively paying attention to your own. You should try new tips and tricks to see if they work with your process. Most will not and that's fine—now you know! Some will, and that's even better.

And I'm still having fun! I have my ups and downs, but it's a very familiar set of ups and down, and that comes with the experience of having written for a decade. I think finishing a story is the most important milestone, because it'll probably be the one milestone you come back to most often. I'm glad I made it a point to finish my fanfic novels, because it laid the foundational confidence that I can finish stories, even if it takes a long time! Also, writing an ending is nothing like writing a beginning or middle, and skillwise it's important to crest that hill—being able to write the part where the entire story comes together. Build a writing process around finishing a story.

This is now a long rambling thing, I hope it covers some topics that are helpful!! Thank you again for the message and now I gotta get back to work <: