The six months we budgeted for my writing career didn't yield any breakthroughs.  I was not published anywhere, and I realized how hard it is to stare into the face of Abundant Free Time and still sit down and write seriously.  Other people have said as much but there are some lessons, unfortunately, one must experience for oneself.

On the other hand, I have been published twice in my university's literary magazine, which can still go on a resume.  I found a job as a proofreader at an advertising firm, and they've asked me if I'm interested in copywriting at all.  (One case in which "yes" is not a strong enough word.)  And a week and a half ago, I concluded a gruelling, sporadic 16-year undergraduate battle and walked across the stage to receive my Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing.

So I've tacked on some achievements and I'm in a good place.  Now that I'm out of school (for now), I have to work on my self-discipline and start churning out bodies of work.  In reading Gene Wolfe's retrospective on his own career and technique, he cited a story about Harlan Ellison, instructing his writing classes to write one short story a day for a year.

It was not hyperbole.  One short story per day, for 365 days.  Can you imagine?  If you could keep up with that, at the end of that year you would have a wealth, a plethora, no dearth of rich material with which to work and ramp up your career!  I tried it for two weeks--my interest in new projects usually flares up and dies down in two weeks--and it was hard, but I did it.  I surprised myself with what I could produce at 11:30 PM with absolutely no ideas, when I'd just start typing random words and those words would coalesce into a reasonable idea--springboard.  I invite anyone to try this exercise to prove their dedication.

So rather than being overwhelmed by a limitless horizon of options, I'm emboldened.  I talked with a couple of my favorite classmates and we will form a writer's group.  My professor has expressed interest in coaching me in writing even after I've left the school.  I'm exploring a couple literary contests--Minneapolis is an intensively literate city.  Things are looking very good: all I have to do is bother to reach up and pluck those apples off the tree.