I realized the other day I've been doing this writing thing for almost eleven years exactly.

I became a writer the day I attended my first writing class at a local night school approx. Feb 8th, 2010.

Out of curiosity, I've been looking at the numbers over my career. (1/)

Can I share those numbers? Yes.

Am I procrastinating on actual writing projects right now? Also yes. Don't tell my editors.

Let's do this! (2/)

Over eleven years I've had:

250 short story submissions*
33 original fiction publications
3 essays publications
200 rejections

*approx. number. My records pre-2013 are shaky. In 2013 I started using The Submission Grinder. I still use it. (3/)

I started writing short stories February 2010 and started submitting them in August 2010. I got my first acceptance in September to a micro-fiction magazine. Nonpaying* and now defunct.

*I didn't learn I should expect a contract for my stories until 2013. (4/)

I "sold" 8 stories to non paying magazines between September 2010 and July 2012. It made baby writer me very happy and also taught me how sloppy many of these mags were, though they meant well.

Eventually I took the advice "writers should get paid for their work!" to heart. (5/)