So what is the milestone at which you decide you can consider yourself a real writer? Completion of your first story? Completion of a first novel? Maybe it’s the first thing you submit for publication? Or does only publication itself (I hope not) count?
Got my first couple of rejection letters recently – one the day after the other – from Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Apex magazine. Not that they should come as a surprise or anything – how many writers get the first thing they submit published? Was still a tiny bit hopeful when I saw the emails in my inbox though.
I think this is the milestone (at least for now) that I’m going to say separates the amateur from the would-be professional. Now I can say that I think I’m finally doing this for real.