All That We Can Do
by Jeff Baker
There’s a meme floating around the web; a quote to the effect that you should thank the part of you that helped you get through this year before you start listing the improvements you’re going to make this year.
That got me thinking.
I post a monthly progress report about my writing. Listing how much stuff I finished, what I worked on and any sales and the like. I look through them and I get a little discouraged about my progress and my career. But I shouldn’t. I have published at least forty full-length stories (that is, in markets other than my self publishing) in a career that took off in the early 2010s. In addition, I have written one flash fiction story for my blog almost every week (with pauses for Christmas and New Years) since May 2016 and have recently passed the 400 stories posted on the blog mark.
A friend of mine makes a living writing articles for magazines. He’s amazed I make this kind of progress. But a lot of the time I don’t see it that way.
My literary heroes are the pulp writers of bygone years who churned out thousands of words for the fiction magazines and sold a lot! I get a little discouraged because I’m not at that level of productivity, but I still keep (as a buddy of mine used to say) “plugging away.” I have to keep reminding myself that the progress is important and so is accomplishment.
We may be entering a distressing era where freedom of expression and rights for minorities may be rolled back. Or that may be attempted. So it is important that we do not stop going forward. If we can we stay open and vocal. And we produce.
We produce art, literature, music. Whatever we can do. That’s important, especially in this time we’re entering. It may be a dark time but we can keep the lights on if we try. Yes, what one individual does matters. You never know who you might inspire to keep going on or try something themselves.
And that’s progress too.
Jeff Baker’s fiction and non-fiction have appeared in various markets, like “Schlock Webzine” and “Amazing Stories.” He blogs about reading and writing sci fi, fantasy and horror and other sundry matters around the thirteenth of each month and has been writing this column since 2016 all through other dark and light times.
He regularly posts fiction on his blog https://authorjeffbaker.com/ and wastes time on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=679510827 and Blue Sky https://bsky.app/profile/jeffbakerauthor.bsky.social and Mastodon (as “Mike Mayak.”) https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/@MikeMayak