This will be the first of a different sort of post that I'll put up when I'm not reviewing something. It'll be about writing, which I hope will be interesting to other aspiring writers out there. Specifically in this post, I'll tell you about my motivations and why I even want to get published in the first place.
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I first encountered the dubious existential state of "pre- published" mentioned on Editorial Anonymous. As a, uh, pre-author myself, I can easily understand the craving to tell people you're a writer or you're writing a novel, but then needing to reconcile the inconvenient fact that you haven't actually written anything, or haven't got any publisher's attention, by resorting to the salve of optimistic euphemism. It's like saying you're "in between jobs." (Really gross; I'm glad I never actually heard anyone say this for real.)
I'm glad people are willing to delude themselves and compromise their integrity for the sake of appearing to be a writer. It's like lying about your age. Writers are the vaguely late-twenties people in a room full of forty-year-olds. This
means writers are respected and the profession's a commodity! It's certainly why I'm drawn to it.
I want to be famous and known worldwide for my profound insights and entertaining stories, and rich enough to write full time. That is my dream and it's certainly glitzy enough. And it seems so amazingly simple. I don't have to audition, get an interview, raise capital, fill out an application, obtain a license, or deal with any of those artifical barriers to entry—essentially, all I have to do is put words down on paper.
And the best thing about this: writing is really super hard for me, and publishing I know is even harder. If (when!) I do become a published author, it'll be a worthwhile accomplishment after years of practice and hard work. I love a challenge.
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My illusions of grandeur—about fantasy authors that is!— are fueled by authors' blogs, especially the chummy kind where they share with you how they became authors and show you the pitfalls and shortcuts along the path to publication. Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson, for example. I find
these blogs so fascinating, and educational too. Not only do they tell me how they went about writing and getting their book published, they show all the cool things that happen to them once they've succeeded. Fan mail! Book signings! Nunchucks in the mail!
It's not all sunshine and roses of course. The authors who don't make it big sure as hell won't blog about their overdue bills and relationship problems. But it's great fun to know what's possible if you do make it big.
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So that's background. I'll tell all about what happened after I decided that the writer's life is for me and actually sat down to write. *cliffhanger* 
