Reflecting back on my writing life in 2010 I can sum it up in one word: Transition.

In 2010 I finally became a full-time writer, making the transition from part-time ‘wannabe’ writer to a person who actually sees himself as a working writer and can now clearly answer the curious conversationalist at parties who asks the inevitable question: “So what do you do?” Now, finally and without hesitation I can answer: “I am a writer.”

Of course, the follow up question is always one of two:

1. What do you write? or,

2. Are you published?

Now, I can answer both with a smile, having completed a yet to be submitted novel for the first query, and having been published in a few print and online magazines. While the transition from sort-of-being-a-writer to being a writer has had fits and starts, it finally feels right and that I no longer am just saying “I am a writer” as if it were an affirmation repeated to the bathroom mirror. Perhaps that is the real key to becoming a writer: Believing that you are one regardless of whether or not you are published. In fact, I have heard it said that one of the chief benefits to starting an MFA in creative writing is that people that enroll finally view themselves as writers where before they did not.

Now that we have taken care of the word that sums up my writing life in 2010, what will be the word that will encapsulate 2011? Well, for 2011 the word that I choose is: Focus. What I intend for in 2011 is to focus my writing work more intently and more strategically and to finish and submit my completed novel and then to begin a second novel as well as some shorter writing projects. The goal will be steady production. The training wheels are off, and I do not want to squander the gift of being able to write full-time. Thus, while 2010 was about Transition to becoming a writer, 2011 will be about Focus on the actual writing.