It's been five years since I received my first rejection (and more on that at the end), and by sheer coincidence I sent my 300th submission the day before the anniversary, so this seems an excellent moment for some introspection.

Here's some messages to the me of five years ago, in the hopes that some of them save you some time and grief.

(Yes, I just learnt a new word.)

Here is some excellent news: space exploration is bigger news than it has been for years. SpaceX are landing re-useable rockets. NASA have funding to land on Europa. President Obama has set a timeline for getting to Mars.

And the ESA wants to go back to the moon.

Common sense dictates I should refrain from commenting on politics and religion.

Bollocks to that. Politics and religion are central to my thinking, and they'll come out in all my stories. I'm not going to pretend to not be me. Honestly and seriously, though--I don't mean any offence by any of the below. I'm just thinking out loud.

I may well regret committing to so much social media distraction. I fear that social media is catnip for writers: satisfying, addictive and wholly useless and unfulfilling.

Everything has a beginning, if you sort of squint your eyes and don't look too closely and pretend you can't see all that other stuff that's in the way. This is one of those beginnings.