Wednesday, September 1, 2021

IWSG: Defining Success

 The first Wednesday of the month is Insecure Writer’s Support Group day!



This Month's Question: How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?


My Answer: I have different definitions of success for different things in my life. For the publication of WHO R U REALLY?, I had defined success as helping at least one teenager stay safer online. I’m thrilled to say I’ve received multiple emails from teenagers telling me that after reading the book they cleaned out their “friends” lists online. That’s a huge success. For other aspects of my writing life, I set different goals or "success" identifiers such as meeting a deadline, hitting a word count, and/or reading a certain number of books. Since there are so many aspects of publishing that are beyond my control, I have found that utilizing the tools from THE ARTIST'S WAY, I am able to strive for a satisfying sense of success within my control. If you haven't read THE ARTIST'S WAY, I highly recommend it.


What about you? How do you define success as a writer?


4 comments:

  1. It's good that the kids are thinking more clearly about their online friendships. I hope that it has ripples, too. I don't have as clear cut a goal in my writing, though. Happy IWSG Day

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  2. Last month I picked up on a couple dozen books on the writing craft. Here you come this month with one more, though it appears to cover all kinds of creativity, not just writing.

    Thanks. I'll add *The Artist's Way* to the list.

    This month I'm picking up new ways to define success as a writer, new reasons to celebrate progress.

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  3. I came here for the IWSG post, but ended up scrolling through pages of your book reviews! Although I write romance, I never READ romance. I'm much more of a thriller/mystery junkie. I now have a few more to add to my TBR pile. 😁

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  4. That you may have saved a teenager from harm is the greatest success!

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