"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." - Walt Disney

Wednesday, September 1, 2021

IWSG: Defining Success

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs. You can also join us on twitter using the hashtag #IWSG, or on the Facebook page.

Now, IWSG hosts have changed up the format in an effort to make it more fun and interactive. Every month, they will announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Don’t forget to visit others that day to see their answers. Want to join, or learn more? Visit our - Sign-up List.

The awesome co-hosts for the September 1 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, T. Powell Coltrin @Journaling Woman, Natalie Aguirre, Karen Lynn, and C. Lee McKenzie!

SEPTEMBER 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 - My main goal is to keep learning and trying. To me, that is success. You can't control when, or if, you get published. You can't control the amount of money someone is willing to pay you. However, you can control if you keep pushing yourself. Those other things don't guarantee happiness. Keep finding the joy and passion in the craft - that is success!

6 comments:

Natalie Aguirre said...

I so agree that it's best not to define success by things we can't control, like making money from writing or getting published. Enjoying the process and growing in our writing is a great way to measure our sucess.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Well said! Control what you can and don't lose the joy.

Diana Stout said...

Total agreement about your definition of success. Learning and moving forward is everything! Writing IS about the joy and passion! Good luck to you.

Rebecca M. Douglass said...

I like the idea of keeping success in the realm of what you can control. So maybe I'll add "improving as a writer" to my definition of success, because that one's on me.

Leigh Caron said...

Ooo, good answer. Yup, keep on keeping on. And if we don't enjoy the process...what's the point? I love every step of the way.

Vani Maximus said...

I love your definition of success Sylvia, it is quite positive where we push ourselves to write because it's our passion. Happiness is something that we strive to achieve that is intrinsic rather than extrinsic; although, I wouldn't mind if it was extrinsically motivated, but relying on other factors is not good if you do not put in the time to carve out a part of the day to do what you enjoy.