Defining Success - IWSG September 2021

 

It's IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of the amazing and generous  Alex Cavanaugh. To find links to other IWSG contributors, click here. Thank you to co-hosts for the September’s IWSG: 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?

Last week I wrote a personal essay. I’ve sent it out and, if it gets published, I’ll call that success. If I evvvvver get one of my books published, that will be a whopping success. But there’s more to writing then achieving publication. I started this blog, as a means to claw myself out of the unexpected hole into which life had dropped me. At the time, my goal was to improve my writing skills while figuring out how to re-engineer my career. A reread of some of my early blog posts bears witness to my progress. These days I’m a far better writer, and, as it happens, the exercise led me to the position I hold now. So, success, right?

For me success is about degrees—hammering out novel revisions suggested by my writing group even though it feels like an impossible task. Sometimes it’s as simple as forcing myself to send a query letter. A long time ago, I stopped working on my first-ever novel because the draft was so awful, I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Over the past year, I’ve gone back to that attempt and turned it into a cohesive story. To me, that’s a huge win. All of this gives me confidence. I am successful.

That said, sometimes success is as simple as getting an IWSG post written on a day I’m struggling, which I confess is what’s happening today.

 How do you define success as a writer?

 

Best Book? On Writing! IWSG August 2021

 

It's IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of the amazing and generous  Alex Cavanaugh. To find links to other IWSG contributors, click here. Thank you to the August co-hosts: PK Hrezo, Cathrina Constantine, PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, and Sandra Cox.

This month’s optional question: What is your favorite writing craft book? Think of a book that every time you read it you learn something or you are inspired to write or try the new technique. And why?

I am not a horror girl. I avoid anything delivering nightmare potential. In high school, friends dragged me to the movies to see Stephen King’s Carrie, which I watched mostly through my fingers. When a friend badgered me to pick up King's Salem’s Lot the summer after my sophomore year of college, I put up a good fight. Sadly, she was relentless, so to get her off my back I began the book, becoming unnerved enough to throw it across the room unfinished. It lay there in the corner for a long time.

In light of that, it doesn’t seem likely that my favorite book on writing would be King’s On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft, but it is. Second place definitely goes to Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott and I've learned tons from Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg and Pen on Fire, by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. With that said, though, I turn to On Writing for inspiration, a quote, or simply a jump start when I’m feeling stalled. The book is so approachable, so entertaining, with voice and clarity and simplicity. Reading it is like taking a class from your favorite teacher, the one who so loves his subject matter his enthusiasm bleeds right through you.  

I’m still not a horror girl. But after blathering on to my dear husband some years back about how much I loved On Writing, he enticed me to read King’s (non-horror) 11/22/63.  Boy, howdy. Not only can Stephen King teach about writing. Man, oh man, can he write!  

If, like me, you hate horror but want good reading, try this link for non-horror stories by Stephen King.  I'm happy to say there are several I've missed. Yahoo! Looks like I've got more books to read.

For other good other books on craft, click here for a post on Book Riot, where you’ll find a list of 100.

What’s your favorite book on writing?

 

What Would it Take? IWSG July 2021

It's IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of the amazing and generous  Alex Cavanaugh. To find links to other IWSG contributors, click here. Thank you to July co-hosts: Pat Garcia, Victoria Marie Lees, and Louise – Fundy Blue.

July’s optional question: What would make you quit writing?

Whoa. This question stopped me hard. As soon as I read it, I was deep into my brain answering—albeit flippantly. What would make me stop? The loss of my two hands? An unrelenting coma? My ultimate demise? But later that morning, as I drove to work, I pondered more seriously. Really. What would it take? I lost my father and within hours, sat down to write a eulogy because writing about him and choosing what to include soothed my aching heart. When my sister was terminally ill, I expressed my heartbreak in poems. I lost my job of 23-years and blogged my way out of the shock. When my husband passed away last spring, a day later I could do nothing BUT sit down and write about him. In truth, for a long while it was impossible to write anything that wasn’t about him, but eventually I could, and now that writing allows me to feel some semblance of normalcy. So, what would it take? I’m not sure I want to know, to tell you the truth.

Frustration, of course, comes along with “business” of writing. For me, most recently, that has involved researching agents who seem like a real fit for my novel and discovering they’re closed to queries. Then there are the rejections that appear in my inbox. It’s hard not to feel discouraged about those, or for example, when I became a finalist in the #revpit twitter contest this spring, but didn’t win. There was the contest I did win, which earned me an agent read on the first 50 pages and ultimately, feedback along the lines of: “Great writing and compelling characters but I’m severely limited in the adult projects I take on…”

There’s a one-step-forward-five-steps back, nausea producing, hopes-up-only-to-plummet-down cycle most writers experience, and I suppose, at some point we all ask ourselves if it’s worth it to stay on the ride. Darned if I know, but like Dorie the fish, I just keep swimming. The writing always brings joy, and as long as I keep trying, success beckons, even if it remains ever off in the distance.

What would make you stop writing?