Success and How to Measure it

The definition of success:

Each person has their own idea of what equals great success.

I think it's a good idea to evaluate what your personal meaning of success is so that you know when you've reached it. Do you think I'm nuts? Think about it. We assess what kinds of goals we want to reach each year; why wouldn't we evaluate our ever changing thoughts and definitions of success. There are so many levels.

In writing, specifically, there are levels of success. For me, writing a completed novel this past November without abandoning it mid-way constituted success. It was when I felt able to call myself a writer.

Each step accomplished is a success for me because I am an instant gratification type of person. If I can't do it perfectly the first time, or shortly thereafter, I quit. It's horrible, I know....but sometimes you have to own your flaws. Due to my nature, I celebrate each small step as a success. I'm not going to hang myself out to dry and say that I'm only a success when I've hit the NY Times Best Seller list. That could take a very, very long time and with me being so impatient......I would set myself up for failure, rather than success.

However, I know others who operate in the exact opposite fashion. They will tell themselves they are nothing until published. That drives them to work harder, learn more, write faster and better and there they go-published before you know it! I'm just not that person. (I so wish I was.)

Have you ever considered what will make you feel successful in your writing? Are you honest and realistic with yourself about what you consider success to be?

Nano Aftermath!!

Links to my fellow bloggers that left comments for me this weekend. If you did not leave a comment, I'm not offended, it was after all holiday and well, combine holiday with weekend, and I wouldn't blog if I had better things to do either.
Angelia (Horse Schools)
Just Jemi
Melane (Chasing the Dream)
Erin (Coloring outside the Lines)
Tricia O'Brien (Talespinning)
Corey Schwartz (Thing 1 and Thing 2)
Amy Tate (The Virginia Scribe Reflections)


Pets, children, BFF's, family members and long lost projects are jumping for joy. Their writer person is finally unburied from their computer/notebook/laptop/other strange word processing devices and joining the real world. Be gentle folks, we now have a LOT to do in December...all the stuff we didn't do in November. Oy!

I've read a lot of different posts about various different bloggers' Nano experience. Most of them all felt triumphant, even if they did not go for the 50K mark, but a different goal, and accomplished it. I also noticed a lot of varying opinions between the newbies. The common thread that I have noticed through everyone's thoughts...is that everyone learned something. Everyone walked away from Nano with something, even if that something was the knowledge that they will never do Nano again. It's a live and learn type of thing.

Personally, I loved Nano. Not for writing fast, or for writing crappy work...but for writing something from beginning to end. This is the first novel I can say with confidence that I love the story, I can't wait to revise and edit and rewrite and cut and paste and all that stuff!! And I can do that, because I finished it. These are some other things I learned:

1. I could have ADD. One month of one story was terribly difficult for me to do. At any time I have three different WIP's going and usually a few more swirling in my head. Not all of them feasible, writeable, but they're there anyway. Nano really taught me to focus, and showed me that I could focus with great results.
2. Flexibility is more than doing the splits. I learned to be much more flexible with my writing time. Where I would wait until things were 'calm' or 'quiet', during November, I pretty much wrote whenever I could. During commercials, while the kids ate lunch at the table (I know, bad mom-I didn't do it at dinnertime, okay?), well, you get the idea. Even though sometimes all I got in before the kids' end of the day was 500-800, or less, it was a step closer to the 1667 goal each day. And then after they went to bed, the rest of it flew like crazy from my fingers.
3. Too much of anything is a bad thing. I couldn't do the entire, detailed or even outline resembling type of outline. That's TOO orderly for my left brain. Or..something. I can't go completely without plan though, or I forget who was supposed to do what where and what was their name again??  So, I improvised. I decided to use my normal pantster attitude, but sort of jot down skeleton ideas of the scenes or how I thought things would progress. I did this with colored pens on notecards that eventually covered my wall. That was a good balance between organized and not organized.
4. Consistency. Honestly, this word is like, the bane of my existence. I SUCK (with great vacuum) at consistency. It's a horrible trait, I know. In the world of parenting-well, my kids will go to therapy. Why? Well, because one month mom decided to let us kind of do whatever the hell we wanted to do, and then all of a sudden it was December and we had to do chores and homework and blah blah blah. I can live with that. In writing, well, I guess my books may need therapy when I'm done with them. I found that even if I didn't want to, I had to sit down and write at least for "X" minutes a day. Then, before I knew it, those minutes were over and I didn't want them to be. Which is good. Slow and steady really does win the race. If we wait for our fickle muses, well, we could be waiting a long time. They flirt with the people that flirt with them....
5. I really can write a novel and I really can do it well. Thank you very much, Ms. Inner Critic and Ms. Too Grown Up for Dreams.

So, what did you learn?

Weekend Confessions

I am too grown up. Somewhere along my path of life, I completely left the child behind. She reaches out to me sometimes, and every once in a while I can smile at her. Mostly, I forget about her. Sometimes, I mourn her loss, because I can't seem to find her when I need her most.

I am guilty of "Do what I say, not what I do." I realized this, when I told my daughter that she doesn't get to eat whatever she wants when she grows up and then I ate a large bowl of ice cream at midnight.

I cry too much. If I'm too happy, sad, stressed, PMS, angry (which is really not good when trying to voice your anger to someone through tears.)

I'm terribly insecure. About almost everything. No, about everything.

I'm an incredible actress.

I'm a lot like Alice in Wonderland.... "I give myself very good advice, though I very rarely follow it."

I miss California. I miss California. I miss California. I know I'm supposed to make the best of where I am with what I have, blah blah blah blah. Shut up. I miss California.

I love to make people smile and laugh. I write not a bit of humor.

I learned patience from my kids.....writing has unlearned it. Yes, total demolition of grammar, I did it on purpose.

I'm afraid to admit when I am unhappy. How silly is that?

Somber post today, I know. Perhaps it's a side effect of nano. I've been writing daily, steadily for two months now. I practiced in October, you know. And I had no clue how draining it would be on my poor little brain. I am not smarter than a 5th grader.

What confessions weigh on your mind? What do you do when you feel drained from something that normally gives you such joy? Am I wrong about my passion?

MAKE IT STICK

Good mornin' USA :)

Ahhh, when I was young and limber, I took a gymnastics class and I performed really well. One thing I remember the most about tumbling is that you have to MAKE IT STICK. Your routine is important, the jumps, flips, splits, stretches...but even more important is that you have to STICK IT at the end. You MUST make that final leap, stay on your feet and throw your hands in the air with victory. You are judged by how well you make it stick.

I have made it a point to READ again. This is difficult with a royal court and a Jester that hates reading. I have read plenty of children's books out loud, and even a couple of MG's to myself. Research, ya know? But the books that I like, full of suspense, murder, mystery, crime, forensics, conspiracies, I don't get to read as often as I'd like.

Now, I recently finished a book that held my attention all the way through. It wasn't "unputdownable" as some would say, but it was well written and a good story. But, when I got to the end, I was terribly let down. There were a few subplot ideas that weren't wrapped up. I even had to go back and read a few chapters over again to make sure I didn't miss it. So, would I recommend this book to my friends? Probably not. (You notice I'm not asking my followers to run out and read it)

I probably don't have a lot of professional advice to offer on this, as I haven't completed my novel, YET. However, I do know that I am constantly making notes to remember to "wrap up" certain parts of my novel. I even found a character that I introduced in chapter one and then never spoke of him again!! I had to either delete him, or bring him into the story more. I noticed a conflict or two (minor ones) hadn't been resolved. Time to resolve it, or delete it. Is it really necessary to understand the plot? If so-tie it up, make it stick. If not, DELETE.

Is there anything you do when you are at the end of your novel to tie it up? Any foolproof plan on how to Make It Stick??