Open Thread: Oracle Hotline

[mithen]

--What does writing success look like to you?

I really like this question! I have a fair amount of sheerly material ways I decide if something I write has been "successful"--in the little, scattered fandom I'm currently in, I fret a bit if my fic gets less than five comments, for example. I also will sometimes check my kudos-to-hits ratio, which I like to be above 15%. There are a couple of readers, like my husband, that if I can get the desired response from them, I feel like I've achieved my goals even if the story doesn't do well in the AO3 stats area, you know? But the most important measure is my own personal satisfaction, and as long as I enjoyed myself writing it, that's what counts the most for me.

Comments

[me_ya_ri]

Hmmm, interesting question. Because for me writing success is completely separate from publishing success.

Writing success is finishing a story. It's loving the story, at least one aspect of it. It's learning something new or trying a new technique in that story. It's getting out of my comfortable little rut. Or sometimes glorying in staying right there in my rut and indulging myself.

Publishing success, which I do not have yet, would be making enough money on a monthly basis to quit my day job. That's between $3000-$5000 US so that I could support myself, cover insurance and bills and the like and still the comfortable. I am NOWHERE near that, at all.

But I have littler goals that I'm reaching. Like publishing short stories every week this year (I'll make most of them). Like publishing 6+ novels, also one that I'm likely to make. Taking a class on boosting my backlist and implementing the techniques is one and I'm working on it currently. Doing ads, putting up preorders, getting reviews on books, all of those are little publishing goals that should, eventually, get me to the big goal.

So, you know, I'm getting there. Just slowly on the publishing side.

I totally agree with you on the satisfaction side of things. That's the real measure of writing success because if I don't enjoy the story no one else will either.

[mithen]

Because for me writing success is completely separate from publishing success.

Yeah, I can totally see that! They have different goals and different criteria altogether. It can be hard to balance them , I suspect!

[ecto_gammat]

I think I'd count a writing success is when I actually complete and post a fic. I'm not a talented person when it come to writing, so anyone that reads something I've posted is awesome; kudos and comments are divine, but not as often as I think I'd like.

Like, the fic I'm most proud of was one I wrote four years ago, written for the MASH fandom, which is a pretty dead fandom. So when I see the hit count rise, or if someone leaves a kudo or a comment, I want to cry.

[mithen]

I think I'd count a writing success is when I actually complete and post a fic.

THIS IS GOOD SUCCESS. Honestly, just knowing someone enjoyed something I wrote is so wonderful. I write it mostly for myself, the rest is bonus!

[luciferxdamien]

Finishing AND posting something? That seems like it would be a very successful writing thing for me to do. XD I really wonder how I am the same person that could write and post a fic every day consecutively for Nathan/Charles month (who needs sleep ahahaha) and now I can't even finish 2 paragraphs of a fic that's 97% finished since April. :') I often feel like I've never finished ANY of my fics, but then I remember I posted over 100 Nathan/Charles fics, and I can post again!

I guess a lot of my feelings of 'I have never finished anything' come from the piles and piles of larger WIPs that sit growing dustier and dustier as I keep coming up with new fic and swinging fandoms rapidly. And I haven't really posted anything new in the better part of a decade sooo... But this year!!! Is about finishing things and I really think I can do that. =D

[mithen]

Finishing AND posting something? That seems like it would be a very successful writing thing for me to do. XD

Did you ever manage it? *grin* I have, even a couple of times, since writing this! (Not as many as I would like, though... it's become so much harder, somehow!)

[bradygirl_12]

Well, I think personal satisfaction is tops on the list, then I'd say getting responses, even if it's just kudos. Comments: gold. :)

My sense of accomplishment stems from my own view of my fic, though. Some of my best work gets barely a comment and something I've dashed off gets a bunch, so I've learned to be inner-directed.

Professionally? I'd count getting published as writing success. And getting noticed and on the bestseller lists would be sheer nirvana! :)

Though profic also demands personal satisfaction. You can write a popular potboiler but it won't be creatively satisfying.