A THIRD KEY TO SUCCESS

1 More Key to Success

WORK ETHIC

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SUCCESS: BEN FRANKLIN STYLE!

I've just uploaded a new feature article on SUCCESS: BEN FRANKLIN STYLE!

If you'd like to read it, click HERE.

Blessings,

Vicki

VICKI HINZE
www.vickihinze.com
Kill Zone, 7/09
FORGET ME NOT, 3/10




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DISCIPLINE

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When You’re Up, You’re up and When You’re Down, You’re Down

There are patterns in life, and one of them I’ve tagged the Cluster Factor. I’m sure some scholar has tagged it something else, but my observation is merely an observation, not a theological or academic study. That doesn’t make it more or less true or real, just based on different criteria.

The first evidence of the cluster factor I noted was in writing ideas and pertains to thinking patterns. I don’t typically think a book, I think a series of books. Often, ideas come to me in threes. When I first noted this, I noted it but didn’t really deem it significant. Cluster novel ideas was just the way my mind worked.

Then, during a conversation with a relative who informed me there’d been a death in the extended family mentioned “deaths always come in threes.” Sure enough, two more deaths followed within a matter of a few months--and looking back, I noted that this had also been the case when my brother had died years earlier.

Intrigued, I talked to a few friends about the cluster factor and discovered that...
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What Will You Sacrifice for Success?

WARNING: This is a no-edit zone...

One of the greatest challenges we face in our professional lives is success.

That sounds like an oxymoron, but truly it isn’t. Why? Because too often we allow others to define success for us and then we generally find it impossible to meet their measure of it--or our perception of their measure of it. As much as we crave success, too often we don’t recognize it when we’ve gotten it because we’ve been so busy struggling and striving for it that we’ve never stopped to define it.

This struck me last night while watching a CMT tribute to “Giant” Alan Jackson.

He’s an unassuming man. Classifies himself as “simple.” He’s all about family, values, and staying true to himself in his work. Admirable, in my estimation. He hasn’t forgotten his roots, and never pretends to be other than he is.

Now Alan Jackson has known professional success. He’s written 32 Number One (#1) hits and has sold 50 million “records.” He’s also been named Entertainer of the Year a total of nine (9) times. By industry standards, by the estimation of his peers and colleagues, by his fans and the general public, he’s considered successful--and deservedly so. For me, the song he wrote about September 11 was a significant contribution to healing for Americans, and that alone qualifies him as a huge success in my opinion.

And yet he remains humble (a becoming asset more should adopt) and--here’s the zinger--he still feels he hasn’t achieved the status to be on par with his heroes (George Strait and George Jones were there, and referenced.) When approached, Alan assumed the CMT Giants tribute extended the honor of “Giant” to him because he’s so tall.

That this was earnestly spoken set me to thinking. And what I thought was that there’s good lessons for writers (and everyone else) in Alan Jackson’s attitude. Ones worthy of adoption.

He knows who he is and makes no apologies for it, no bones about it. A calm acceptance, contentment, and comfort in his skin. Those are great qualities for anyone and particularly helpful attributes for a creative writer.

He’s earnest. In the writing I see in judging competitions and from critiques, one challenge often repeated is mannered writing. Where an author works so hard at perfection that s/he edits the voice right out of the work. Much of the realism and relate-ability is unfortunately lost under the manner hammer. Let’s face it, when an author writes to sell, what s/he is selling is his/her voice. So that’s significant.

He still doesn’t see himself as being on par with his heroes. Now some would say this is a good thing, and in a sense it is. He’s still striving, stretching and growing, and that’s something we all want to do throughout our careers. Never stop growing is a widely embraced mantra among writers.

But some would say that’s a bad thing because it intimates that one never feels successful because one either hasn’t defined it or has allowed others to define it for them. And that too is true.

It also brings home the importance of defining success for yourself. For some, it is to simply write. Not to write well, not to write to sell, but simply to write. For them, having written, they have succeeded. For others, they use benchmarks to measure their own success.

Typical benchmarks might be READ MORE...

Tags: Author, Writer, Novelist, Creative Writing, Books, Reading, Writing, Vicki Hinze, Writer's Library, success, sacrifice, benchmarks of success, voice, career, professional challenges

EXPECTATIONS

WARNING: This is a no-edit zone...

A short time ago, I wrote a post on expectations. In the past few days, it seems it’s a theme for authors and others to NOT expect good things in their lives, so I’m mentioning it again--and expectations is what is on the mind as I write this.

We all know about self-fulfilled prophesy and sayings like “where the mind goes, the body follows.” But apparently too few of us are really getting the message, otherwise the prevalence of non-expectations wouldn’t be so out-of-whack--and it is!

When did we become a group or individual people who focused on what we couldn’t do, what wouldn’t happen, or why we’re ill-equipped to the point we feel incapable or unwilling to even make an effort? When did we lose our faith in us? Our spirit and determination? When did we settle for less than we’re capable of doing?

What happened to our drive to do the undoable, the improbable, the impossible?

And whatever happened to it, can we undo the damage and get back to a place where we believe not in what we can’t accomplish but in what we can accomplish? Can we be confident enough to take an interim “maybe I can; I’ll find out” step?

Yesterday, I spent the morning with two of my angels. One is four, the other 20 months. I am admittedly gaga over these two, but it isn’t just those bonds that mesmerize me. It’s watching them interact.

The oldest is confident and observant. She quickly catches on and draws conclusions. She commits. She forms opinions. She decides what she thinks. She’s also patient with the little one. Makes allowances not excuses and doesn’t permit her to run roughshod over her. That’s significant.

The younger is a little daredevil, an adventurer. And if the elder can do it, then the younger tries her best to do it, too. Things far, far beyond her capabilities. Often she fails, but it doesn’t seem to phase her. She just gets up and tries again--and sometimes she does these things that she’s considered too little to do.

I mention these things about the kids not because they’re unusual. I mention them because they aren’t. Kids don’t know how to lie, they learn it. They don’t know how to hate or innately embrace other nastiness that stems from negative input; they learn those things, too. More’s the pity. But what is most interesting, in that it’s totally germane, is that kids don’t know what they can’t do until someone tells them. So they often do things they didn’t know they couldn’t--and actually do them.

Kids are empowered by that in a way that adults are not. Maybe it’s because we try and fail. History and experience have beaten us down.

Maybe it’s the fear of failure or success or the consequences (anticipated or not) that we could or would suffer if we tried and it didn’t work out.

Or maybe we’ve just allowed ourselves to listen too much to what everyone else says can or can’t be done and we’ve stopped thinking for ourselves and giving ourselves the option to try new things. Unlikely things. Impossible things.

You know, someone somewhere considered everything impossible until someone did it.

So why shouldn’t we go for those pipe dreams? Dare to reach for the brass ring? Tackle the impossible?

Eventually, someone is going to have enough of that kid-can-do spark in them to go for it and accomplish it. So why not you--or me?

Yes, we might fail.

But so what? And guess what.

We might not.

Blessings,

Vicki

Tags: expectation, anticipation, fear, failure, success, effort, courage, bravery, writer's library, vicki hinze, author, writer, novelist, books, reading

CAREER PATH: KNOWERS, FALLERS & DABBLERS

Some people, it seems, come out of the womb knowing what they want to be and how they’re going to become it.

Others have no clue what they want but fall into something that for one reason or another enchants them, and they make a life’s work of it.

Still others dabble in this then that and then something else and either dabble their entire lives or eventually light on something that intrigues them enough to stick around.

It doesn’t matter which you are. Any--the knowers, the fallers, or the dabblers--can make good writers.

I address this because a very upset writer emailed me recently on this topic. She was told she wouldn’t be a good writer because all of her experience was in one thing.

That comment just begs to be challenged, doesn’t it?

First of all, no one over a year old is experienced in only one thing. Ask a 2-year old to turn off the TV. Most know which button to push. One of my angels is 18 months and loves Dora movies. She knows how to load them into the player and which button to push to make them run. The four year old taught me that rewinding the VCR isn’t necessary. It’ll do it on its own. She also taught me how to play her Leapster--an educational game at which I was a novice, but she’s a pro. (Beat me on every game, too.)

Kids interact with other kids.
They learn language skills: “Don’t, no, stop, please and thank you.” They learn tones--and react to them appropriately. They learn expressions. I’ll never forget the day my eldest angel learned to frown. And, boy, do they read body language.

I used very, very young children to illustrate my point because learning many things begins very, very early. We get the basic skills then (all of which translate to writing, by the way) and then as we grow and mature, we add to them. We build on what’s there--the foundation.

So, in my humble opinion, no one has experience in only one thing--unless you dump everything under the “life” umbrella.

Secondly, even one whose primary area of expertise is in one field is not left void in all other fields. On the way from novice to expert, we develop other skills through related incidentals and experiences that fall outside our specific area of expertise. Most fields incorporates skill sets from other fields.

For years, John Grisham wrote legal thrillers. He is an attorney; that’s his one field. But good attorneys are usually good orators. They have a good grasp on body language, on human emotion, on values and judgments. On reasoning and clear communication. Quick on the uptake and flexible in mind. Those are essential skills to being a good attorney.

But John is also a writer: a related skill set. But does that mean he can only write legal thrillers? No, of course not. Because many of his skills transcend those perimeters and life has added many more. Hobbies and other interests, other experiences have added even more to that more.

So while some might have thought he had one area of expertise, and that imposed limits. We know from experience that his abilities and skills, many of which are directly related to that area of expertise, have exceeded it.

Skills acquired can be adapted and altered to fit the needs of other areas of expertise. That’s my point. You learn to balance to ride a bike. But you also use balance for a thousand other things. Your skill isn’t restricted to that for which you learned it. It translates. And that’s worth remembering.

As writers, we can draw on anything and everything, and we do. Regardless of what your personal experience is now, within the confines of logic, you can use it all and gain what you need along the way to write what you want to write.

The beauty of our flexibility in this is that we don’t have to gain this experience or skill firsthand to be able to write convincingly about it. For example: how many mystery authors have murdered? Not many, if any at all. Yet they convincingly portray the act in books regularly. How? Observation of others acquired skills and expertise. Not firsthand experience. See my point?

Knower, Faller or Dabbler: any can make good writers.

Another recent question has to do with career-building. An author specifically asked about Career Tracks and wisdom. Which way of going about building a career is best?

CAREER TRACKS

1.STRAIGHT AND NARROW: Develop a course that is straight and narrow, meaning write one kind of book and focus intently on building a reputation and a reader base for it.
2.SCENIC ROUTE: Write different kinds of books through a career.
3.DIVERGENT PATHS: Write two types of books and divide effort and interest between them.

Each of those choices has advantages and disadvantages.

The straight and narrow is probably the most preferred path because it naturally places the author in a position to build an easily identifiable reader base that knows what to expect from the author and his/her books. Focus is the key word in this type career. Name recognition, reader identification and expectation, and bookseller identification and expectation are all pluses. The negative? The author can get really weary of writing the same type of book over and again. Most who do find creative ways to keep the work fresh and to stay enthused. Those who don’t, run into long-term trouble.

The scenic route. As an agent once said, “When I get a book from you, I never know what to expect, but I know I’m going to love it.” That sounds like a big bonus, doesn’t it? And it can be. The market cycles and if you’re a flexible writer, then you can flex with it. That’s a perk on the longevity table. However, it’s not easy to build a career that rises to the stratosphere on the scenic route. Readers don’t know what to expect. Booksellers don’t know what to expect. Your books can be shelved in different areas in bookstores and that all makes finding the books more difficult--and it much more likely the author will get lost in the shuffle. Still, some authors choose this path and some have successful careers. Promotion is, in my humble opinion, essential to cue everyone other than the author (and that includes those in the publishing house) what is at the core of each book. Remember, we are creatures of association. We associate this author with this type book. That’s natural to us. So if you’re writing multiple types of books, you need to find an effective way to let others know it and know what you’ve written--every time.

Divergent paths. More and more authors are choosing the divergent path career strategy. They’ll write two types of books, essentially building two separate careers, which at some point usually merge on the marketing front. For example. Nora Roberts build a career in series romance. Then she expanded her romance books into the single title market. Still romance, but now reaching a broader base of readers. She continued her series romances and added her single title romances. Staying well established in series, she became well established in single title romance, and then took the divergent path. Under J.D. Robb, she began a separate career for futuristic mysteries.
After a number of J.D. Robb books were out and she was established in that career path, she marketed that Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb were one and the same. Crossover sales ensued. And her divergent path career strategy was an enormous success. So much so that she’s commonly considered her own brand.

For some authors, one path takes off and the other stills. A year or two later, they can reverse. The still one becomes hot and the hot one cools. Again, markets cycle. So this can be a perk for the author, too. Provided the author writes fast enough to get a book a year out in both careers, this can be a good choice with a lot of advantages and not so many challenges as the other two paths.

Of course, it really depends on the author and what s/he means to achieve. Purpose and personal goals are paramount and whatever yours are, they lend themselves best to one of the chosen paths. So before choosing your career path, it’s imperative (and you increase the odds of not disappointing yourself) by addressing specifically what you want from your career.

Take into consideration your production rates and promotion investments and skills, too. Look at the big picture of you, the author, and you, the person. These are not small things when it comes to deciding where you want to be a year from now or five or twenty-five years from now. Consider it all.

Make a three column list. Ask every question you can think of to ask--about you, about writing, about goals and dreams and desires and abilities. Compare each question to each path. See where the weight adds up.

Then you’ll be building not only a career, but one that has a better chance of working successfully for you.

And remember, you can change paths at any time. If you’re on one and it just isn’t working for you, do the above exercise. Find another. When a door closes, a window opens, right?

Right. And miraculously it does so repeatedly!

Blessings,

Vicki

Tags: career paths, skills, success, authors, writers, novelists, books, readers, goals, abilities, skills, accomplishments, choices, writing, vicki hinze, writer's library

Take a Step...

Amazing Grace...On the Record

During the course of a given day, I’m asked an average of thirty questions. Most come from other writers, but others regularly come from agents, editors, reviewers, booksellers and others in the industry. Then there are friends and family and those from strangers who might or might not be writers. People who’ve read my blog and just want to talk over something important to them.

I welcome all these exchanges. I stay invested and interested and I am and always have been fascinated by people. I really like them. So it’s from that perspective that I say the things I’m about to say.

Questions come in clusters. Maybe it’s collective focus. The cycle of the moon and/or planets. The state of the economy or any of a million other factors. I’m not sure, but in the past decade, it’s very common to get a group of questions on the same topic at the same time. Yet in that same decade, this is the first time I recall being asked so often why I do the things I do. This has been a BIG cluster. :)

For the most part, these questions have been on two things:
1. Why do I write so many articles, do so much teaching, and not charge money for it?
2. Why do I invest so much time in trying to help other writers instead of focusing solely on my own career?

The core reason I teach and do the articles and the podcasts and lectures and seminars and workshops goes back to when I started writing. There was no Internet. There were two main writers’ magazines and little else. There were no writers’ groups in my area, and in fact, I didn’t know another writer.

Many hours of many days were spent in frustration, trying to learn craft and the business. I had no one to ask questions and no one to go to when I was lost and grappling and confused. More often than not, I learned the right way by doing something the wrong way. That’s why when asked about eduction, I seldom cite the MFA in Creative Writing or the Ph.D. in Theocentric Business and Ethics. I generally cite The School of Hard Knocks. It is most accurate (I had four or five books published before getting my MFA).

It was, simply put, difficult. Frustrating. Irritating. Disheartening. Annoying. A royal pain in the ass. And I have not forgotten. I promised myself then that if I ever learned anything I would share it. It’s a promise I’ve tried to keep and will continue to try to keep so long as I draw breath.

In the last two weeks, as well as the general why do you do this, I’ve received warm and generous remarks about the worth and value of what I do. I’ve also received one note that declared my motives couldn’t be good because “nobody does something for nothing.”

I took exception to that comment, and then discovered the author of it was right. We don’t do something for nothing. We do what we do for purpose. Said author was totally off-base in the purpose cited, but the truth is, there is a purpose. There are purposes, I should say.

My Aids4Writers program got started as the result of my annual self-improvement program. I wanted to do something “good for goodness’ sake.” I couldn’t ask or expect anything in return. I posted writing-related insights every day for a year. Toward the end of the year, I mentioned that it’d be time to work on a new improvement and the members of the group asked me to continue. I did. For several years, I posted at least 3 or 4 times a week. Now, a decade later, I answer questions, post lecture notes, articles and that type thing. Most of the responses are private (rather than to the group) because they are so person-specific). Any can ask, and while I freely admit I by no means know it all, I share what I can.

So my purpose was to do good for goodness’ sake. It still is. And on the general teaching and sharing front, too, there is purpose: to know I’ve done what I could to keep other writers from being frustrated, annoyed, irritated, disheartened and suffering royal pains in their asses because they don’t know and have no idea where to go to find out. They have someone to go to who gets the challenge.

That might not sound like a lot, or worthy of purpose to some, but to me it’s more than enough. And to one in the challenge it’s something. That person isn’t alone, isn’t the only person to have faced this challenge and someone’s walked the path before them and is willing to walk it again with them. Often there is solace in that and just knowing it gives a person the push to keep seeking. What’s the value of a push? Depends on how stuck you are in the muck or mired down you are, I’d say.

I don’t charge money for teaching because that is at odds with my purposes for doing it. It’s that simple. I’ve trudged through a lot of mud puddles. If I can help someone else avoid them, I will. And I trust that my financial needs will be met in other ways, namely, through my books. So far it’s worked out.

As to the 2nd question....

I don’t focus solely on my career because that’s not how I choose to live. I’m building a career, yes. But I’m also building a life. Some authors do have that beam focus and it works well for them. I do what works for me. People matter to me.

Readers aren’t just people who buy my books. Booksellers aren’t just people who sell my books. Editors don’t just buy and publish. Reviewers don’t just review. People are not just what they do for me. They have lives and dreams and interests and fears. They worry, they struggle, they deal with problems and they love. People matter.

Yes, I want my books to do well. I want them to do very well. But I don’t want to sacrifice caring about the people involved to attain that--yet it doesn’t have to be an either/or choice. And that is the point of this post.

You decide on your purpose. Often this is more recognition than decision. Regardless, you identify it. And then you work toward it. Balance is a beautiful thing, and in my experience, when one lacks it, s/he forfeits inner peace and fulfillment. When one finds the right balance for him/her, then there’s peace.

There will always be those who question your motives and who opt for cynical views on why others do the things they do. We can’t change others. We can offer them a glimpse inside us as an opportunity--that they might see a different way or thought or idea or perspective. But they must choose their purpose and path. They must find their balance and their fulfillment and determine the value of these things to them.

And that is as it should be. We all have our pets and our pet peeves. We all have our own issues. And how we deal with them is our personal choice.

I choose my purposes and my teaching and doing what I can in ways I can. While that might not work well for others, it works well for me. As for financial needs, they’ll be met. I believe it. As for my books doing well, they’ll be fine. I believe that, too. As for why I’m certain, well, that’s where grace comes in.

Amazing Grace.

Blessings,

Vicki

Yes! SUCCESS!: Part 2: If You Please

"I cannot give you the formula for success,
but I can give you the formula for failure—
try to please everybody."
--Herbert Bayard Swope




I spent the morning with a writer who was feeling torn and troubled. She had this three-book contract with a publisher. I remember the day she negotiated it; she was very happy that day. The first book went well, but during the time she was writing the second book, her editor received a good offer that included a promotion at a different publishing house and left. While happy for the editor, the author was worried about the departure’s impact on her and her books. The author was what we call orphaned.

Her worry was unfortunately justified. While those who make editorial assignments attempt to pair authors with editors who will love their work, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, it can be a real nightmare for everyone involved.

The author and editor both can really put forth effort to mesh their visions, but there are times when no matter how hard one tries, or how many times one revises, the visions are just in different worlds. Sooner or later, usually after much teeth-gnashing and many attempts to please, one or the other realizes this just isn’t going to work out, and cries uncle.

That’s a painful time. Admitting defeat is never painless, but when you’ve made so many attempts to satisfy and please and still failed, it can be devastating. It can convince an author that she can’t write. It doesn’t seem to matter how many awards she’s won or great reviews she’s gotten or how many fan letters she’s received. Those things are in the past and this is now, and now, she can’t please her editor and somehow in her mind that equates to her not being able to write.

It’s easy to get mired down in negativity in these circumstances. It’s easy to feel that same doubt about your skills and abilities and gifts that you had when you first started writing. And it’s humbling, to say the least, to be told that the work isn’t acceptable.

But here’s a couple things we should remember and often forget in this situation:

1. Every match isn’t made in heaven. Some author/editor matches are never going to be productive. The two people involved see what is being done from totally different perspectives and they don’t (or can’t) appreciate the view from the other’s perspective. That’s not a flaw, it’s just the way it works because people are different. And even though it’s hard to remember that’s a plus, it really is a plus.

2. Purpose. If an author writes with purpose, then this type of challenge creates far less havoc for the writer, insofar as ability is concerned. Yes, a terminated contract can cause financial challenges and other kinds of havoc, but those types of challenges are easier to deal with if your writer’s esteem and worth isn’t trampled. You’re in a far better place mentally to accept that this is not personal. It isn’t a reflection on you but on the marketability of this work, at this time, by this publisher. No more than that.

You see, each publisher has a vision of what it wants its company to be. Each editor has a vision of what she wants her body of work to be and a vision of how that body of work fits into the publisher’s vision of itself. And then every writer has a vision of her career and how she fits in with the editor and the publisher and their visions--and a vision of each work within her body of work and how it fits in with her career and how that fits in with the editor and publishers’ visions. See my point?

It isn’t just about the book. Or the author. Or the editor. Or the publisher. Or the bookseller, for that matter. It’s about all of them, and more.

So when an author lets her writer’s esteem nosedive on an issue like this, it’s not really a fair thing to do. It’s taking everything onto herself and ignoring all the other spokes in the wheel. A wheel doesn’t have just one spoke. It requires more support and balance than that.

3. Terminating a contract can be a painful thing. You work hard to get one and then to lose it... well, it’s frustrating, and it can be financially crippling--if you’ve allowed yourself to be reliant on that which is not yet actually yours.

Many years ago, a then bestselling writer gave a piece of advice I’ve never forgotten. Never count on any money that isn’t in your hand--and only count on it if all terms and conditions for losing it have been met. In other words, remember that an advance is an advance against royalties. It isn’t royalties that you’ve already earned until the book has been accepted.

That advice sounded smart to me, so I don’t even include advance money in my budgeting. I get it. It’s there in the account. But I don’t rely on that money until such time as the manuscript is accepted and it’s mine. I pass this along because there have been times when that practice has proven its worth.

It’s not easy for most writers to survive financially. Yes, some are extremely well paid, but the majority don’t earn a decent living. Last I checked through Author’s Guild, the average income from writing was about $5K a year. But for those who are attempting to earn a living at it, it requires discipline and sound fiscal practices. Not spending what isn’t totally yours is a sound practice. And that includes reliance on projected income when there is no assurance that the projected income will be met.

Many contracts contain a clause that if the contract is terminated and conditions are such that the author must repay advance payments, that repayment is made from the first resell of the work or within a certain time. I’ve seen contracts with six months or a year and some with five years. This gives the author time to market the project elsewhere and another opportunity not to fall into financial havoc. But some contracts don’t have this provision and having to repay sums advanced immediately can cause financial hardships. The moral of that story is to know what you sign and plan accordingly.

It’s heartbreaking to see an author torn up about something like the termination of a contract. Losing an editor is always a difficult thing. You seek and seek the perfect one for you. Someone who sees the vision inside your head and gets your humor and trusts you to make things work logically and to pull things together in a way that makes sense. That’s a tall order, but we do manage to do it.

And then through no fault of anyone, that relationship is gone and the author and the new editor have to find their feet with each other and develop a new relationship. I’ve had this happen several times. Often it worked out great. Really great. On a couple of occasions it didn’t.

On those occasions, like this author, I tried to make it work. But the simple truth s, if it requires enormous effort, it’s not right. That’s a signal I learned to watch for, and one that’s proven valuable to me. When it’s not right, it’s no one’s fault. It’s just not a great match. A “not great” match can sometimes work, with time and trust and learned respect. But it does take the effort of both parties. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a good match grow into a great one, but I have seen some good matches be extremely productive ones.

I came to recognize these times and places in my life as turning points. And I have to say--looking back with the clarity you only get from hindsight--that those turns were good ones. I went into new directions, did new things that I came to love. I tried new ventures I wouldn’t have tried. Let’s face it. We all like comfort. And so long as we’re rocking along and we’re comfortable, we’re less apt to adventure. It’s human nature--and proof that it really is necessity that breeds invention.

How many times have you heard authors say that they tried this or wrote that as a last ditch effort? One to save their career, to allow them to keep writing? Or that an author switched genres because xyz happened and they had to take drastic measures?

Even with the benefit of others’ experiences in that vein, it’s hard to remember that turning points are good things when we’re the writer who is displaced or unsettled and we can’t see the path in front of us clearly. But knowing those times and challenges exist for others and that many others have successfully navigated them should offer us solace and hope and reassurance that strengthens us to lick our warriors’ wounds and cocoons that writer’s esteem. The truth is that the sooner we do recognize we’re at a turning point and we get going on locating and then walking that new path, the sooner we settle in again.

The thing is, we’re not ever going to really settle in. Not indefinitely and not if we’re lucky. Life doesn’t work that way. It always tosses new challenges into our paths. Maybe that’s a good thing. We stay interested, invested; we don’t stagnate or stop growing. We do get past the upset and get focused on the new adventure. And let’s face it. That can be exciting. Wonderful. Intriguing. Elevating and liberating.

Change isn’t a bad thing. Yes, it can create havoc, but mixing it up rejuvenates and that’s valuable, too. Change can be a terrific thing, even if the transitions themselves suck. And more often than not, they honestly do.

We can gripe and moan and be devastated, or we can vent and get over it and press on to what comes next. Obviously the sooner we press on, the sooner the transition passes. And obviously if we remember that no one person can please all other people the easier we’ll be on us during these times.

I think that’s a key stroke in success. We don’t let transitions attack us, the human being and writer inside. We accept that we all have different visions and goals and purposes and we come together for a time and when that time is done, it’s done, and it’s time for the next leg of the journey.

Really. Life is in the journey. And after all, we aren’t just building a career. We’re also building a life.

Blessings,

Vicki

YES! SUCCESS!: Part 1: WHAT DO WE WANT?

Today I’m starting a new series, Yes! Success! And I hope that whether or not you’re a writer, you’ll gain something of benefit from the posts. The ideology and methods are universal to whatever career you’ve chosen or whatever path you’ve decided to embrace and walk.

Yes! Success!: PART 1: WHAT DO WE WANT?

We all want something. It might be fame, fortune, validation of worth or to be assured that we’re not just taking up space but living. And at some point, we all realize that our entire lives last but a blink, that our great-grandchildren won’t know much about us or be aware of our struggles and accomplishments--in a few generations, we’ll be forgotten, and that inspires us with the desire to leave an immortal mark.

Many writers console themselves with the fact that they’ll leave behind their books. They will speak for us. They will let those who come after us know who we were, what mattered to us, how we thought and what we thought about. But while we are in our books, we are not our books, and so a time comes when we realize that this might or might not be the immortal mark we sought.

And that leads us to ask a defining question: What is success?

For some writers, it’s making the New York Times list. Earning a lot of money, having a lot of adoring fans, long lines in front of you at book-signings. It’s being treated with deference and respect by your publisher, your editor, your agent, your publicist, your writing peers, your fans, your family, strangers on the street.

For other writers, it’s selling your books consistently so that you have a stable income and can help out with the family financial responsibilities. Fame and fortune and adoration aren’t your cup of tea. Paying your bills is because it enables you to be at home, caring for your family.

For still other writers, success is hearing from one reader that something they wrote impacted that reader. Helped them through a hard time. Opened a window or door in the reader’s mind so that s/he saw something a little differently, understood something that before then s/he hadn’t understood.

For other writers, success is experienced not through the books written, or the sales, or the adoration of others, or even the recognition that the writer wrote. Success is in knowing that the writer made a difference in one other writer’s life.

And for still other writers, success has nothing to do bestseller lists, or publishing, or fans or other people. Success has everything to do with writing a book. With gathering ideas and thoughts and having the wherewithal and the discipline to sit down and to keep sitting down and sticking with it, start to finish, until s/he can write “The End.”

Many of us buy into other’s visions of success without ever exploring our own. We don’t stop, drop the images of others’ definitions and think and assess and determine for ourselves our own definitions.

And that makes achieving success impossible. We will never be content nor satisfied nor fulfilled living someone else’s vision. We need--and deserve--our own.

There is no right or wrong definition, only different ones. Each is valid. Each is worthy. Each is significant.

The human being in us is often too concerned with what others think. How they’ll react. How they will treat us. What they will say--in front of us and behind our backs. But when we focus on these things, we’re assigning our personal power, our innermost selves to someone else. To someone who can and will do nothing to carve our immortal mark; they’re busy creating their own.

So while others might judge and find us lacking. Might advise us based on their definitions and not ours. We must not relinquish that personal power. They have their own. This power is ours. In it we discover and determine what we want. And holding fast to it, we ask, How do I define success?

And then, if we’re wise, we listen...

Blessings,

Vicki

©2007, Vicki Hinze


Yes! Success! PART 1:
WHAT DO WE WANT?
Friday, July 20, 2007