Phoenix Living

From dictionary.com, a wonderfully useful tool for any writer as it compiles definitions from multiple linked sources, as well as including a thesaurus option and more.

suc⋅cess
  /səkˈsɛs/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [suhk-ses]
–noun
1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.
2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
3. a successful performance or achievement: The play was an instant success.
4. a person or thing that is successful: She was a great success on the talk show.
5. Obsolete. outcome.

Word Origin & History

success
1537, “result, outcome,” from L. successus “an advance, succession, happy outcome,” from succedere “come after” (see succeed). Meaning “accomplishment of desired end” (good success) first recorded 1586. Successor “one who comes after” is recorded from 1297.

“The moral flabbiness born of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That — with the squalid interpretation put on the word success — is our national disease.” [William James to H.G. Wells, Sept. 11, 1906]

Success story is attested from 1925. Successful first attested 1588 in Shakespeare. Among the Fr. phrases used in Eng. late 19c. were succès d’estime “cordial reception given to a literary work out of respect rather than admiration” and succès de scandale “success (especially of a work of art) dependent upon its scandalous character.”

For this month’s NaNoWriMo, #2 is probably the least directly relevant. You’ll “win” if you hit 50,000 words, but what you win is bragging rights (and I think a certificate) (and hopefully a feeling of accomplishment). If you manage to eventually turn your 50K into saleable fiction you might get some (tiny amount of) “wealth”, but that’s a pretty indirect connection to this stage of the process. It’s likely you’ll have to achieve other writing milestones besides this one to attain position or influence with your writing (and I promise you that happens so much less often than many writers wish it did). And sure, it can be seen as an honor to finish within the parameters of the project, but that seems to me much more skewed than seeing it as a well-earned and major accomplishment you earned. An honor is something someone else bestows upon you.

So, what about the much larger percentage of writing participants who don’t make that 50K by the end of the month? Are we to be typical of our time and culture and say it’s winners and losers, man, you either succeeded or you didn’t? Sure, we could, but how likely is it that attitude will encourage you to keep writing after this month is over, or even get through the end of the month? Continuing to write is way more important to me than if I manage to hit a particular number of words, most of which will likely be changed or cut in the next draft anyway!

A Very Smart Writer friend of mine on her initial NaNoWriMo adventure this year figured out that those of her friends who were making awesome wordcounts were either previously published writers or students, both of which get you far more used to the habitual act of sitting-and-writing than other jobs might. It’s like I mentioned in one of the previous NaNo posts; if you haven’t been in training, you have to be much more aware of what you have to work with to not pull a writing muscle metaphorically. So what is more important to you, making that 50K? Or finishing the story? The approach you take for one goal might not be the same as the other. In the next post we’ll take a look at what other forms of success for the end of this month might look like. For now, what are your thoughts or fears on the word “success”?

To follow up the previous post…

I thought up a saying that may very well be found elsewhere in slightly different form, but which I thought conveyed a good concept for many writers:

It’ll never be as good on the page as it was in my head. But it might be as pretty in someone else’s head, when it’s done…

Of course I’m not the only one being supportive of the NaNoWriMo participants, so here’s another link about “writer’s block”.

And a bonus link, to whet the appetite for those of you ultimately interested in following through to the business end of the industry (otherwise known as selling/marketing your finished book), an article from a well-recommended agent about writing query letters.

And don’t forget, SLEEP! (I posted this link several months back but the Storytellers Unplugged site did a massive redesign and moved all the links. I found it for you again!)