The First Success

Success for a writer can feel like a distant destination. For obvious reasons, we often associate it with publication, whether in a magazine or by a New York publisher. It’s not unusual for a writer to spend many years toiling away in isolation, sharing their work only with their writing group or class, all the while the supposed goal fueling all this writing can seem like a dim light on the horizon, growing hardly closer as we travel.

It can be a little dispiriting, which is why I always advocate defining success in the smallest of steps. Call finishing the first draft of a book a success, or getting your first request for pages from an agent. For that matter, writing a really fine sentence is a kind of success, particularly if that sentence feels like an example of the kind of sentences you’d like to write more of.

But all these little accomplishments are really bi-products of the first success, the one that comes before all the acceptance letters and reviews and bookstore appearances. The first success is when the author allows herself to write the story she most wants to write in the way she most wants to write it. Such a story may look nothing like those she’s read, or it may closely resemble them. It doesn’t matter. She decides to do it her own way, and that will make all the difference.

This is a decision made in the quiet privacy of the workroom. There will be no applause or laughter, no ribbons or trophies handed out. In fact, the author may not even recognize what has occurred. If the story she chooses to tell is most natural to her, if it requires none of the effort she had come to associate with success, she may feel a bit as if she’s given up. I can’t do that other thing, she’ll tell herself, the thing I was supposed to do, so I’ll just do this instead. Surrender will never feel so good, though she does not realize as she begins her new story that she has already won.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence.
You can find William at: williamkenower.com