The Insecure Writer’s Support Group meets online, the first Wednesday of every month. Bask in the warmth of unqualified support. Breathe in the peace of knowing perfect empathy. In the flaming bag of dumpster fire which can be the internet, this is your oasis of calm green, I promise. If you’d like to sign up for the group and experience the support yourself, you can sign up here.

The awesome co-hosts for the September 1 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, T. Powell Coltrin @Journaling Woman, Natalie Aguirre, Karen Lynn, and C. Lee McKenzie! The group is all about making connections, so do make sure to stop by their pages and leave a comment.

And the question for today is: How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?

This is a subject I’ve been thinking about recently. Most of my internal dialogue can be summarized thus: When can I tell people, “I’m an author” without feeling like I’m stretching the truth so thin you could read quite small print through it? When do I start to actually feel successful?

Impostor syndrome be like:

Some of the best times in my life have been sitting in the sunshine, slipping into another world through an author’s words. I want to return that favor. I want to seduce readers into caring about the people I create, to trap them in a web of how things could be, not how they are in real life. In, you know, a good way. Not a creepy way.

Side note: SE loves this movie

Although it differs from the “holding your book in your hand” or “having a short story published” proposals above, it’s still my own personal definition of success. The goal post that I have marked out for myself. On the day I hear from a reader that they couldn’t put my book down, I will know that I’m a “real” successful writer.

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