What Makes A Successful Writer - Money, Personal Reward, Fame?

Charlotte A. Cavatica (E.B. White's, "Charlotte's Web") did not earn big money with her writing. After all, she was "just" a spider in a barn. On the other hand, this humble and maternally-inclined friend of Wilbur managed to save a life with the words she so skillfully spun. Although her motive was not to find fame for herself, as it turned out her words caught the attention of "the masses". Charlotte did what she thought she had to do to help someone in trouble - and her story (fictional as it may be) is about the combination of writing, friendship, and life.

The only time I think of myself as "a writer" is when I'm in the process of completing work for someone who has hired me to write for them. The rest of the time I see writing as much a part of me as my hair color or gender. On the other hand, sometimes I see writing as a skill that involves knowing the "technicalities" of how to do it, the way dancers learn the steps that allow them to go on and express themselves through the art of dance.

When I'm seeing writing as nothing more than having learned the material in my primary school English lessons I don't factor in the idea of "success" at all. There is no doubt that having a fairly decent grasp of the technicalities of grammar has given me the confidence to write, so I don't mean to underestimate that. Without having taken ballet lessons long enough to be worthy of being on stage, the grammar I learned in primary school has given me what I need to create something, express myself, and sometimes entertain someone. Good (although not perfect) grammar is an ingredient of being a successful writer - a building block - but it has nothing more to do with success than that.

While famous authors/writers are obviously successful, fame, to me, is the not the measure of success as a writer. In fact, I see fame as something I never want to have. Maybe it's because my parents did such a good job of making feel secure, or maybe it's I was a middle-child who was quite accustomed to doing my own thing without regard for attention, but I have an aversion to fame. As a result, I don't factor fame in as the measure of a successful writer (although, again, clearly becoming famous for one's work is a sign of a success).

When I'm thinking of my writing as something I'm doing to earn money, the plain and simple fact is that I do view earning lots and lots of money by writing as a measure of success. Making "Big Bucks" by working and earning it is always a sign of career success. I can't call myself "successful" because right now I don't earn "Big Bucks" from writing., I earn modest money. Perhaps more significant in viewing a high income earned from writing is the idea of earning that high income with work through which the writer also gains personal fulfillment. Writing is one of those things, though, that writers often discover must be divided into two different types of endeavors - writing for money and writing for personal reward. The two don't always go together any more than earning "Big Bucks" by acting in a blockbuster movie and earning fewer "bucks" by peforming Shakespeare on stage do.

Then there is personal reward. I get personal reward from the writing I do "for myself" (rather than for an employer or client). Then again, I get a different type of personal reward when I've written an excellent article for someone who has hired me to write that article. There's lots of personal reward to be had for the person who enjoys writing.

For me, personal reward begins with the simplest aspect of writing - the clicks of the keyboard. When I'm writing I start the imaginary music player in my head and "play" a song that goes with the rhythm of the key strokes. This is my way of dancing (much to the dismay of right/fifth metacarpal, which has been kind of swollen and painful over the last couple of months). With "mental music" playing, my hands can easily turn my thoughts into something concrete. Thoughts that had once been dancing aimlessly around my head get to pour from my hands, leaving my head freed up for new and different thoughts. Sometimes my heart gets into the act, and my soul is always the well from which even the most mundane thoughts spring. That personal reward I get through writing is definitely something I would wish everyone could experience, but - let's be honest - it is not necessarily the measure of success as a writer.

In fact, when I consider how much I gain from the process of writing I realize that, for me, the measure of success has nothing to do with the process of writing, itself (and in ways, with any money that process yields). The writing process and earning "Big Bucks" from it can combine as ingredients of success as a writer, but even that doesn't make up what I see as "success".

When I'm writing, even though I'm enjoying the process, I'm not thinking about me - and that may be why I enjoy writing as much as I do. Instead, when I write I'm thinking about the person/people who may read what I've written. I become engrossed in the effort to find ways to either write something that is so clear and so easy to read it would be considered, "sharp"; or else I'm trying to (like Charlotte) spin words in a way that will affect a reader in some way. I may be hoping to write something that helps someone understand someone else a little better. Sometimes I write in an effort to make the reader laugh a little. There are times when I have point to make, an opinion to be shared, or a wish to pursuade the reader in some way. Much of the time (just as good comedians often think to say what we all know but never thought to say), I try to find words that will resonate in the heart of a reader or two. For me, successful writing needs to be able to reach readers in some way (or at least effectively convey information to them).

When I'm writing I leave my thoughts of myself and imagine how the reader is my friend, with whom I'm having a conversation about any number of things. Whether I'm writing something I hope will be "warm and fuzzy", something I hope will be informative, something I hope will make make a reader laugh, or something I hope will say something that needs to be said; I often think about how if my writing accomplishes its aim for just one reader, that writing could be considered "successful". Still, successful writing and a successful writer are two different things. The world is full of successful writing for which creators have no been paid well enough to be considered successful writers or successful people.

Since fame is not always a sign of any particular achievement, I don't factor it into my "success equation". I have to say that I don't think the writer who doesn't earn "Big Bucks" from his work can call himself a "succesful writer". Then again, there is something to be said from knowing one has created something in the world that may, in some small or even large way, add something to someone's life (even if that's only one reader's life). When I think about how there are people who write and MAYBE add something to at least one person's life, and people who don't, I can't help but feel that successful writing contributes to being a successful person, even if not a famously successful, "Big Bucks", writer. That's the thing - being a successful writer and a successful person are often, but not always, two different things.

I have a little thing I often post with my writing or in online profiles:

"Writing isn't always about just getting the words down, or out, or even read. It is about pulling from the universe just the right number and combination of words and allowing them to join hands to come to life."

My hope - when I write - is that I will be able to make the words come to life; but if I don't do that (and doing that isn't something one can reasonably always expect), I hope that what I write will manage to at least capture a little of life in words. Accomplishing this aim doesn't necessarily make me a successful writer, but I can't help feel that it contributes to my feeling like just that much more of a successful person.

When I send my creations out the world, the way one sends children out into the world, I know that they are on their own and that they may or may not become successful. Their success or failure will partly stem from what I've given them, but ultimately it will be independent of my own success or failure. If they bring home a lot of money I suppose I would consider myself a "successful writer". If they add something to readers' lives AND bring home a lot of money I'd consider myself a "really successful writer". If, on the other hand, my creations go out into the world and live lives of no apparent, impressive, achievement; then I guess this soul that drives me to write, and this heart that makes me want to add something to someone's life, will consider themselves "successful" for having tried.

Like Charlotte, I will leave behind me in this world hundreds and hundreds of creations. They may never do more in this world than give my three, flesh-and-blood, children "Grandmother's" writing to share with their own children; but even if my words do nothing more than bring the last few decades of life into an era of yet-to-be-born individuals, that, alone, will be success enough for me.

Working in this web, where I've spun so many words and creations in my attempts to bring something to someone's life; I, like Charlotte did, see myself as a mother, a friend, and a writer. I may never become rich and famous for the creations I've spun, and I may get to see myself as a "successful writer". Then again, though, I do see myself as "whole" - and that, in itself, could be considered, "successful".