Success as a Writer: How to define it

If you asked this question to one of the most brilliant writer's of America, you might be surprised at her answer.

It was Emily Dickinson who wrote: Success is counted sweetest / By those who ne'er succeed. Her dismissal of success was part of her philosophy of independence. But she was a wise woman and recognized that this striving for something else - recognition, awards, honor, prestige - could be a lifelong quest.

As long as one directed their sights to worldly success, they would never be satisfied. The better credit or the higher honor would be just around the bend, where the grass is greener. Seeking after external success would result in a lifetime of unhappy frustration.

She expressed her displeasure with publication too, calling it the auction / of the mind. Again and again, in her poetry and in her life, she turned away from public recognition. Fame is a fickle food, she explained. Men eat of it and die.

Ironically, Emily Dickinson is the surest sign of success in a writer. Her works have been translated and studied across the world. Her poems are included in nearly every anthology of 20th century poets. Untold numbers of books, scholarly essays, literary criticisms, biographies, poem explications, hypotheses, museums, associations, libraries and web sites have been devoted to this singular individual.

Dickinson is leading writers to a different definition of success. Perhaps we should listen.

What Success Is Not

If we follow Dickinson's lead, we know that a writer's success is not gained by publication. This is even more the case in this age of electronic wonder. Anyone can go to the local Kinko's with their manuscript and, presto! They have a published book. Or they can visit an Internet site such as Lulu and within a few days and a few dollars, their ebook is bound on quality paper, given its ISBN, a passable front cover and is ready to market. Vanity presses have been around far longer than Lulu but they serve the same purpose: you pay and they publish. Nowadays, the technological do-it-yourself-ers can purchase software applications to layout and design a book manuscript for publication, creating a whole new self-publishing market.

Publication has turned into an enterprise that depends more on money than merit. This fact ignores one of the essentials of writerly success: avid readers.

What Success Is

Publishing in Dickinson's day was nowhere near as easy as today. Yet what needs to be recalled is that Dickinson did create her own chapbooks, which she called "fascicles" and shared these bound poems with the people she loved. The poet was not averse to sharing her work. Thousands of her poems and letters reflect this. But she selected her own society. Keeping a tight grasp over her readership gave Dickinson the freedom to write as she wished on topics that were meaningful to her.

It is possible that Dickinson's legacy, her success as a writer is linked to the lack of public reception of her writing during her lifetime.

The idea of not publishing is fantastic to many writers today. You may ask: What's the point of writing? Likely, there are very few of us who would willingly forego success during our lifetime, and hope for posthumous honor.

Each writer must define success. It is a subjective state, an individual decision. We succeed as a writer by remaining authentic. We find authenticity by reflection. We choose our definition and work with it.

As with Dickinson, each of us has to determine what we will accept and what we will refuse. We may accept publication; pursue it with all our mental and creative muscle. When it occurs, we claim success. We may accept self-expression; the ability to write what we want as we wish. We call this success. We may refuse criticism, and prefer the voice of our own muse. Some very few of us may refuse publication. But we know - to be Dickinson today is a rarity. So that number will be very few. Success may equal the check in the bank, placement in a competition or the freshly printed chapbook.

Our concept of success will change. The writer who was satisfied to pen a poem to her child will in ten years' time, find success elsewhere. She will tighten her concept of good writing. Or he will discover the fiction writer within. Change is part of living. If we are to be authentic, we will accept that our writing standards are higher or that our writing interest has transferred to a different genre.

As writers, we count success when we are true to ourselves. Authenticity is the only barometer that matters.