I write this post with my head spinning, a little.
Writers, as a breed (we are a breed, show your pedigrees with pride!) live for validation. As we all know, this is a solitary business. We might join mailing lists or critique groups, or take a class or two, but mostly we do it on our own. We practice and we polish and we hope we’re doing it write. We get to the point where we think ‘gee, I’m pretty clever’ or ‘I did that well’ and we send our babies out into the world. They don’t always succeed.
And sometimes they do.
And when they do, we can’t help but be giddy and happy and, you know, we do embarrassing dances in our socks in the kitchen.
Annd… edited I took my big brag out, because really, this isn’t the place. Sorry about that. Got carried away.
But: Writers, tell me what you do when you feel or need to feel or want to feel validated? Do you do stupid dances in the kitchen? Do you buy yourself treats? Readers, do you save books for special days if they’re by a favorite author? Do you treat them like celebrations themselves?
We often have small victories. I’m of the opinion that they should all be recognized.
(I placed in the top ten in Avon’s FanLit contest. Hence my happiness and the motivation behind the post. There’s more gushing on my blog. If anyone’s interested in following along [or voting!], the website is Avon FanLit. It costs nothing to register.)
September 27th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
WHOOHOOO!!!!! Sara. That’s awesome. I’m already registered and will go over and check it out. I love to “read” regency…but don’t know if I’m any good at writing, never tried. But WTG and congratulations!!!!
September 29th, 2006 at 3:33 am
Validation.. Hmmmm… I guess I look for it, but not vocally. When someone tells me they “get” what a scene meant, or that something I wrote strikes their own creativity, that is more validating for me than a sale.
Don’t get me wrong. I was on this side of stunned when I found out I’d sold my first. I had my hubby read the email to make sure I hadn’t dreamed it up!
But I’m not sure I actually “celebrate”. This feels too much like work! LOL
September 29th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Oh Sara I didn’t know you placed in the top 10 - that is soooo awesome!!!