CELEBRATING YOUR WINS
I did a video about this last year (linked here) and thought that I would also write about it because I feel like it's something that often gets forgotten about. Everyone has wins sometimes, and a lot of the time, in the writing space at least, we're kinda taught that we have to only celebrate the big ones. Whether that's getting a publishing deal from trad pub, or hitting a bestseller list, or anything huge like that, those are seen as the ones that are more 'worthy' than the others.
To be honest, I've been guilty of this. When I first started writing when I was 19 (turned 43 last month) I celebrated every little thing. If I finished my work early, then that was cause for a little joy. When I finished a book, same thing. I got into the habit, and then, as things changed, I got out of it again. It's really only been the last five or so years that I've started to get back into it. I celebrate book releases of course, always have done, though they've become a bigger celebration in recent years, but I don't always think to celebrate when I finish the editing cycle, or when I finish a draft, or when I'm done with revisions. And these things should be celebrated.
At the end of the day, writing is hard, most creative pursuits are because you're putting a piece of yourself into your work, whether planned or not, and sending it off into the world to be seen and looked at by other people. That is terrifying! And sometimes they do really well, and other times they just don't. But for me as an author, someone who doesn't make lists, and who rarely gets shoutouts from readers, it can be easy to fall into that trap of thinking that you didn't really achieve anything because you didn't get one of these huge things.
That's not true. I write my books because I know there are people out there who need my stories. I don't know if that's a huge number of people, or just a small pool. I don't know if they will ever get to the point of going viral and being huge breakout hits. But, I still did an amazingly impossible thing. I wrote a book. I wrote a lot of them, and I managed to get through all those many steps to publishing, and they are out there, for people to read and devour and love. That is huge. It is something that should be celebrated and hyped up, even if only by you, and the people who care for you.
I know it can be hard to acknowledge your own wins. Like I said, it's not something that comes easy to me, but it is something that you should, hopefully, learn to do. You are the only one who can define what a win for you looks like. For me right now, I'm celebrating finishing dev edits for my next release. I'm into the line editing phase and that always feels like a much smaller mountain to climb than dev edits. It's something I'm proud of myself for managing, especially with everything else going on.
My wins may not match your idea of your own wins, and that's okay, but it is something you should think about doing, because at the end of the day, you did something amazing, and you should be proud of yourself, even if no one else in your home life is, or even online. You should be proud of you for managing to do this.
Happy writing!
Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!
Follow Joey to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books.
No comments:
Post a Comment