What Does Success as an Author Mean to You?

Apologies for being late with my post today. The last few weeks have been all about getting my daughter ready for, and into, school, a school with an art conservatory tacked on at the end (and we are lucky that it is a public charter school in expensive Southern California), which means supply lists and meetings for two schools, at least for this last year of middle school, and I've simply been too much away from my computer.

As a writer who never gets time to write, my thoughts, over the last few weeks, have been about  how I can fit my own writing into my schedule, which, mostly, I cannot seem to do.

And yet, as an author, I want success.

How do I define success?

I would define my own writing success as having a few levels. Writing success would begin with finishing all the stories I have begun, writing out the ones simmering in my head, or, if they are finished, giving them a good edit.

Success level two would be soliciting their publication by someone besides myself. I want that outside validation too.

Success level three would be getting feedback on them from people who have read them. I want to know they've been read by... someone. I don't want to scream into the void. I don't care if only six people read them, but I do want them read.

What about fame, awards, money, deciding who is going to play the lead in the movie version?

Long long ago I realized that those four horsemen of the successpocalypse seldom showed up. They hadn't showed up for any teacher I'd had in two writing programs, even though some of them were pretty damn talented. They haven't showed up for any authors I know personally, and even my hero-authors, most of whom I have been lucky enough to meet, haven't had more than one or two show up at most.

So, I return to my heading/title and question, what does success as an author mean to you?

My daughter's first day back to school was today, and it was a short day (for some reason every Thursday is a short day), and I decided to skip doing the twenty plus mile trip four times by hanging out in the general area. The idea was go to a Starbucks/library/what-have-you and write. And I did, but it never is good (for me) to be out of my element, trying to block out the ambient noise and focus on my story. Today was not a day for success. But I feel like my writing must always bend for both my family and the struggle for the legal tender.

Where is your best place to write, and under what circumstances do you write best? Do you need to be a best-seller to be a success? Or is it more about doing your best work? Or simply finishing the damn book?