In all honesty, I have almost always had a very loose definition of "success" as it comes to writing, or in general. I've never thought in depth on what I would consider a successful life, especially when it comes to writing. I've always just wanted to write. Just wanted to get my ideas down on paper and get published. I never really thought past that point in life. But I can't turn down a challenge. (This whole post here is a challenge...)
To define what I see success as is a little strange for me. I really had to think about the details of what I wanted from my writing and from my life as a whole... I always just wanted "to be that guy whose name you say or whose book you mention and anybody, whether they read the genre or not would recognize what your saying. Perhaps not like J.K. Rowling or J.R.R. Tolkien but more along the lines of Christopher Paolini or Orson Scott Card. But I could now say I've decided. I will consider myself a successful person when I have managed a short (just because it's short doesn't make it easy) list of things.
+ Once I can live off of my writing. Even if it requires me to sacrifice a few things I may be used to having now, I just want to be able to say, "I write for a living."
+ Once I have my own home, a wife whom I love, and one (and only one!) child.
+ Once I am a writer enough that I can meet all of the authors that I simply cannot wait to one day talk to.
+ And finally, once I can travel the world like I have always wanted to. Living anywhere and seeing anything. To truly live the life of an explorer.
So, meeting all of these goals is going to be a serious challenge. They overlap in ways even I now cannot begin to understand, but these are my requisites. I'm stickin' to them, and I gotta keep hoping that they'll all come to fruition one day. Wish me luck in my attempts!
So, what is success to you? What are your terms to call yourself "succesful" and have that awesome title to wear? What does it mean to you? Put up a post on your blog! And if you don't have one, you can leave a comment here (be brief) or if you just don't want to write a whole post about it. Let's hear from all you people!