Kimberly Harrington: “Think About What Success Means to You”
I don’t think that gets talked about enough
Wake Up and Write is an advice column from Moms Don’t Have Time to Write. Today, we have Kimberly Harrington —columnist, creative director, and author of two essay collections, including But You Seemed So Happy: A Marriage, in Pieces and Bits — who shared writing advice on the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, hosted by Zibby Owens.
“Really think about what your definition of success is. I think that doesn’t get talked about enough, to be quite honest.”
“People will see me as having two books out with a big publisher, and they think I’m successful — that this is all I do now — which is very far from the truth. I’ve had to really examine this year, what is success? So few authors are successful if we talk about making a living from it. Almost no one does.
The price you pay for putting your life in a book and putting it out there — maybe you get attention for a week or two weeks, and then it’s gone. Years of your work are gone. A lot of people might think, ‘I want to write the article that goes viral.’ Why do you want it to go viral? Because I want to get a book deal. What do you think’s going to happen when you get a book deal? You’re going to write the book.
I think that we just plow through and don’t stop and ask, ‘Is that what I really want?’ It’s a lot of work, so what are you going to sacrifice to write that book? I sacrificed a lot of time with my kids, a lot of focus with my kids. Is that success to me? I don’t know. That’s something I’m thinking about.”
Listen to the episode:
https://zibbyowens.com/transcript/kimberly-harrington-but-you-seemed-so-happy
Buy the book:
