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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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Celebrating the small successes

28/7/2018

6 Comments

 
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I concluded a recent post on mourning our writerly disappointments with a reminder that we need to celebrate our small successes too. But do I heed my own advice? Well, maybe sometimes, but standards can slip. If we’re not careful, our small achievements can be diminished by our much bigger ambitions. We need to beware of viewing them as if through the wrong end of a telescope. But how to make them matter without aggrandising every little thing?

Ever since I began writing seriously I’ve completed an end of year appraisal and set myself goals for the coming year. Some of this gets filtered into a blog post on my writing year, but it’s mostly for my eyes only. It’s been a great way for monitoring my progress, as well as plotting the path ahead. I record new short stories written, publications, events, reading, courses, other learning, etc, but there’s a lot happens that I don’t include.
 
Generally, that’s okay. There are multiple minor successes and failures in any job. But when the failures hit especially hard we need to ensure that none of those small successes slip through our fingers and disappear.
 
I’m generally shy of sharing small successes as I prefer my friends and readers to save your cheerleading for the bigger ones. But I thought I’d have a go at listing some that came my way recently when I needed them most, not for your congratulations but to urge you, if you don’t already, to acknowledge your own.

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  • A publicist quoting from one of my reviews in a tweet.
  • A fellow blogger buying a copy of my debut novel, Sugar and Snails.
  • An editor emailing to suggest a possible publisher for a short story he’d declined.
  • Getting the link fixed for a magazine article about me and my writing so I can finally share it online (see above).
  • A fab image for my latest guest post on fictional therapists (see below).
  • Surprise nominations for two local writing awards (see below).
  • A short story accepted by an online journal that had previously declined my work. (Actually, I don’t count this as a small success as publishing my fiction is what I’m about. But the email arrived as I was nearing the end of this post.)
  • Managed to plug my own novels without straying from the theme of a (very brief) interview on local radio about Jane Eyre.
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Although most of these were unexpected, they wouldn’t happen without some effort on my part. As I said in one of my (rare) inspirational guest posts,
you don’t know what you can achieve until you try. We have to create opportunities for ourselves and for our communities.
 
We have to continue submitting to get published and even
shrinking violets need to be open to opportunities for promotion, even when it feels like pushing at a bolted and padlocked door. While we might do some of the pushing individually, writing communities are wonderfully resourceful at creating opportunities for celebrating each other’s successes.
 
When I began blogging four and a half years ago, it was a marvellous boost to receive
a blogging award and then to pass it on to other bloggers I admired. (And, as D Avery has shown, and Norah Colvin with SMAG, you don’t have to wait for an award to come your way to pass on the plaudits.) Not long after, the Bloggers' Bash was born and, steered by Sacha Black and an organising team of British bloggers, it has grown in strength and reputation, with an annual event in London and numerous awards open to bloggers around the world.
 
That’s not for me, but I admire the energy and entrepreneurial approach of these largely self-published authors. I was also impressed with some novelists displaying awards on their tables at a book fair last year: instead of waiting for some external expert to bestow (or withhold) an award on (from) them, they’d clubbed together to buy a trophy, donated some of their own books to local libraries and asked readers to vote for the best.

The awards night at Nottingham Writers’ Studio tonight seems similar in scale. With over twenty prizes – about half for membership contributions and the other half for writing – it’s about celebrating a breadth of achievement in myriad ways. I think it’s a lovely idea and I’m looking forward to celebrating, whether or not I get a present to take home.

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Do you celebrate your small successes and, if so, how? If not, what holds you back? Feel free to share any recent achievements and satisfactions in the comment box below.

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Before I put on my glad rags, I need to compose this week’s 99-word story. Charli’s prompt – a stranded suitcase – leads me straight to my possibly third novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, which features at least two stranded characters and three suitcase scenes, one of which I drew upon for another flash this month. This is based on the opening:
Matty resists the call

Clark Gable is pinning a red rosette on the bodice of her second-hand dress when the maid shakes her none too gently by the shoulder. “I wasn’t asleep,” she lies. On the parquet beside her feet sits a battered brown suitcase. “Are you leaving us, dear?”

“No, but you are, they’ll be here any minute to escort you to Tuke House.”

“Tuke House?” Matty knows of the Palladium and the Royal Albert Hall. She knows of the Folies Bergère, despite its salacious reputation. She has never heard of Tuke. “Thank you, dear, but the current arrangements are perfectly acceptable.”
 

I was going to call it Matty’s Move, but I couldn’t resist another nod to the hero’s journey story structure. Unfortunately I couldn’t take it through a full narrative arc. What do you think?

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
6 Comments
D. Avery link
28/7/2018 03:59:27 pm

As promised! Love the flash, it stands alone strong at 99 words, as long as one gets the reference to Tuke House. (I guessed correctly, googled for confirmation) Also loved the title; you continue to cat that mouse. Pretty cool how prompts posts and flashes continue the conversation. Well done and good on ya, on all fronts.
What I count as a success, or as a kick in the pants at least, was recognition as a poet recently. And by that I mean I was not recognized at first in my hometown diner by an older distant cousin (a writer) after I'd said hello. I started with lineage, as one does, reminded her of the tea we'd had last summer. Then: "Oh, the poet!" I smiled all day to be The Poet to that writer and not her father's cousin's granddaughter. There's worse things to be known for in a small town and in any family.

Reply
Annecdotist
30/7/2018 05:14:22 pm

Thanks for sharing that story about being recognised as a Poet in your hometown. I’m smiling too. It’s exactly the spirit of the Awards night I attended: recognition and inspiration to push that bit further. And glad you liked the flash.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
29/7/2018 11:47:34 am

Congratulations on your long list of 'small' successes, Anne. As you say, they don't just fall into your lap. You have to work for them. I look forward to hearing if you receive a present to take home from the Nottingham award ceremony. But just in case you don't, remember, even being nominated is a success and not everyone can win. (Something we need to start learning early in life.)
Sounds like you had much to choose from in responding to this prompt of Charli's. I enjoyed the one you settled on. I think I'd rather stay with Matty where she is too. I'm looking forward to reading this one when it's done.
I'll have to come back to follow your links. I hope I remember to do so. :)
Oh, and thanks for the mention. :)

Reply
Annecdotist
30/7/2018 05:20:10 pm

Thanks, Norah, I was indeed delighted to be nominated, especially as I hadn’t even known they were doing the awards. I’m very pleased that Sugar and Snails won the book-length non-fiction category, but overall it was much more a celebration of the whole writing community. And down to the inspiration and dedication of the chair of the board who arranged – with some assistance – the whole thing.

Reply
Charli Mills
2/8/2018 06:37:40 am

Anne, it's a joy to get to celebrate your successes with you. I especially like the magazine article hailing your three career roles. When communities share appreciation, I think it does motivate others to push beyond any shrinking violet barriers.

I was thrilled to see the title of your flash and have so much more I want to say, but I will withhold until your manuscript is published. Suffice to say I agree with the title and I love that particular hero. She does not want to go on that journey and I chuckle at the humor in the flash and your choice of fiction, where Matty aggrandizes her moments. There is a balance for us to find between shrinking violet and believing we are the Queen.

Reply
Annecdotist
2/8/2018 02:25:58 pm

Thanks, Charli, I was pleased with the reference to Clark Gable – otherwise the flash isn’t vastly different to the text of the current draft – as a quick way of implying both period and the element of fantasy.
I’m chuckling to think of you chuckling and eager to discover what else you have to say about Matty once she’s released into the world.

Reply



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