What would you do with writing success?

I'd probably panic. I don't want that kind of public attention. I've read Misery, thank you.

I'd quit my job and write every morning.

My dream is to be able to make enough money to cut my hours down at work. Maybe just work a couple of days a week.

If I had more time away from work, my writing time would increase.

My dream would be to have my book made into a film, a French made one, not Hollywood, and have Jean Reno star in it. I don't want fame, wouldn't say no to a fortune though. I would just like to be recognized as someone who wrote a starring role for her favourite man in life

Elodie

I'd probably start acting like an eccentric lunatic, because who's going to stop me? I'd wander around in dirty clothes unshaven with crazy hair and bum free coffee off of waitresses because I don't have any cash, but who cares, because I'm FAMOUS WRITER.

I'd get up in the morning and golf off my roof wearing old jeans and a tank top and aviator glasses, driving those suckers all over the highway. I'd travel the country going to signings and readings and living out of a suitcase and a string of run down motels, drinking in pubs and bars with my fans afterwards, and I wouldn't be some creep who'd demand all the attention, I'd just sit beside them nodding into my beer because, oh, y'know, that's how it is, folks. Yup.

People would come to me asking to dramatize my stuff or to work with me, and they'd all say, "Sure, he's eccentric. He keeps a deck of victorian pornographic playing cards on him at all times and he has names for every one of the girls. But he's also a GENIUS. When he speaks, the world listens."

And so on.

My When I Hit It Big To Do List:

1. Resign from current job with no second thoughts.

2. Move out of the old homestead.

3. Write all day, every day, without distraction.

Success would be to get the SK advance and deal for every book I write, win the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes simultaneously for each book, and have each one made into movies that make the Lord of the Rings series look like a charity case. (Well, you did say wildest dreams.)

Then I'd buy a huge old house out in the country with several thousand acres of land, fence it all in, take in old and/or unwanted pets and give them a sanctuary for the rest of their lives, build some little cottages around the property and hire some homeless people who want to work, to take care of the animals and my vegetable garden and let them live in the cottages, and spend my time writing, cooking, canning, and corresponding with my legions of fans.

Realistically, I just want to get published and maybe make enough to allow me to write full-time.

Pay the bills, buy a house...and write longhand more. I usually want to, but don't because I don't have the time to leisurely approach deadlines like that.

Otherwise, not much would change. I don't even know if I'd quit my job. I like the bookstore.

Hmmm, I try not to think about this too often but I think a Newbery would be cool. Recognition for my skills would be nice. Having a lot of public attention would probably do me in. Thinking about it now makes me panic...a little. A movie? Hurmph! I'm afraid of what hollywood would do to it.

I would just keep writing but I would probably feel a lot more pressure to outdo myself with every book. To do better for yourself is one thing but to do it because of public pressure is another. Eeeekk!

Kate Thornton said:

What would be your wildest dreams of writing success - and what (if anything) about your life would change?

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For me, just being good enough to be published would be wonderful. And probably the only thing that would change is the garage door (putting it off until we have some spare cash).

And, yes, I'm an optimist.

Kate Thornton said:

Maybe success would be a three-book deal with a Stephen King-sized advance. Or maybe it would be literary recognition like a Pulitzer or Nobel or Newberry, or movies made out of your work a la Harry Potter.

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I suspect no more than one in a thousand published novelists will ever have this kind of success. Other than having movies made out of my work, which is already a possibility because I do have screenplays under option, I never have expected such high success, and don't really want it.

But if I did have such extreme success, I think all that would change would be the size of my toys, mostly a house full of pure geek toys, and where I live would change.

I'm already a full-time writer, so I don't have a job to quit, but I would buy a nice house on the beach, and a fair size boat to go with it. One big enough to live on.

I'd also, probably, travel a bit more.

Wildest Dream: Fat advance that lets us move out to the country where I can write from the lovely outdoor furniture on the spacious wood deck under the shady oak trees every day.

Secret Desire: Making enough money from writing that I can work only one or two days a week, and spend the rest of my time writing.

More Practical Dream: Finish the damn book!

Wildest Dream: Write bestsellers that turn into HUGE mega-hit movies, develop an ego the size of my ass and earn more money than I know what to do with.

Secret Desire: Write several books-in-a-series, become well known and financially comfortable and do the occasional local talk-show circuit.

Realistically: See my name on the spine of a book in Barnes & Noble, put out as many more as I can before I die (at the desk of my day job, surrounded by the bodies of those I take with me).

ULTIMATE success for me would probably be enough success in multiple genres to

(1) pay the bills and allow me enough freedom to take random jobs I've always wanted to try, or be able to just quit and travel or do absolutely nothing (and it was everything I thought it could be)

(2) have enough success that if I decide I want to write a sci-fi novel today, a piece of lit-fic next month, and a media tie-in the next, a publisher would take them all before a word was even down on paper.

(3) A couple of awards would be nice, but I'm not picky about what. Awards are just an attempt to quantify a subjective art form, but it would be nice to have enough concensus about the quality of my work to have it recognized by a body convened for the purpose of recognizing exceptional writing.

(4) cross-media success could be cool...but I would probably want to do the adaptations of my own work rather than just have them adapted into film or whatever

But really...REALLY...just have a book or three published and maybe enough in sales to supplement my normal income so that I am not a slave to jobs I don't necessarily like but that pay well.

If anybody who writes book reviews for a credible publication compares me to Neil Gaiman then I'll consider myself successful in the important sense, but it's not until I'm writing full-time that I'll consider myself successful in the financial sense.

Wildest dream? I make shitloads with my first book. It has film-makers beating a path to my door and I turn them all down because I have (unlike Hollywood) artistic integrity.

I mix in fabulous, famous circles. Success breeds success. I am rich beyond my...

Okay. Realistic dreams? Realistic but pushing it I guess:

I'd like to make enough money to be able to live in Edinburgh. Learn to drive. Buy my own car. Have nice clothes. And I've got my eye on a rather snazzy LCD HD television with built-in DVD recorder...

The quiet part of me, the deep-down part no-one sees, just wants to make enough money to be able to go into a shop and not have to worry about price tags. Not in a Paris Hilton spending spree way, but in a, "I want to buy a new washing machine but I can't afford that model so I'll make do with that model." I'm sick of making do. I want to have the weight of worrying about the cost of everything off my shoulders.

I want to walk into a shop and know that I can afford any one item in that shop with no financial repercussions.

Security. That's what I want. To know the roof over my head is mine and that I can furnish it however I please.

Wildest Dreams: To be so popular that I'm imitated. Books that debut on bestseller list. I writer for kids and I want to be the one future writers remember. I want to be the one who inspires new generations of readers. Upgrade all the toys and swap the position that writing and lawyering hold in my life (Go to full time writing and supplementing with the lawyer thing)

Realistic: I'd settle for seeing my books in print. I'd never be satisfied with one book. The stories are satisfying, but I WANT the novel. And maybe--MAYBE--someday I can swap practising law for practising writing.

I want to be rich enough to make lots of good looking men want to have sex with me.

I think success for me would mean being able to work part time, and write part time. But I also think that once I'd had a taste of success I'd want more. But yeah, working part time and seeing my books in the shops would be enough for me.

Power. The incredible power. And I would wield it mercilessly!

Did you do a 'taking over the world' mua-ha-ha-ha-ha cackle after you posted that?

I did. In fact I always do such a cackle over every post I post here.

It gets me through the day, what can I say?

My wildest dream would be to have my first book blurbed by Dean Koontz and Stephen King. Then all their fans would buy it, and they'd send me nice emails asking, 'When's the next one coming out?' and I'd say, 'In August.' And then I'd check Amazon and find that my ranking is only one figure instead of five or six (or, God forbid, seven!) and my second book would come back from the editor with only a few commas inserted, because I've just gotten that good. I'd be on the NYT Bestseller list for years and years to come.

What would I do with the riches from my wildest dreams? I've already picked out the house, a nice 8 bedroom, 4 bath place in Islamorada, and tied up to the dock would be my 42' SeaRay Sundancer, which I would use to go have lunch in Key West. With Dean, who flies in to talk shop with me occassionally, and Stephen is really jealous because he wanted to be my bestest friend.

(but in reality, I'd actually just like to get to the submitting stage with my novels. That would be an accomplishment in itself.)