What went through my mind was a consideration of which of those bothered me - for instance (and speaking only for me) it chafes (in the mild, *really*, don't you have something bigger to worry about besides yourself manner) that I am (imo) less creative than many people on my flist. But being less rich, less sexually active or less kinky is leaving me with a great lack of concern. *shrugs*
What would be v. interesting is if we could see what the average concept of "successful" is - is fangirl A, who posts medeocure fic twice a year in an obscure fandom where no one knows her pen name, much less recs her stuff, yet has a high status (and high-paying) job (that she loves) a spouse and a darling baby that she thinks hung the moon all by his little lonesome -
- is she more or less "successful" than fangirl B, who is at 27 living at home again with parents she hates, in the typing pool at a faceless company, changing sig-o's faster than her lj format (*and* weeping into her beer about it) and yet putting out three or four thousand words of highly popular prose weekly, to such massive response that she can't ever respond to all the feedback?
And yes, I've picked a couple of extreme examples here, but I am wondering what "we" consider "successful" - perhaps it would be interesting to ask "are you more successful than your flist in fannish terms" and "are you more successful than your flist in real life terms" and see if there is a difference in responses.
Success
What went through my mind was a consideration of which of those bothered me - for instance (and speaking only for me) it chafes (in the mild, *really*, don't you have something bigger to worry about besides yourself manner) that I am (imo) less creative than many people on my flist. But being less rich, less sexually active or less kinky is leaving me with a great lack of concern. *shrugs*
What would be v. interesting is if we could see what the average concept of "successful" is - is fangirl A, who posts medeocure fic twice a year in an obscure fandom where no one knows her pen name, much less recs her stuff, yet has a high status (and high-paying) job (that she loves) a spouse and a darling baby that she thinks hung the moon all by his little lonesome -
- is she more or less "successful" than fangirl B, who is at 27 living at home again with parents she hates, in the typing pool at a faceless company, changing sig-o's faster than her lj format (*and* weeping into her beer about it) and yet putting out three or four thousand words of highly popular prose weekly, to such massive response that she can't ever respond to all the feedback?
And yes, I've picked a couple of extreme examples here, but I am wondering what "we" consider "successful" - perhaps it would be interesting to ask "are you more successful than your flist in fannish terms" and "are you more successful than your flist in real life terms" and see if there is a difference in responses.
- hg