How do you decide if your story is a success or a failure?

[EternalSunset0]

For me, if I can get a reader or two who will finish it through the end and like it, I would say it's a success personally. If I can get five to a dozen consistent readers who'll end up with the level of activity like discussing chapters or giving speculations, I'll be very very happy.

All the other tangibles are icing on the cake for me.

 

[Frostbird]

Honestly it just depends on the goal you set for yourself as a writer. If you are writing to make money or get likes than your story succeeds when you do just that. But if you are writing for cathartic reasons that just help you through life, then it doesn't matter if you didn't even get a single follower, they weren't the target audience, you were. Your story was a success because it did exactly what you wanted it to.

 

[CautiousTitan]

If I like writing for it, it’s a success. If I dread writing for it, it’s a failure.

 

[Typing...]

It really does depend on what I define as a success or a failure… I see failure as accumulated experience, so as long as I learned something to further hone the craft it's worthwhile. I suppose I see success as a failure sandwich that somehow tastes like a success sandwich. But that's only because the readers don't know the ingredients.

I won't tell them either.

 

[RimuThighHighs]

Success is such a subjective and elusive thing to me my story is already more successful than i imagined when i started posting it. Closing in on 80k total views, over 1200 favorites, and slowly working my way to 1000 readers (920 atm). The very fact that people care enough to read my story and leave feedback either positive or negative is also a success.

 

[Minx]

If people enjoy reading my story, that's a success in my book.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

If I can get readers reading to the latest chapter or readers reading to the end, then I'd consider that a success.

 

[swaggerism]

As long as that story touches your heart in some way, it's a success.
And if it touches at least one other person, that's more than just success, it means
you've talked to someone with words that mean deeply to you.

So in reality, no story is a failure. Writing has no success or failure, honestly.
Only success or fame, either way.​

 

[thedude3445]

Until the business side of writing starts to take precedence, my only goal is to make stories that emotionally move as many readers as possible, whether that's laughter or swooning or tears or any other emotion. If they read my stories and enjoy them enough that they'll remember them two years from now, that's what I would call a success. The only failure is if nobody reads the dang stuff to have a reaction in the first place. But even then, sometimes it's still fun anyway.

Not too long from now, though, I'll be forced to start defining success with actual metrics and dollar figures and that sort of stuff and it'll get all boring to talk about. But for now, I like that vague, nebulous goal of making stuff people will keep with them for a while.

 

[Falscher]

I really try not to think about it, if I feel that a story I might write does not please people, I will not worry about it either, I am the kind of person who before worrying about the "What" focuses on the "How".

As a friend of mine says, you don't do something because you want to be better than others, but because you want to be better than yourself. Also because even when you lose you gain something, and it is something irreplaceable: "The experience"

 

[TheTrinary]

If I'm happy with it, I'm happy. If I'm not happy with it, I'm not happy. Once it's posted, everything else is out of my hands and I am not going to drive myself mad worrying about other metrics.

 

[Leti]

I don't.