Accomplishing a Writing Goal #IWSG


Badge for Insecure Writer's Support Group

It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. Today I will reminisce about the day I published my first book and what I do after accomplishing a writing goal, as I answer this month’s IWSG Day question:

March 7 question – How do you celebrate after accomplishing a writing goal?

My entire life I dreamed of being a writer. Unfortunately, when it came time to decide what I would do with my life, I foolishly listened to the people who said it was an unrealistic goal.  I shouldn’t expect to make a living as a writer. Instead, I took less fulfilling, minimum wage jobs in restaurants, nursing homes, and then later as a seamstress. I did find fulfillment later, as a wife and a mother.

Fast forward twenty-five years… I had things to say to the world; things that mattered. My husband discovered hard swollen lymph nodes above his left collarbone and our family’s life was turned upside down.  He had cancer. I began to write privately about life with cancer, how it affected our children, what it was like being a caregiver, the things people said that shocked us, and the kindness we experienced from friends and even strangers.

Accomplishing a Writing Goal

Eventually, I wrote my first book, Facing Cancer as a Friend: How to Help Someone who has Cancer.  I learned so much during the process of writing and publishing that book. One thing I will never forget is how it felt to see it for sale on Amazon.com. I could hardly believe it—I was an author! What did I do after accomplishing a writing goal so lofty?

accomplishing a writing goal

I lay down and cried. And they weren’t tears of joy. You would think that they would be, but they weren’t. I kept hearing the things that had stopped me from becoming a writer when I was younger. Those words of discouragement kept me from achieving my goals 2 decades earlier—and I let them! Even worse, I still believed them.

I no longer doubt my abilities as a writer. And, thankfully, I don’t cry anymore after accomplishing a writing goal. I don’t really do anything celebratory, either. This is my job. I don’t get paid much (yet), but I take it just as seriously as a banker, a businessman, or a sanitation worker.  So I do what any person does who is working. After accomplishing a writing goal, I move on to the next one.

I follow the principle of setting daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals, so there’s always something more to be excited about and driven to accomplish. It’s a real blessing to be able to do something I love so much. I feel as though the act of writing, is its own celebration.

What are YOUR thoughts?

I’d love to hear in the comment section, below. I appreciate my readers as well as the writing community. To show that appreciation, I use Comment Luv. Just leave a comment below and your latest post will get a link next to it. Thank you!

About Heather Erickson

I am an author, writer, and speaker and homeschooling mom of 3. Since doctors diagnosed my husband, Dan with stage IV lung cancer in 2012, I’ve focused my writing and speaking on helping cancer patients and their families advocate for themselves and live life to the fullest, in spite of their illness. My goal is to help people face cancer with grace.

My book Facing Cancer as a Friend: How to Support Someone Who Has Cancer, is available at Amazon.com.

I also blog about living with cancer at, Facing Cancer with Grace.

My Family
The Erickson Family, Photo by Everbranch Photography