You Suck Or A Derivative

These events took place a few weeks ago, but there is a sickness in my home. I spent last week in doctors' offices, as well as hospitals that pushed these events to the back of my mind. Now that I am back home and settling into a routine, they crept back up. Clearing out my email box demanded that I deal with the event that started the whole adventure. I have been a writer my entire life even as a child, and I would create adventure stories. In high school, other kids were working at fast food I was writing term papers for spending cash. Through the years, several pieces were published, but I never pursued it as a means of real income. About five years ago, a friend of mine started their career, and they wanted some ghost work completed. The first piece I did for a few pennies, but the response caused me to rethink my life. Last year I started to publish my work with significant encouragement. 

As a woman and as a writer, I am thankful I waited to start putting my words out to the world. The majority of people are either helpful or encouraging. What is hard for me is when someone is just nasty. I read a lot of things I do not like. At no point in my life have I ever sent someone 'this just sucks' response. Reflecting, my first hope is that the person does not understand how much work goes into creating a piece. Rarely does a writer expose the first draft to the harshness of society. We review every word, edit each section, and debate our characters. 

I have been through significant education in an academic setting. I do not believe a person has to go to a school to learn, but I do think the critique helps to develop a thick skin. When it comes to having my work reviewed, that is a process I enjoy. Working to perfect my craft is the reason I am here. For someone who sees a fault in any writer's works, speaking up is acceptable. They may be upset at first, but if presented from a practical aspect, it will create a better author. 

If you, as a reader, want to reach out to an author, you enjoy lead with kindness. You want to be treated with value and worth, so do that for those that bare their literary soul to the world. Quotes such as "You suck" tell us nothing. No one wants to be belittled in regards to something they invested. If you tell them, they lack in sentence structure with an example that is something worth communicating. It is easy when we are writing to mix up characters, primarily if we use similar names. Authors do not want simple mistakes to ruin their stories any more than you want to read it.

Writers produce content for several reasons: 

1) We have a storyline that haunts us.

2) The joy of the process

3) It is the one thing we are excellent at 

4) To process emotionally charged events in our manner

5) Destruction of nasty people in socially acceptable ways (maybe not so much but if you are mean to a writer you will end up the victim in a story)

Reach out to an author and tell them that you loved their story, or maybe you loved to hate it. We want to hear critique, but make sure you lead with kindness. The world will be a better place if we stop with all the dramatic name-calling. Did this person impact me? No, not really. They did make me stop and think about how people interact with others, especially on the internet. It is a lot harder to talk to someone in person negatively. There will always be people in the world that only know how to react in awful ways, and we can choose to be something better. 

To all, the authors and artists find a small core of people who will be honest but supportive of your ambitions. When you receive hurtful comments, try to remember that it is reflective of them, not on you. No one is perfect, and the adventure will always be lead to failure. It is okay to fail, and perfection is a goal only a few people truly reach. The rest of us live in the grey of each day is better than the last.