Jessica Samuels lives in Chesterfield with her family. She is a blogger, writer, reader, target shooter, and video gamer. She is currently in college and majoring in journalism and minoring in creative writing. She is currently working on two ebooks of poetry and short stories, editing her first YA paranormal romance novel Blood Fire & Moon Watch, and hopes to find a literary agent. You can find her on her blog and twitter page.Stop Letting Negativity and Fear Hurt Your Writing
I used to let things get to me easily thanks to being bullied in elementary, high school, and middle school. I used to spend days filled with hate, anger, and wanting revenge towards those who bullied me. The day I found writing is the day it all stopped being bad, and my perspective on life changed. I wasted my life some thinking about the bullies instead of finding ways to help people like me. Writing allows me to reach out to people like me, and show them that they should not waste time with childish people. Writing is a refuge I use to make things better, and it made me have the power to take things into my own hands. It allows me to create worlds where extraordinary things happen, and where fantastical creatures exist. It helped me get over the negativity of my past by allowing me to use writing as a therapy. I wrote down the negative situations, and changed them to a better outcome. I follow authors on twitter, and it amazes me how they cope with negativity. I hope to be like them someday.
Another situation dealing with fear: I used to let the fear of people judging my work get in the way when I first started. I was afraid they would not like it, and that they would say mean things about it. I dealt with that by getting together emails of those close to me, and sending it to them. It worked so much that the fear is gone some. I knew that the people there would not like my work totally, but I think in order to be a writer you have to get over it. You have to not let it get in the way of writing.
The root of fear and negativity is sometimes is success. The negative people who throw negativity at your work are probably jealous that they cannot make works of art like that. The reason that we fear might be because we focus on other peoples judgement so much it stops us from taking risks. Go after your dreams and try not to let fear and negativity get in the way. Believe me; if I can do it so can you.
6 comments:
Wise words. I think it's part of the process to feel like you're not ready but then find you're stronger for having forced yourself to face your fears.
mood
Moody Writing
@mooderino
Wow. That is awesome. I was never bullied in school, but my little brother was all the time. It got so bad for him that he dropped out of high school. I can understand what it's like to not trust people and to lose sight of the positive aspects of life.
What a great post. Thanks for the inspiration. :)
Write on!
This is absolutely true! If you let the words of the bullies get to you then you are letting them win!
Thanks for the great post.
Samantha
I have pretty thick skin after working in a call center for eight years.
Had my test readers list things they did not like as well as things they did. I was surprised at what they didn't like and equally surprised at what they did.
I haven't gotten any negative feedback from random people who bought my book yet. But it can't be worse than the guy who cursed a pox on me and my family and hoped that we all died because he couldn't figure out how to work his $250 computer.
That memory goes right next to the email that said I was a risk to the company because my access levels were higher than my job description and the email that wanted me to explain the $23,000 phone bill.
People love to step on other people. It takes a certain amount of self worth and courage to realize that they really have no right to step on you in the first place and that all things are equal.
Jessica, you show awesome courage, strength, and heart for someone so young. It is one of the gifts of writing that you can understand your own challenges when solving them for a character. May your journey of creativity be filled with joy.
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