Negative Energy can sap your Creative Juices!

I thought I'd offer my two cents on a subject that comes up a LOT in the author community, negativity. Bad reviews, jealous authors, angry fans, and gossip sites that thrive on dissing others in the industry can all sap a writer's creative energy if he/she allows them to.

I've made it a practice to avoid the negative energy from these sources as much as possible.

I've left Yahoo groups with members who have a tendency to flare up and create ripples of tension throughout the group. I try not to read or dwell on really bad reviews of my books. I understand that not everyone will like what I write. I can live with that (sort of #:0). But I don't want to get dragged down by someone who gleefully shreds my hard work in a public forum.

I LOVE what I do. Writing stories that make others happy is a dream come true for me. But it's dang hard to sit down and create hundreds of pages of tight, factually accurate, and compelling fiction. Since it's so hard, it's easy to get sidetracked...easy to get discouraged. I minimize hits to my creative drive by staying away from negative energy as much as possible.

One important component of that is managing my own behavior. I try to be kind and supportive to other authors. I know what they went through to write their books, and I know how hard it is to succeed in this business. I believe we should stick together as much as possible and help each other grow and prosper. There's audience enough out there for all of us.

I try to moderate my online comments and consider everything I say carefully before I say it. Still, I'm sure I'll screw up and offend someone by mistake, or say something others find controversial. It happens. When it does I'll take my hits and move on, having learned a valuable lesson. My real friends will understand and help me get past it.

Avoiding the negativity of others is important. So is reducing our own negativity. Because, in the end, negative energy does nothing to help us grow as authors and, as we all find out the hard way, Karma can be an evil b-ey-itch! #:0)