When you decide to hold your hands up and admit to being a writer you become aware of just how much negativity is out there. I have been lucky here on my blog but I know lots of people who have had to contend with the trolls, well meant but still painful comments and constructive criticism used as a weapon, I have read reviews that friends have had left on their work where not content with ripping the book to bits the reviewers round it off with a character assassination on the writer.
What these people fail to realise is that as writers we actually are capable of filling more than our own quota of negativity without any outside assistance.
Although many of us have to self publicise we do not believe our own hype, while we tell you how awesome our work is our own brains constantly compare it to others and find ourselves lacking. I personally write twice as much as anyone else will ever see as that lovely delete button proves to be the saviour of several small rainforests.
While we all attempt to believe the positive attitude we know we need to have, negativity is a constant factor dwelling in our shadows gnawing away at our confidence. The hardest part of writing is believing your own work is as good as any one else’s and trying to occasionally persuade yourself it is better than some others.
How do you keep negativity at bay?
Paula Acton 
It’s hard to decide whether someone else’s negativity is jealousy or really a dislike for your work. It’s worth checking to see whether they’ve done other reviews and if they’re all negative.
Most of the time you just have to repeat the mantra that ‘ We can’t please everyone’ and just get on with the next book.If we took it all too personally we’d all stop writing.
xxx Massive Hugs Paula xxx
LikeLike
What a great post. It is easy to be dragged down by negative things, especially as the internet is a place ripe with it! It’s easy for people to say ignore it, but that is much harder than just doing it.
Having an optimistic, positive attitude helps, but it can be exhausting to keep that up all the time!
LikeLike
Ignore it and keep writing!
LikeLike
Stick my head in the sand. No not really, I simply seek out those who will tell the truth, honest critique is good for a writer. Compare this to nastiness and it helps.
LikeLike
I wouldn’t say I am ever negative of my writing, but I am extremely self-critical. I have hypothetically finished editing my new Break through the barriers of redundancy book book, but I still want to go over it again to see if I have missed anything or if I can make any more improvements. As I have people waiting to buy it, sooner or later, I am going to have to stop making amendments because it is never going to be perfect and that is why authors can produce a volume 2.
LikeLike
Apologies, I hit the enter button just before I realised that I had typed the word book twice.
LikeLike