• What does your work mean to you?

I understand there are times when you have no interest in continuing a novel and you just have to put it aside and move to another one.

But as for those of you . . .

Take a good look at that question. What does your book mean to you?

Is it so worthless that you can basically discard it at your whim?

A lot of writers love their book so much and I am no different. Even if you want to go on the defensive if something bad is said about your work.

Do. Not. Discard. It.

I know about low self-esteem and honestly, it’s not an excuse!

A lot of you who claim to be “hurt” actually hurt a lot of people all the time with your actions and words, and yet you don’t care. Stop making yourself look like a victim, you are not the only person in the world who has faced Armageddon simply because someone gave you a negative review.

A lot of artists receive serious backlash from millions of people and many of those artists still stand their ground. People like that are actually respected for that, in case you don’t know. The same way you hate reading about weak characters is the same way almost everyone dislikes people who whine.

You can ACTUALLY do something about your book.

Everyone combats low self-esteem in one way or the other. You are not the only person out of billions in the whole world. There is something doctors recommend to combat fears . . . exposing yourself to those factors. If you acknowledge your weakness, no one can use it against you.

A lot of you have received criticism about your body to the extent that you have gotten used to it. Where I come from, you are not a woman unless you are fat and voluptuous (there is nothing wrong in being called fat "unless it's an intended insult" so don’t get angry about it. It’s fact. If you hate being fat, do something about it and don’t sit there getting angry. We have fat, plump, slim, slender, and thin). I am very much on the slender side and I have been mocked a lot while growing up to the extent that it doesn’t even bother me anymore if someone makes this statement.

Grow some balls!

Is there anyone else here who doesn’t hate a thing or two about themselves or their physical appearance?

No. Everyone struggles with something. Even those freaking bullies you see out there. You people need to know that they have insecurities too and like the messed up humans they are, they target other people to relieve those insecurities.

The moral?

DON’T LET IT GET TO YOU.

The way people go around shouting “low self-esteem” is actually incredibly selfish and completely inconsiderate.

Oh, look at me. I have low self esteem, so watch how you speak to me. Depending on your insignificant words I might as well go kill myself.

This doesn’t mean you can’t talk about your problems or complain about them, but don’t make it seem as if you are the only one having that problem. Some of these successful authors have low self-esteem sometimes, but apparently, they didn’t give up when they were rejected hundreds of time.

Many of the successful or well-to-do people didn’t get to where they were by giving up. I agree people have their limits and not everyone reaches the top but people don’t give up on what they love . . . Unless circumstances push them . . .

For those of you who say “Criticism doesn’t promote growth”

I'm sorry but that's a dumb line of thought.

You certainly don’t praise a person who goes about something the wrong way especially when they are really adamant about that wrong thing. Your parents certainly don’t praise you when you do something wrong or disobey them (if they do, there is a problem). But your parents or at least your boss praises you when you get the job done and do things right!

For some of you out there; PRAISE is not the same as ENCOURAGEMENT but they are related.

Reviews, no matter how critical they are, can be painful especially if your work wasn’t so good. But these same people root for you when they see the changes you’ve made because you deserved that praise. I cannot count the number of times I have written this at the end of a review;

“I’m sorry if this sounded harsh but I believe you will improve and everyone makes mistakes. I don’t want you to stop writing and I look forward to your future works.”

Even if some reviewers don’t include this, I clearly see something in between like this;

“I like the way you wrote this or I like this but . . .”

Were you blind when you were reading that line or did your eyes happen to skim it?

Even if your reviewer didn’t mention those things, the fact that they pointed out your mistakes is helpful. Not only that but it also happens to be extremely stressful, annoying, and frustrating for them.

They have better things to do than pick out your errors and let you know about them, even going all the way to give you suggestions on how you can do it (sometimes I tend to be so caught up I merely give suggestions cause; I am fed up).

If I certainly didn’t want you to succeed, I wouldn’t point out those things for you. I would be lazy and do whatever the hell I want.

It’s painful to read these things but they help. I have received many reviews for my work but can you even imagine that the one which stood out to me was the harshest? Is that even a word?

I felt like shit (something your reviewer would also go through while reading someone else’s work) but it is up to you to correct your mistakes and not blame the reviewer.

A review is different from trolling! Get this simple fact into your fleshy brain.

Deleting your book is a no, no. You are free to mourn, you are free to cry and you are free to thrash around in the confines of your mind (please, don’t attack your judge or reviewer). You can also temporarily withdraw your work to edit the crap out of it if it isn’t so good.

But only an idiot would delete something they worked so hard on no matter how shitty it is. Improve it!

Yes, we know you worked hard (or was lazy like some writers out there). But I don't know what to call it when its compared to the works of those with somewhat perfect books. Their books never automatically came out that way, and they certainly didn’t delete it simply because they had a bad day.

The funny thing is that some of you “low esteemers” happily tap the (thumbs down) button for youtube videos without any regard for the feelings of the person who did the video.

Well, life happens and you have automatically become one of those shitty people that complain when they feel they are wronged but see no problem shitting other people.

It is a different matter if you really lose passion for something, but you guys need to understand the concept of struggle. You are free to quit after you struggle and not before. There is no way struggling won’t give you your end result, so please, throw that “low self-esteem” excuse into the incinerator.

If you delete your book because of a review, it is your fault and responsibility. You also owe the reviewer for ruining their day. I was eating breakfast when I learnt someone I reviewed deleted his account and my food had to go to the dog. I loved that spaghetti.

It is an entirely different matter if you push aside a novel to come back to it at a later time. Maybe in a few months or years. So nothing is wrong with that. Just don’t flush your work down the drain because someone didn’t paint it as a godly artefact.