Why bad reviews are better

Every writer puts their heart and soul into their books. They work for months or even years to put together this story that is so much a part of them that they sometimes forget that they aren't a part of that world. And it's only right that a writer wants other people to love that world and those characters as much as they do. Every writer wants good reviews for their books.

But I would argue that bad reviews may be better. How do you grow as a writer--or even as a person--if you never fail? If no one ever tells you that you have flaws? Sometimes you need to be told something is wrong so that you can figure out what to do right.

I'm not saying go out there looking for people to write bad reviews of your books, or send them to people with the sole purpose of getting a bad review (you know, a reviewer who absolutely hates the genre of book you write). But what I am saying is be grateful for those bad reviews. Be willing to accept that you aren't the best at what you do. And you probably never will be.

But you can be the best writer you can be. It's all up to how you take bad reviews and rejection.

And that, my friends, comes back to how you take rejection and criticism. Because you'll deal with a lot of that in this business. Not everyone is going to fall in love with your work. But you can make a good name for yourself by being professional and learning from what people say about your books.

Who knows, you may end up learning something that makes you a better writer all because someone gave you a bad review.

Well, that was an epic fail...

It may one of the most common phrases in our society today: epic fail. In all honesty, I'm afraid of the term "failure." It's absolutely not my favorite word. I hate it. Failure is just something that I despise. Whether it comes in my personal life, my job, or my writing, I don't like to fail. I can deal with "no," but out and out failure hurts.

But, when it comes to new year's resolutions, sometimes you just have to get used to those little epic fails. Those things that you set yourself up to fail at because they just aren't realistic. Like no more chocolate! That, my friends, was a complete and total epic fail. As I write this, I'm drinking my morning cup of coffee. And guess what's in it? Don't gag, this is how I drink my coffee--chocolate milk. So that whole, no chocolate resolution... epic fail.

Getting up early? Epic fail.

Exercising first thing in the morning? Epic fail.

But you know, sometimes epic fails aren't so much epic fails. They're chances to learn and be a new person. You can see a failure like I see the word "no." As a stepping stone to that "yes," to that new you, to that actual success.

So maybe failure isn't that bad after all.