Once You Conquer Your Fear...

You ultimately conquer yourself...

Here, I sit, on New Year's Eve reflecting upon the year that is about to no longer be and more than anything right now, I am pleased to say that fear and I are no longer lovers.

If there is one thing that you haven't noticed about me, it's that for a long time, I have allowed my fear of the unknown to rule my life. It has ruled me in every aspect of my life. From my personal, to my professional, my marriage, my parenting, my relationship with others; you name it, fear ruled it. This past year though, fear took a back seat to change. I wanted to embrace change so much so that I had to dominate my fears; mind you, there were a lot.

I have come to realize as I sit prepared for the new year, calmly waiting on the new year for once in my life, that in order to embrace everything that you want in this life, you have to let go of fear. You have to conquer yourself and not allow fear to conquer you. For so long, I imagined what I wanted, what life could be if I just let go, but because I couldn't, my life didn't really go in the direction that I wanted it to. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong in my life at the moment, it's just that it isn't consumed with my dreams and goals being my full time reality. I don't blame anyone but myself because we all know that you have to be the change you want to see. If I am not seeing the changes in my life that I want, then there is something that I am not doing to make it happen.

Lesson Learned...

Here, I sit, on New Year's Eve more prepared than ever for what the upcoming year brings. The challenges and the rewards. I see myself very successful and 2016 is going to see me very successful as well.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Everyone Wants To Be A Critic...

But no one wants to do the work...

So, can you guess what grinds my gears? Opinions do. But not just any opinions. Oh no, these are opinions pertaining to things that require ratings. Yes, I said ratings. Let me explain myself a little better so that you can understand exactly where it is that I am coming from.

I am a writer; no surprise there, right? As a writer, one has to learn how to be open to constructive criticism; maybe even develop a thick skin if you will. But what a lot of people don't know, especially those that aren't writers, is that negative reviews hurt. They literally can make or break a writer and I don't think people can understand that. We can have a thousand reviews, but it's that one negative review that haunts us.

I, myself, would rather not give any ratings or reviews before I give a negative one. I don't know, it's just a preference of mine. I do understand the need for reviews and ratings; they're there so that others may get a feel as to whether a book (or something else) is for them, but it's all of that extra verbiage that I find unnecessary. Why verbally attack a writer for a story that they took the time to write and share? Why put down a story that you found out wasn't quite your cup of tea. Okay, so it wasn't meant for you but does that mean that you have the right to run it into the ground?

As I come close to finishing my first novel, I think I'm slightly getting hung up on the review process. Granted, I'm not going to let that stop my progress but I may end up becoming one of those authors that are just not interested in reading negative reviews. I'm sure it doesn't help that I have yet to have a negative review about anything I've written thus far (knock on wood), so I wouldn't know how to deal with one if it were to actually come my way.

So much thought process and work goes into anything a writer writes (or a person creates for that matter) that anything said about a project becomes personal. I understand not all things are for everyone, but instead of hopping on items and being a Negative Nancy, maybe there are other ways to express the issues that one has while still maintaining some kind of compassion for the person who reads it.

I don't know. What I do know is that as much as I am ready to expand my reading audience, I'm not exactly ready for all that comes with it...