by LK Weir
“There is no glory except
straight through your story.”
UNTAMED BY GLENNON DOYLE
This week marks the first negative review of my debut novel. I had mentally prepared myself for this moment. Of course it had to happen at some point. In fact, it should be a moment of pride that I’d managed to reach a wide enough audience to find a reader who didn’t enjoy the product I created…. painstakingly….with blood and tears.
After all, it’s just a book.
Another product in the market.
Not everyone will like it.
Just ignore the single bad review and concentrate on all those that are good.
Easy right?
I hadn’t yet set up my Goodreads Author account, so I thought it was time to get that in order. I searched for my book and saw a picture of a person’s face I’d never seen before. A new review! Very exciting. Next to the face was a single star blinking shame at me.
Before I had even read the review, my heart was through my chest. Beating at a pace that made me want to throw my laptop and run, never looking back.
I disappointed a reader.
⭐Rating: 1 out of 5.
Not a big deal, I never expected to be loved by all, after all, how many books had I not liked? But I couldn’t stop reading it, over and over, dissecting the words that were written. Honestly, they weren’t that bad. It wasn’t scathing, it wasn’t that I had completely disappointed them. But single star? Maybe it was worse than I thought, I must be reading it wrong. I read it until I second guessed myself and my ability. Slowly slipping down the canyon of negativity, allowing all the worst thoughts to take ownership of my mind and shame me into a spiral.
It’s not personal, they don’t even know you.
It doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer.
This was only your first book, you’ll get better.
Eventually you will write so well that no one will dislike what you write.
Stop kidding yourself, that’s impossible, you could never write that well.
Maybe you should give up now.
What’s the point if you can’t make everyone happy?
Your book isn’t good. You told yourself a horrible lie.
Everyone will see this and know you are a fraud.
Then I took a breath. Put my laptop down and disconnected my thought spiral. I love story telling. Deep down in the pit of who I am, I know that one bad review (or maybe someday many more) cannot stop that love. It is who I am, it is who I have always been, and it is who I will continue to be.
It’s not about pleasing everyone. It’s about doing something you love for the love of it.
Writers create magic. We pull from a place we don’t quite understand and weave together people, places, things, and emotions into a tale that didn’t exist before we wrote it. We have the ability to bring entire communities to life, and create fully functioning people with thoughts, feelings, quirks and traits. We create lands where no person has set foot, and situations that would be impossible in the world we actually live. And we want to share that magic.
Not everyone will like it. And so what? What matters is that the magic was created in the first place.
So, I would like to thank my first negative reviewer. I went through that plethora of emotions to come out the other side remembering why I do this. I emerged with a better understanding of myself and a drive to push myself even further.