While in my last post I talked about the great people in my life that support me, I feel the need to discuss the other side of the coin; the skeptics and the critics. I promise this is not going to be a rant about how horrible these people are. I'm going to take about why I find them necessary to my writing process...okay necessary might be a bit strong, but when you know there are always going to be critics and skeptics you might as well find a productive way to intergrate them or else you're just plugging your ears and pretending they aren't there has never been my style.
So how do I keep them from bringing me down and believing that I need to tone down my dream or just forget about it? I have developed a bit of an inner lioness. Now she's a scary little creature if you give her too much fuel, like saying "Oh, you're still trying that?" She is a form of determination that I have found quite useful when a pep talk just won't do because I can't be Patty Positive every day. (Trust me, if I was my dramatic scenes wouldn't work because if the writer's not feeling the emotion, the reader certainly won't.) Sometimes a criticism will hurt if I'm not expecting it or who it came from, but that's what the lioness is for. On the days when I’m unmotivated or just don’t want to put in any more time in front of a computer after work, I remember there are people who think this is a phase or that the odds of me succeeding are too slim, and the lioness growls "Are you really gonna take that?"
I'm not saying I love that there are people who think this is a pipe dream but I don’t begrudge their skepticism. On the days when support just won’t do, their skepticism will awaken the lioness and I will press on.