I tweeted and it was good? AKA How a tweet boosted my mental health as a writer
It's Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK!
This seemed like an appropriate time to talk about mental health as a writer. For a lot of us, writing is a lonely business, and the entire process can be really isolating. I've met full-time authors who are exceptionally talented but can face total isolation and have to work hard not to be overwhelmed by it.
Earlier this year, I was feeling low, but by reaching out to others, I felt lots of love from the writing community and felt so appreciated and like I wasn't alone, it helped me mentally and made me want to do the same for others. So here's my story.
So the week before my historical mystery novel, The Strangled Servant came out, I was feeling low.
I'd peeked onto a ARC (advance reader copy) review website and noticed that my novel had a review!
A one star review.
I was crushed. The review pointed out an error in my work, something that had been missed in the line editing. What if this started a snowball effect that led to a bunch of other negative reviews, led to no book sales and people hating my work as an author?
I worked with my publisher to iron out the kink, fixed it, and sat back, working on the edits for my next novel in the series. But was still feeling low. All week I was asking myself, have I written a bad book? Am I a terrible writer?
My friends and writing buddies tried to boost my self confidence but seeing those stark words on the page really got to me.
So feeling low, I tweeted the advice I needed to hear. The Twitter #WritingCommunity is full of like-minded individuals who like me, are sometimes struggling to write, revise, polish, plot, kill the darlings, save the MCs, and just generally write. I wasn't sure if anyone would notice but this was my tweet:
Within seconds it got some love, and I was chuffed. I think it resonated with some authors who were struggling too and needed to hear it. So when I logged on the following morning and saw people were engaging and chatting with me, my heart soared.
I've never felt so connected to a community online before and it's great. I connected with other writers, chatted about the writing process, and even made a book sale! This was a great boost to my mental health, just knowing there's other writers out there who struggle. It made all the difference.
And when I peeked at the reviews again, they weren't all bad. So that was a relief as well. Just goes to show you can't please everyone and you won't with your writing. Just write. Believe in your characters, your plots, your red herrings and subtle details. They're art and best of all, they're your art.
Most of all, you're not alone. That was the best boost I got that week.
Cheers
ELJ
This seemed like an appropriate time to talk about mental health as a writer. For a lot of us, writing is a lonely business, and the entire process can be really isolating. I've met full-time authors who are exceptionally talented but can face total isolation and have to work hard not to be overwhelmed by it.
Earlier this year, I was feeling low, but by reaching out to others, I felt lots of love from the writing community and felt so appreciated and like I wasn't alone, it helped me mentally and made me want to do the same for others. So here's my story.
So the week before my historical mystery novel, The Strangled Servant came out, I was feeling low.
I'd peeked onto a ARC (advance reader copy) review website and noticed that my novel had a review!
A one star review.
I was crushed. The review pointed out an error in my work, something that had been missed in the line editing. What if this started a snowball effect that led to a bunch of other negative reviews, led to no book sales and people hating my work as an author?
I worked with my publisher to iron out the kink, fixed it, and sat back, working on the edits for my next novel in the series. But was still feeling low. All week I was asking myself, have I written a bad book? Am I a terrible writer?
My friends and writing buddies tried to boost my self confidence but seeing those stark words on the page really got to me.
So feeling low, I tweeted the advice I needed to hear. The Twitter #WritingCommunity is full of like-minded individuals who like me, are sometimes struggling to write, revise, polish, plot, kill the darlings, save the MCs, and just generally write. I wasn't sure if anyone would notice but this was my tweet:
Within seconds it got some love, and I was chuffed. I think it resonated with some authors who were struggling too and needed to hear it. So when I logged on the following morning and saw people were engaging and chatting with me, my heart soared.
I've never felt so connected to a community online before and it's great. I connected with other writers, chatted about the writing process, and even made a book sale! This was a great boost to my mental health, just knowing there's other writers out there who struggle. It made all the difference.
And when I peeked at the reviews again, they weren't all bad. So that was a relief as well. Just goes to show you can't please everyone and you won't with your writing. Just write. Believe in your characters, your plots, your red herrings and subtle details. They're art and best of all, they're your art.
Most of all, you're not alone. That was the best boost I got that week.
Cheers
ELJ
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