It's good to be loved; but be prepared not to be.

A writer, like any other artist, must possess a strong ego. I do not mean conceit; there is a distinct difference. The dictionary defines ego as "the self as distinguished from others".

The only problem with having a strong ego is that the possessor tends to be extremely sensitive to negative criticism.

In the very first posting of this blog, (How a personal challenge became a published novel...), I describe how proud I was, after fourteen months of writng, re-writing, and re-writing again, to have produced a completed, polished manuscript which was praised by those who read it; only to then receive rejection letters from four mainline publishers who apparently thought otherwise.

My ego received a boost when a representative of the acquisition department at Tate Publishing phoned to inform me that my manuscript had been deemed to have commercial potential and that I was being offered a publishing contract.

The feeling of euphoria I experienced rapidly evaporated during eleven months of participating in the publishing process (copy editing, conceptual editing, layout, cover, spine, and backmatter design, abridgement, printing, distribution, and marketing) which forced me to accept the fact that the completed, polished manuscript, of which I had been so proud, was neither complete nor polished.

The lesson to be derived from criticism, whether it be constructive, positive, or hurtful, is that it is just an opinion; and one opinion is as good as another. Learn from every criticism and become better at whatever you do. I think I did.