by Elaina Lyons

I’m ashamed to say, my first thought was, “OK, I guess I shouldn’t continue writing the sequel if people don’t like the first one.” If that’s not a cognitive distortion, I don’t know what is.

I got one bad review, and my brain instantly made it into a trend. One person must mean there’s more people who won’t like it, which means I’m a bad writer, which means…

I’m ashamed to say, my first thought was, “OK, I guess I shouldn’t continue writing the sequel if people don’t like the first one.” If that’s not a cognitive distortion, I don’t know what is.

And the conclusions just jumped to themselves.

In the past, I probably would’ve lived in that bubble of negativity. But I decided that, instead, I would look at the situation with a different lens. Here’s what I came up with:

• No matter how good your work is, there will always, always, be people who don’t like it. That’s life. It isn’t a knock on your ability or their perspective — it’s just a testament to the fact that we are all unique.
• One bad review is one bad review. Sure, there will be more. But until you’re getting inundated with poor ratings, take the bad ones with the good and be grateful people are taking the time to read what you wrote.
• If we all agreed on everything, life would be boring.
• “You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” ― Dita Von Teese

So, in closing, I got a bad review. And you know what? The world didn’t end. I didn’t stop writing. And I live to be critiqued another day.

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*Professional photography by Empire Photography.