This year I'm going to share a quotation every Tuesday. It could be on any topic: books, jewelry, cooking, creativity, business, inspiration. The quote could come from anyone at any time period. The words could be funny or serious.
I will still blog on other days when I have news to share.
Week 1:
For the first week in January, I chose a quote from a blog post about New Year's resolutions.
"There will always be people who don't like you, and don't like your books. Ignore them."—Joe Konrath
It's hard, but necessary. It's so easy to get caught up in the negative and obsess over it. It can be paralyzing, causing you to second guess yourself or spin your wheels.
Just this morning I found a forum where several were discussing one of my handmade cards. Some people liked the design that one person linked to, but one thought it was "eh." It's hard not to take it personally, even though it's not very logical. There's plenty of stuff I don't like. Why should anyone else be different?
Obviously, this advice isn't just for writers. Remove the word "books" from the quotation and substitute cooking, art, parenting skills. Whatever you want to do passionately, try to do it well. Don't worry so much about what other people think.
You are the captain of your own ship. Steer it wherever you want to go. The sharks will always find something else to eat.
Original source of quotation: Read the entire blog post from A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Konrath's Resolutions for Writers. Note that the author keeps appending his resolutions each year to the same post, so you'll need to scroll down to see what he said for 2013.