Keeping the seven dwarfs in mind

Tip of the Day: Great post by Nathan Bransford on things to ask yourself if you are considering self-publishing - go HERE to read.

Recently on Facebook, someone had one of those games where they answer a question about one of their friends. Her question was - which of the seven dwarfs is Lisa most like (or something like that).

I sort of panicked for a second. How would she answer that question? When I saw she answered the question with "Happy" I breathed a sigh of relief.

So, why am I blogging about this, you ask? It made me realize that I *want* to be Happy. The problem, however, is that being an author doesn't always make me happy. Some days, yes. But not always. I'll spare you the details. (cough, *low sales*, cough, *bad reviews*, cough, *rejections*, cough).

And more and more I understand that anything other than happy really shouldn't come through on-line. I want everyone who I meet as a part of my job as author to think of me as "Happy."

I've made some mistakes over the years - letting my frustration out in a blog post or a tweet. Bad Lisa, bad! Some days, it can be REALLY hard to keep it to myself. I want others to understand how hard it can be. But the thing is, generally, they won't. So I've learned I need to turn to my trusted writer friends in private for that support - not for the general public on-line. People will say they like seeing both sides of the business, and they like seeing that we are all human. But I've learned my lesson because I also know that to some people, it comes across as ungrateful or whiney or just plain GRUMPY.

So now, whenever I'm tempted to post something questionable, I'm going to make myself think of the Seven Dwarfs. AND, I'm going to get off the internet and go for a nice walk or something, because 90% of the time, the internet itself is what makes me less than happy in the first place!

Happily yours,

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career