Ernest Hemingway
Edgar Allen Poe
Vincent Van Gogh
Hell, Kurt Cobain

What do these pasty-faced, and perhaps unwashed, artist have in common? The crazies.

Pick an expressive craft and you'll find the crazies. There's something about reaching deep within your soul to take a piece of you and spread it before others, waiting for them to see the value there.

Because that is the thing--artists dig deep. Therefore, when the rejection comes, it's not just 'oh, to each is own.' No. It feels like a PHYSICAL (personal) rejection.

The truth of the matter is, it's not. It is something cheap and incidental to the consumer. They eat it up and move on. It took you months, YEARS, and they needed only a few hours.

As a mother, I've slaved over a hot meal for HOURS only for my child to take a bite, spit it out, and declare he wants bread. Plain...bread. Even that doesn't hurt as much. It's just TIME wasted after all.

So when someone spits out your guts (your spirit, your soul), your art, it shouldn't hurt then either, right?

I see it in myself, and I see it a LOT on Wattpad. Hitting that wall, with your head, again and again in frustration. Some people delete their accounts. Some simply vanish into ether. Some take a reasonable step back to reassess their life choices. And some...are like me. We don't want to quit.

But the title says Fighting the Crazies. So how can we fight it? That's just it...I don't think we can. So far, one thing's been helping and that's seeing young writers shout out their '100 views Whoo hoo!' and I think, wow, remember how it felt when we hadn't expected anything from the craft and were just so excited to get ANY eyes on it? It was a better time and it held a lot more hope. Now as we march onward, we gain skill but lose luster, getting dull and jaded with each dead end.

Therefore, I'll say it again, there's no real way to fight it. I think it'll always hang over us. But I do think we should remember they don't go away even with accomplishments. Because more than one person on that list was a success when tragedy struck.

Recognize the stress, take frequent breaks, and remember ONE thing the next time someone chews up and spits out your blood-drenched hard work.

Nobody asked you for it.

Nobody asked you to snatch out bits of yourself and put them into words.

And it was something you were going to do regardless of who was there to see anyway.

So never forget why you're sharing yourself in the first place and let those who might partake in it have the freedom to do so at their leisure, and not the breakneck speed you're after.