As some of you may know, I started getting hate because of The Alchemist Princess and The Princess's Alchemist. I've been bullied and picked on my whole life (though I will admit that I know people get bullied worse than me) so I've learned how to deal with it and not let it get to me much if at all. Wattpad has been such a positive platform since I joined in May of 2017 so when I got my first hate comment back in June, it surprised me more than anything. I deleted it and just ignored that it happened because I didn't want to keep it there and think about it too much. It happened about seven or eight more times and I deleted the comments each time, not bothering to look at the account that was giving me these comments or even block or report the account which was stupid on my part. It stopped for about a week and a half before I started getting private messages like I mentioned previously.

Now, let me clarify because my friend asked if it was really just criticism that I mistook for hate.

These comments and messages ARE criticism.

According to Lexico through the Oxford Dictionary, criticism is "the analysis and judgment of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work."

HOWEVER, there are many different forms of criticism.

I am very open to any positive or constructive criticism! If you tell me that my grammar or punctuation is incorrect I will say thank you, fix it, see if I made that mistake anywhere else, and make sure to not make that mistake in the future. If you tell me that my plot has holes or doesn't make sense, I will thank you and try my best to fix it.

That is good criticism!

Now, if you were to just tell me that my grammar sucks, that you hate my story, that my characters are lame, or that you think I'm a terrible writer, I'm not going to listen to you. So guess what? You just wasted precious moments of your life to tell me something that I will either report or just delete without a second thought.

That's called negative and destructive criticism.

Positive and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated and I encourage all of you to help me fix any issues you have with any of my stories. It helps me to become a better writer and a better person!

These comments and messages were in no way positive or constructive.

If you ever go to comment on someone's work, whether it is my work or someone else's, ask yourself,

"Is this going to help them improve or possibly hurt their feelings?"

Never say,

"Your spelling is all wrong! Did your English teacher actually teach you anything?!"

Instead say something like,

"I noticed that you put 'there' when it should be 'they're' in that situation. I just wanted to bring it to your attention. Keep up the good work!"

Do you see the difference?

I know that some people will say, "oh, comments like that don't bother me. It's their opinion. If they think my spelling sucks, oh well."

I'm one of those people. I just brush it off and delete the comment because it's negative criticism, therefore, I'm not learning anything from it. I know that whoever said it was only trying to make me feel bad about myself and my writing.

However, other people may not react that way. Some people may get offended or hurt by those comments.

That being said, I also know that people may not be able to tell the difference and they may take constructive criticism as hate. That's why you should always be polite and maybe add something encouraging when you give constructive criticism.

Every author should always have pride in their work. I work incredibly hard to give all of you guys stories that are interesting, fun, heartwrenching, and really enjoyable! I know for a fact that I'm not the only one who works so hard to put out amazing works of art and literature. It's not always easy so when an author gets hate on their book, it can hurt their pride.

Me being someone who has learned to ignore the haters was not expecting for it to hurt when I got those messages. It didn't stop me and I just brushed it off but I will admit that it stung to have those things said about my books and my character.

I hope you guys all remember this and take it into consideration next time you go to comment on someone's work.

I know that I have such amazing followers and I am so grateful that you are all so positive! There are always going to be haters and I'm so lucky that I haven't dealt with any on this app until June.

I'm not letting this stop me and if it happens to you, don't let it stop you!

You are so strong and absolutely amazing no matter what anyone says! It may be cheesy and kinda cliche but it's true!

I love you all so much! ❤

~LytleLadibug