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The outsized ego is
not a weapon of value.
You write because you believe you have something worth
a reader’s time. This is not necessarily an act of pure,
unadulterated ego. It is an act of confidence based upon
mutual exchange. You are offering something of value to
a consumer.
But because it is such a personal act—it’s all coming
from one source, you—the ego can easily become infl ated
or defl ated. In either case, you’ve got to be ready to put
the ego where it belongs—out of the way.
Praise might be heaped on you, and that’s not always
a good thing. You can, as the saying goes, start believ-
ing your own press. You may be tempted to go on cruise
control with your writing.
Or, worse, you may feel so much pressure to live up to
the praise that you freeze up. One form of this is the in-
famous “second-book syndrome” that many “overnight
successes” have suffered through.
On the other end of the scale, getting slammed by crit-
ics or readers can easily turn your ego into a Hindenburg.
You can start by expecting to be hammered by the
small. Robert Crais, the great Los Angeles noir writer,
noted once that “the world is full of haters,” and he gets
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