Happily Divorced

About the Book

Hi, there! Now, before you hit that back button disappointed that this is not a chapter, hear me out for a sec. Let me tell you something about this story (and maybe, just a little bit about myself. You can leave any time you feel bored. Or right now. LOL. I could really sound lonely sometimes. Anyways, let me tell you something about Happily Divorced.

There are THREE versions of this story.

My Ex-Husband, My Boss is renamed Way Back to Him because a lot of people were using the same title.

For every unpleasant comment on Way Back to Him is a week of a writing hiatus. It's funny how a single comment that a reader probably typed for not more than a minute takes me a week to recover from. It got into a point where I refused to check my notifications so I could write on. It got swarmed by negative comments. People said it the book was childish and I get it. I didn't have the writing capacity of an experienced writer over her thirties. 

I opened a new account. I rewritten Way Back to Him and came up with a new title. Once His Wife became the new version of Nathan and Chassie's love story. However, there were readers who harshly criticized that version. There was this one reader who called the heroine of the story stupid. 'She should just give the full custody to the father and be a whore.' The worst part was when I check her profile the reader was a mother of two. And then there's 'Her family treats her like a brain-dead five year old.'  It wasn't entirely about the story itself though.

I have a very descriptive writing style so it takes longer for me to edit my current stories. If you were able to read Once His Wife, you'll notice that from the very first chapter. I've dealt with negative feedback because of it. The more negative comments I was given, the more it slowed my writing process. It took me more than a year to finish the story.

All those times, I was aware criticism is a good thing. However, Constructive criticism is different from just being Mean. Luckily, writers/readers can report any comment that's offensive. Still, I refused to do it. Those comments might get taken down but it would remain with me. 

I have rewritten Once His Wife over again. And this time, I made sure I was happy and completely proud of it. Happily Divorced is the only version of the story that I'm completely happy about. It took a lot of hard work to come up with something I'm actually proud of. 

And to all other writers out there, they will tell you criticism is inevitable (which is true) and they will help you get better. They will tell you to not let it dishearten you and write on. But take it from me, it will dishearten the writer out of you. We aim to please readers. With time, though, you will learn you can't please every single one of them. You can write with all your passion but people will tell you how they like it better. How they would prefer it to be. If you listen to every single one of those, you will lose your mind because they will be saying different things.

Remember, "People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die." An old pal once told me. I believe he called himself PLATO. I don't consider these rewrites a stunt of growth though. Or if it did stunt me, I made sure to recover and let the story grow with me. It doesn't matter if you get stunt. What matters most is you didn't let your story wilt with you. 

Good luck!