❝She's one of those girls you just can't walk away from. One of those girls you will never forget, no matter how hard you might try.❞
BOOK ONE OF THE SCARLETT CHRONICLES |
After being kidnapped as a young child, seventeen year old Scarlett Grey is...
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Hey guys.
I know I don't do this often, mostly cause I hate to bug y'all with notifications and what not, but I wanted to get something out there.
Recently, I've had a lot of new readers join the fold. And, of course, they've been letting me know by commenting and messaging me what they think of my works. I always welcome the feedback and I love to hear your guys' thoughts, but I do have something I'd like to address.
"Becoming Scarlett" is a story I created from my own little world. And it has a strong focus on mental health, mainly anxiety disorder and post traumatic stress disorder. Now, Scarlett is her own person, and a fictional one at that. She is not me, and I am not her. However, I have pulled a lot from my own experiences with those disorders when writing her story, as both a nursing student who has studied psychology and as an individual who has been personally effected by and lives with both of these disorders.
So, yes, I do tend to take it personally when someone tells me that my portrayal of Scarlett's mental health struggles is wrong. Saying "that's not how that feels" or "she should be struggling more" or "that's not what happens" may be your opinion, but the fact of the matter is that that's how the character is. She feels what I feel when I have an anxiety attack and she feels what I feel when I'm triggered by something that reminds me of the traumas I've suffered in my personal life. She does her best to ignore and suppress what she is feeling because that is what I tend to do when I'm at my lowest.
By saying my portrayal is wrong is essentially saying that what I feel is wrong. I've ignored a lot of these comments, because I didn't feel like I should be judging someone's opinion. But that's what I feel some of these readers have been doing to me. You are, by all means, entitled to think what you want. But please try to remember that this is a sensitive subject matter. And while I'm trying to shed some light on it, I'm being shut down by some because what I have written does not meet everyone's expectations.
So next time, instead of telling me I'm wrong, just don't read my book. I'm okay with that. I won't take it personally. But words hurt. Especially those that are telling me what I feel is not right.
Lots of love,
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