Your Professional Face–What Does it Mean to You?

This month’s RWR (the Romance Writing Report, monthly newsletter of RWA) includes a terrific article on the need for authors to conduct themselves professionally both online and in the real world. The timing of this article couldn’t have been more auspicious for me.

I’m often amazed when writers allow emotions to overrule common sense. We’ve all seen the blog posts of authors-behaving-badly. Some of us have probably snickered and thought we could never be caught up in such drama. But by our very nature, romance writers revel in emotions. It’s only natural that those emotions spill over into our personal and professional lives. Unfortunately, once you’ve hit that “Send” button, you have no control over where your words go. And sometimes, a momentary satisfaction can result in a loss of credibility, respect, and/or that carefully coiffed veneer you’ve promoted in face to face meetings and online correspondence.

Experts advise when dealing with those petty annoyances about someone else, try to never put in writing what you wouldn’t say in person. Well, you can put your thoughts in writing. But in a proactive way instead of self-destructing.

Rather than indulging a need to have your say or gain a little revenge against a rival, write whatever you want in a Word document or notebook. Put all those emotions on paper or on your monitor. When you’re finished and feeling cleansed, rip up the paper or “X” out of the document.

Your career will benefit in the long run.

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