Contributed byDeb
Hockenberry
We
all know about the movie vampires that suck your blood only to have you join
the undead. We also know that there are such things as vampire bats that use
blood for food. These live primarily in South America. But guess what? VAMPIRES
DO EXIST AND THEY DON’T LOOK LIKE BELA LUGOSI!
Yes,
they are real and they live in every aspect of our society. Now bear with me
here. This article does have to do with writing.
These
vampires are known by a few different names: The psychic, the emotional, and
the energy vampire.
How
can you tell if you’ve been around them? It’s easy. Every one of us has been
around that friend or coworker who makes us feel drained or suddenly tired. He
or she is a psychic/emotional/energy vampire. In some cases, the person might
not even know that they’re a vampire. Heck, you might be one and not know it!
This does happen.
There
are signs though. The psychic/emotional/energy vampire has the attitude that
his/her needs are more important than anyone else’s. They feel that society’s
rules (or any rules) don’t apply to them and nothing is ever his/her fault. No
way! Oh, the vampire also has the attitude of, “I want it now and if I don’t
get it I’ll throw a tantrum!”
How
do you get rid of them? This might be trickier. Attend writing conferences. Do
you like crafts or fishing? Attend these types of events. The thing here is to
be around upbeat people with the same interests as you. Control your emotions.
Don’t let your anger or frustration at the vampire show.
He/she feeds off these
emotions thus leaving you feel drained. Exercise daily. This makes you
physically feel good making it hard for the vampire to feed off you.
This
reminds me of the Dementors in the Harry Potter books. Remember how they made
you feel as if there were no happiness left in the world when they were around?
As
I said before, these vampires invade every part of our society. Even our
writing physical and online critique groups.
These
critique group vampires are attention seekers who’s egos constantly have to be
stroked. They are very touchy about the feedback the get on a submission and
they don’t actually want to learn the craft of writing. They want to turn in a
load of junk and have the other members fix it for them. They don’t have ideas
of their own. These people are arrogant. They believe that writing is
automatically coded into their DNA.
Now
what do we do about the critique group vampire? My first suggestion is the same
as the first one above. Attend writing conferences. The Muse Online Writer’s
Conference and PiMoIdMo are two good online conferences. You can check out our
events page for some good physical conferences to attend. Attend any other
gathering that has to do with what interests you. It might be genealogy,
knitting, woodworking, fishing, sports…. Well, you get the idea. The critique
group vampire does not want to further himself. He/she wants to ride the
coat-tails of others so, no matter what you may try, don’t enable him/her.
How
do we rid ourselves without hurting their feelings? I have to be perfectly
honest here. I don’t know except to try out another critique group where all
the members are open to a good critique.
Now
you know vampires do exist. None of them wear tuxedoes or say, “Let me suck
your blood!”
Sources:
About Deb
Hockenberry
Deb Hockenberry
has always wanted to write for children since she was a child herself. She
remembers sitting on the front porch telling stories to her siblings and
friends. She has taken two courses from the Institute of Children’s Literature.
Deb also takes the ongoing online workshop at the Children’s Book Insider, as
well as other online courses. You can find Deb at several places on the web:
@debhockenberry
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Brian Feinblum’s
views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of
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him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in
the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014
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