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Remembering this incident helps to stay my hand when I have the urge (as we all sometimes do) to gratuitously & self-righteously mean-tweet. The writer being bashed here was in a novel workshop I took a few years ago. 1/
She was intelligent, enthusiastic, kind, & working her ass off to bring her novel into the world. She spent hours of her free time encouraging other writers in their work. Then, one morning, she did a thoughtless and racist thing with a mean-tweet. 2/
The tweet was indefensible. It was punching down. It jeopardized another person’s livelihood. I don’t know if the writer was aware of that, or what her state of mind was; I had to drop out of the workshop group a couple of years back, & haven’t been in touch. 3/
The incident was picked up by local media, and went viral. The contract for distribution of the writer’s first book was dropped. I think that was a fair consequence of her actions. I don’t think she’ll even get a settlement in her attempt to sue the distributor. Also fair. 4/
I also know from mutual friends that the comments on her behavior & character on social media are affecting her mental health. I wish she’d stop giving the world more ammo; she’s doing a pretty good job of shooting herself in the foot w/o anyone else’s help. 5/
Anyway, the story’s instructive for emerging writers. The old Navy saying holds so true: “One awshit is worth a thousand attaboys.” Don’t mean-tweet. Don’t punch down (and educate yourself on what that means before you open your social media account). 6/
Err on the side of kindness. The thousand attaboys this writer needs to cancel that one awshit probably can’t be earned in a lifetime. The story of her bad behavior will never fade into the past; it will be hanging out there in the cloud forever. 7/
She’ll probably never be able to publish under her own name, if at all. I’m not interested in arguing the justice or injustice of the consequences; people split into two camps on that along predictable lines. More discussion won’t change that; only heart-work can, & we have to 8/
decide for ourselves if we’re ready to do that kind of heart-work. And that’s a journey, not a destination. Fellow writers, this story is one to stop and consider as we do the other heart-work, the kind that informs our writing. 10/end
