An Open Letter to the Participants in the June WEP Story Competition

Image copyright Pexels on Pixabay

I want to thank everyone for their recent comments and I will try and make sure that I visit all of the blogs on the list. I have had an extremely bad month. I don't take criticism well in any case. I am one of those people who never reads reviews of my work because I can get nine positive reviews and one bad one, and the bad one is the one that sticks with me. I then become intolerable to live with. It's better for my family that I don't read my reviews.

Nobody who has responded to this piece has been unnecessarily cruel or even harsh. I just feel like maybe for this particular competition, vampires are a subject which is really polarizing. I was kind of surprised because I tend to write about the paranormal, and the last piece I wrote featured a ghost/angel and it didn't raise anyone's hackles nearly as much as this one.

I know I'm not a great writer. I'm not even setting out with the intent to be a great writer. I like to write cheesy, over-the-top stories about the supernatural. My biggest influences are authors such as Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King. I was also strongly influenced by the original Twilight Zone series.

I don't always respond this badly to "constructive criticism." I do have rapid cycling type 2 bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, so I tend to be more sensitive than the average bear. 

Marsha Linehan, an American psychologist and author, uses a great analogy to describe what Borderline Personality Disorder.

”People with BPD are like people with third-degree burns over 90 percent of their body. Lacking emotional skin, they feel agony at the slightest touch or movement”.

There is an excellent post about the "burn of borderline personality disorder" here.

https://beautyandtheborderline.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/the-burn-of-borderline-personality-disorder/

There is a misconception that people with borderline personality disorder all act out in very overt ways, which isn't true. I'm an extremely introverted person and if I wasn't a large person with a mop of very thick and vivid hair on my head, no-one would ever notice me. The truth is that most people living with psychiatric issues suffer in silence. Most of us don't want to cause any trouble because we're tired of being stigmatized and victimized.

There are those who would say that people like me simply shouldn't participate in activities like this. I say that isn't true.

Sometimes my emotional skin is a little thicker than it's been this month. This has been a rather difficult year so far. 

One thing's for sure, though. Vampires are off the table with future WEP challenges. Because, yikes!

~Cie Has Vomited Words~