Remember in high school when your reputation meant everything? Maybe you had a reputation you didn’t know about or one you didn’t deserve. Like the teen everyone is calling a slut, because some guy spread a rumor that she’s easy (How can you tell I read Anna and the French Kiss this weekend???)
In high school, I was incredibly shy. If a guy spoke to me, I’d come close to fainting (sad, huh?). It wasn’t until I was in university that I discovered people thought I was cold and self-absorbed in high school (I think that’s what the guy told me, right before he ask me out on a date!!!!).
These days our reputation means everything to us writers. Thanks to social networking, you do something and the news of it spreads faster than a grass fire in a strong wind. And like what happened to me in high school, you might not even be aware your reputation is tanking. Last year I wrote a post about a nameless individual. It was amazing how many people knew who I was talking about. Not good news for that individual.
I’m currently in an online writing course that was the inspiration for my post on broken promises last week. Turns out, even beyond the class, the instructor has a bad reputation. Wish I had known about that. After what happened in her first course, I gave her a second chance. I thought she was going to improve. *tattoos naïve on forehead* She didn’t.
While some people don’t seem to give a damn about their reputation (or don’t try to do anything to improve it), there are some writers who do what they can to make the world a shiny place. They don’t do things to benefit themselves. They do it to benefit charities, teens, kids, or other writers. They love to pay it forward.
So, what can you do about your reputation? Now’s the time to determine how you want people to perceive you, then make sure you do what you need to do to gain (or maintain) that reputation. It’s a lot easier to build a good reputation than it is to repair a damaged one. Just ask Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Lindsay Lohan.
Which kind of reputation do you want? Have you given much thought to how other people perceive you?
(I wanted to list all the wonderful writers/authors/bloggers that deserved their awesome reputation, but that made for one very long post, I’m happy to say. But if you know someone you would love to mention, please do so in the comments). :)