But anyway, my first response was to send him a nasty tweet-and tweet I did. I won't share what I said here, but it was very snarky and rude-just like his initial tweet. I felt vindicated after I hit the "Tweet" button, but less than twenty minutes later, I deleted it.
Why?
Because I realized that responding with a mean tweet just because he sent out a mean tweet didn't make me any better than him. Sure, it made me feel better, but at the end of the day, people who read that tweet think I'm just as bad as he is, and, quite frankly, sinking to that level did indeed make me no better than him.
Whether it's the easy way (on a Twitter account that nobody reads) or the hard way (on a busy author page), every writer has to figure out that fighting fire with fire only burns you. Not everyone's going to like your writing, and not everyone's going to be nice about it, either. Is it cool that people are mean to authors just because they can be? No, but that's just how it is. I've seen authors try to fight this in review comments, but the truth is, it only made themselves look just as bad as the original poster. There are actions to take if someone is being unnecessarily mean, but sometimes we just need to learn to close our eyes, count to ten, and move on.
Take a lesson from my mistake. Stay classy, procrastinators.
T
If any of you are upset by Jim Rome's comments, please sign this petition asking CBS Sports to air Drum Corps' Internationals' Finals on TV. I signed it.