| Message | I think we would all agree that in some place of our hearts, even if it is one so slight and obscure, we would all like to consider ourselves writers. To be able to say "I am a writer." To use it as means of identification. However, if we’d like to be able to legitimately say such things, I think we should start by recognizing that there’s one thing that all writers must be able to do: accept criticism.
The resentment to criticism, the unwillingness to change, is a characteristic that simply cannot exist in the writer. If the greats considered everything that they wrote a masterpiece, would we even have greats at all? Hemingway specifically had many pieces that he considered nowhere near worthy of publication. So, what makes us think that we’re any better?
This is a website that exists on the concept of feedback, the good, and the bad. As writers, we are not rich. If we were, we most likely wouldn’t be submitting our work to a website for the review of others, because, well, we’d be published.
Beggars can’t be choosers.
What I’m getting at here is that if someone gives you a critique that is negative, realize that they’re not attempting to slash your jugular. They’re attempting to help you. And if you’re someone who thinks that receiving a critique is an opportunity for some sort of literary ping-pong match in which you attempt to justify your writing through whatever means possible, I think you’re on the wrong website.
Moreover, on this website, I rarely, if ever, see a negative critique to begin with. Why is that? Are we so afraid of offending people that we’re going to let their writing suffer as a consequence? Are we that obsessed with niceties, or, far worse, political correctness?
Guys, writing isn’t a "nice" business. Rejection is part of the game. But if you think that, from a writing perspective, a critique doesn’t hold water, ignore it. Yet don’t be so quick to dismiss it. They won’t come often, and they’re far more valuable than any compliment you’re ever going to get will ever be. If you’re looking for praise, say so. The ’Praise it!" specification is there for a reason. But good God, if you’re going to take a negative comment, which, by the way, someone STILL took the time to write, as a knife to the heart, I’m afraid that writing isn’t for you.
If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. |
