Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Everyone's a critic

Is there anything more difficult to take than criticism? I have never thought of myself as a genius - far, far from it. I am not even sure that I am an especially original thinker. But I guess I would say that I know stuff about what I know stuff about. I have just received back two reviewers' reports on an article I submitted to a journal. Ouch! One report was bearable - lots of 'constructive' criticism which I try hard to take on the chin - but the other? Ow, ow, ow. Me - a writer? No, not me. Never claimed to be...did I? I think I'll just go and hide in the cupboard for a little while...

How do you deal with criticism?

5 comments:

T. said...

Professional, I hope. At least, thats what I was trained for while studies.

Take the Slap but don`t be hurt, this is not about you, just about your work! Learn to separate that. Look it over, see what is there to improve, then go on.

Still ask yourself why you should listen to this special person. Is it a pro in this subject who earned himself respect or is it just some asshole from the crowd, happy to be hurtfull?

Feronia said...

Thanks Sefarina :) You're so right - take away anything that's useful and leave the crappy comments alone. It was really useful to write about this here, actually. I am feeling better about it already.

Diana Kennedy said...

The ability of separating the work from oneself, as Sefarina said, can be difficult to acquire. It took me years to deal with criticism but I finally got to the point where I just pick out the useful hints and forget the unjustified crap.
The problem is, that for whatever reason, the "asshole from the crowd" can be in a position of a respected reviewer and there, blame you for having written a bad Western - when, in fact, you wrote a Si-Fi Drama

Bodecea said...

Take good advices to improve yourself and ignore the rest. I have found out the more I am sure about the quality of my work, the less I am hidden by critic.

That's my theory! ;-)

Bodecea

Feronia said...

@ Diana -

Thanks :) I love your e.g. - it's true, the reviewer was looking for things that I made clear I would not be including!

@ Bodecea -

Thanks :) Yes - self-confidence, that's the way to go.