Anyone in any creative field eventually receives feedback that is hard to hear. Not everyone will like your work, be it visual arts, music, theatre arts or writing. Bad reviews are not such a problem when they're  someone’s personal opinion—no worries, they just don’t like it. It’s not their thing—but when they critique your craftsmanship, you’re likely to feel it as a punch in the gut, especially if you’ve done your best to make sure your work is the best it can be. For most people, the first reaction is to be defensive. Because art is such a subjective field, we can always say that we have done something for which we’ve been criticised for a creative reason. In writing, we would say that it is a matter of style, or voice. This can be the case, but unless we have a full understanding of the point seen to be lacking and have a good reason for why we’ve ignored what is considered good technique, we’re likely to be saying it out of defensiveness. If that is the case, then no matter how … [Read more...]