Holbrook
February 18th, 2004, 02:36 AM
“I am published; therefore I am an author and know better.” No you don’t. Okay, you might be better at grammar than me; and your idea might have caught the eye of an agent/publisher. But know better? That’s the ego talking.
It doesn’t mean you know better, it means you have got a break. It means you are one step further up the ladder. Yes, I would like to hear your opinion of my work, but would you accept my honest opinion of yours? You are published, the work is out in the public domain; therefore you have to accept negative critiques as well as positive. Being published does not protect you from someone thinking you work is crap and it shouldn’t.
To believe that because you are published everything you write is wonderful is fooling yourself as well as trying to fool others.
No matter what you write, whether published in the traditional manner, a short story on a forum to an essay in class, you are a writer. You have had the courage to put down the words in your head. You have had the courage to put it in a place where others can read it. Therefore you should have the courage to accept criticism, even the most negative kind. The sort that kicks your legs from under you and makes you think of giving up.
You might scream and cry when you read the comments, hate the writer of them, but in the end what’s the real reason for your reaction? “Ego” plain and simple, you don’t like to think that your writing is anything less than the “best”
If you want to improve, want get better, and to be honest we all do want to get better, ditch the ego, or put a muzzle on it. Accept the bad and the good with equal grace and in the end you can reject what you feel is not “right” for your work. The main and important thing is that you have not dismissed the comments outright.
There is something worse than the negative comments, which tear your work apart. It’s the “you are wonderful,” “That was super” comments all the time. At first you think, great, I am getting it right. Then after a while you think, but I know that second paragraph stinks, can’t they see it? Did they actually read the work? Are they afraid I can’t take criticism? You then ask why are they doing this? Because they are a friend and don’t want to hurt your feelings? Possible, but to be honest a good friend will tell you when you are crap. It also leaves you with the sick feeling, can I honestly comment on their work now? Will any negative comment be seen as an attack or you not being “supportive”
Snobbery doesn’t only come from the top, i.e. the “published” it comes from any, comments like “I tell stories, I don’t need to be published I write for my family, friends and myself. “ All writers write for themselves, all writers share their work with their family and friends. If you are putting your work out on paper, on a forum, or in any form for others to see, you are published. You are doing it for the same reason “published” authors are doing it. You want others to read the work. Plain and simple. To give yourself airs and graces when you are producing work for the purpose of being read, you are only stroking your ego.
To not even admit this is partly behind placing your work in “public” is only fooling and hurting yourself. You want the praise; you want people to like it. Yet to deny the fact that some might not like everything, might want to comment on the work; might actually think what you have written is crap, is in the end only going to hurt you even more. Because there will come a cold dawn, when you find that all you have are empty phrases of praise that mean nothing.
If some one has actually taken the time to read your work, think on it and comment, even the most negative. It means they have taken you seriously, taken the time to tell you what they think is wrong, what they think you could improve. In a strange way that is, in my opinion more of a compliment to you as a writer, than a hundred “you are wonderful darling”
It doesn’t mean you know better, it means you have got a break. It means you are one step further up the ladder. Yes, I would like to hear your opinion of my work, but would you accept my honest opinion of yours? You are published, the work is out in the public domain; therefore you have to accept negative critiques as well as positive. Being published does not protect you from someone thinking you work is crap and it shouldn’t.
To believe that because you are published everything you write is wonderful is fooling yourself as well as trying to fool others.
No matter what you write, whether published in the traditional manner, a short story on a forum to an essay in class, you are a writer. You have had the courage to put down the words in your head. You have had the courage to put it in a place where others can read it. Therefore you should have the courage to accept criticism, even the most negative kind. The sort that kicks your legs from under you and makes you think of giving up.
You might scream and cry when you read the comments, hate the writer of them, but in the end what’s the real reason for your reaction? “Ego” plain and simple, you don’t like to think that your writing is anything less than the “best”
If you want to improve, want get better, and to be honest we all do want to get better, ditch the ego, or put a muzzle on it. Accept the bad and the good with equal grace and in the end you can reject what you feel is not “right” for your work. The main and important thing is that you have not dismissed the comments outright.
There is something worse than the negative comments, which tear your work apart. It’s the “you are wonderful,” “That was super” comments all the time. At first you think, great, I am getting it right. Then after a while you think, but I know that second paragraph stinks, can’t they see it? Did they actually read the work? Are they afraid I can’t take criticism? You then ask why are they doing this? Because they are a friend and don’t want to hurt your feelings? Possible, but to be honest a good friend will tell you when you are crap. It also leaves you with the sick feeling, can I honestly comment on their work now? Will any negative comment be seen as an attack or you not being “supportive”
Snobbery doesn’t only come from the top, i.e. the “published” it comes from any, comments like “I tell stories, I don’t need to be published I write for my family, friends and myself. “ All writers write for themselves, all writers share their work with their family and friends. If you are putting your work out on paper, on a forum, or in any form for others to see, you are published. You are doing it for the same reason “published” authors are doing it. You want others to read the work. Plain and simple. To give yourself airs and graces when you are producing work for the purpose of being read, you are only stroking your ego.
To not even admit this is partly behind placing your work in “public” is only fooling and hurting yourself. You want the praise; you want people to like it. Yet to deny the fact that some might not like everything, might want to comment on the work; might actually think what you have written is crap, is in the end only going to hurt you even more. Because there will come a cold dawn, when you find that all you have are empty phrases of praise that mean nothing.
If some one has actually taken the time to read your work, think on it and comment, even the most negative. It means they have taken you seriously, taken the time to tell you what they think is wrong, what they think you could improve. In a strange way that is, in my opinion more of a compliment to you as a writer, than a hundred “you are wonderful darling”