Why You Don’t Have to Listen to the Critics

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

As a writer, or any type of person who creates, there is no way to escape criticism. No matter how open-minded or mature you consider yourself to be, no one likes to be criticized. When you pour your heart, soul, and energy into your work, you do not want to have it picked apart.

Your work is sometimes called your baby, after all.

Somewhere back in English class, we learned that criticism can be constructive or unconstructive. Constructive criticism is helpful. It’s specific, and it gives you the feedback and suggestions you can use to improve. Unconstructive criticism, on the other hand, is unhelpful. It’s vague, subjective, and does not give us any feedback for improvement. It’s best to ignore unconstructive criticism because it’s pretty pointless.

Sometimes, unfortunately, the criticism is directed towards us, and it can feel like a personal attack. This type of criticism labels you, not just your work, as bad, incompetent, or not good enough, and it can rob you of your confidence in your abilities.

You can say that any person who gives you feedback is a critic. In fact, one definition of a critic is a person who judges the merits of literary, artistic, or musical works, especially one who does so professionally. Another definition of a critic is a person who expresses an unfavorable…