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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Criticism - How do you handle it?

Writer's Digest has a story "Surviving the Spite" written by Melissa Hart, a journalism teacher at the University of Oregon. You can read it here.

I met Melissa at a SCBWI writer's conference in Portland. She is such a friendly person it's hard to imagine someone being so critical of her. But I guess being in the public eye has its drawbacks.

I haven't experienced such criticism from the public - maybe I should be glad I'm not a celebrity. It's normal to want people to like us; so, it's no surprise that it would be hard to take such open hostility. I just try to remember what my Mom taught me all those years ago, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never harm me."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's funny, I was just reading a For Better or For Worse collection, where Michael was called a name and Elly told him the sticks and stone adages, and Michael said, "But the words DO hurt," or something like that--I think it must be hard to center yourself in the face of criticism, which is why I always think it's good to have a support system around. Great entry, Kim!

Kimbra Kasch said...

Thanks for stopping by. I'll have to go check out the For Better or For Worse collection now.

Anonymous said...

interesting article. i sometimes read reviews of books that i didn't particularly care for and am really taken aback at some of the scathing comments. i guess we writers definitely have to have tough skin.

also, i wanted to say thank you so much for the message on the blue board about getting an agent! i really appreciate it. (i couldn't respond to you on there because i don't yet have 50 posts.)

Kimbra Kasch said...

Roxy: Thanks for stopping by.

We writers have to team up together to make it in this very competitive world of writing. We get so much rejection - it's nice to have a few friends - even if it's only in cyberspace.

:)