Often the voice of criticism comes from ourselves. The thought of quitting because you aren’t good enough or the voice saying your art sucks is a great battle to fight but that’s not what this post is about.
This post is about handling outside criticism. Let’s say you published your poem, uploaded your children’s book, showcased your adult fantasy novel or posted your video of you singing your favorite song on the YouTubes. Most of the time the comments are positive, or they have been in my experience, but a comment here or there really gets under your skin.
It was a negative comment on how this sucks or how so-and-so does it better. I’m my experience these comments cut a little deeper than your own self-consciousness. They may not necessarily come from a place of negativity so you have to determine how to handle it.
The best advice I can give to negative comments is first see if there is any merit to the conversation. Is it a valid piece of criticism? If yes, see where you can apply this criticism to your art. If not, then simply bypass the comment and move on. The most important lesson here is NEVER engage negativity when you’re angry.
The moment you react in anger you insta-lose. Always. The people that give you negative criticism are the loudest group but also the smallest. The critical message here is those that support you make up a silent majority. That’s who you make your art for and they are the ones who cannot wait for your next project to be published. Never forget that.
Author J.M. Topp 