Accepting Criticism is a natural part of life. For most of us, it's not always the simplest thing to do. We are invested in our work. We spent time on it, and in a lot of ways we feel it's a reflection on who we are. When someone criticizes my work, I might feel like they are criticizing me as a person!
In order to make my point, I'm going to recite an example. Right off the bat, I wanted to say that I received more than a little bit of this idea from a blog post written by Limyaael, which I will include in the link on the side. Mimicke referred me to this interesting blog, so my chapter is dedicated to her. I have rewritten this parable to make it more applicable to Wattpad.
The story starts a little like this. April is a young thirteen year old girl who recently discovered that her passion in life is writing. Maybe she wrote a little bit in her notebook and shared it with all of her thirteen year old friends, whom just LOVED it. This motivated her to start writing even more. She wanted to be an awesome writer. She wanted to be the next Stephanie Meyer. However, she was going to be different, because she was going to write about werewolves, not vampires.
It was more than that though. Her idea was truly unique. She was going to write about REAL werewolves. Her idea was SO unique because her protagonist would not fall in love with the Alpha, but the Alpha's brother. This creates a love triangle that is totally unique to her story. It was going to be awesome. She was going to write this, and girls around the world would associate her name with supernatural werewolf romance.
So she writes her first chapter, about two wattpad pages long, and posts it on wattpad because she hears that is the thing to do. She doesn't get any stars in a week. She gets a little fussy that no one is looking at her work, so she posts on the forums begging for reads. She gets a few reads, but still no stars. Why are people reading her book and not staring it! Where are the comments? So she begs a bunch of people for critiques, and offers payment to get them to look at her work.
The critics all answer with "It's great! I love you story!" or "Keep up the good work. You use your words so well!" Now, April knows she is on track. It's time to write more. So she pops out another chapter two pages long. She starts getting a star or two, and another comment. "OMG, I LOVE THIS, RITE MORE!!!"
She puts out a third chapter. It's her most ambitious yet, six pages long. Wow, April is AWESOME!!! Then two comments show up under her work.
Comment 1: "This story is really cliché. I've read a werewolf love triangle about six times this week. You need to come up with something original and fresh. You're spelling and grammar is alright for your age, but you will improve as you go. The werewolf doesn't make any sense. You say he can only change when there is a full moon, but then you have him changing during the day at one point. Then at some point you claim the alpha is in love with the protagonist, but then all he does is treat her bad. Plus, where are her parents in all this? She's like a 15 year old girl; her parents should be around somewhere?
And then Comment 2: "This is just awful. You write like a little kid. Your story is infantile. Seriously, just quit writing. You're awful."
These are both from people she doesn't know. She didn't ask them or pay them for a critique.
So she becomes upset, running off to her mom in tears. Her mother assures her that they are just jealous of her talent and that her stories are wonderful. The fact that mom never read them is negligible.
April runs back to the computer and gets on. She responds to the first commenter with.
"My story IS original; it gets a lot better as the story continues. You just haven't gotten to the good part yet. The full moon doesn't have to be out; it's just that time of month that they can change. My friends like this story; it's not cliché at all. And it's Your, not You're, thank you very much."
And to the second commenter.
"If u don't like it, don't read it. Also, u suck."
She then goes on to write a 4th chapter. The protagonist and the beta meet and it is love at first sight. It was a fairy tale meeting, clearly her best writing yet. She gets a third comment from a new person she doesn't recognize.
"Why do they fall in love just like that? The Alpha is all over her; wouldn't the brother already be avoiding her? Plus, all she has done since the first chapter is whine and cry about how miserable her life is because she has to be with the Alpha. She's so irritating."
At this point, April tears down her post, putting up a tearful "I stopped riting cause peple sad they hate it, u can't make fun of peoples riting like that, that is so mean. I'm never going to be a riter now, u happy?"
So, what went wrong? Was it the second commenter's fault for clearly being a rude troll? The third for not putting it very politely? The first for not encouraging her more? Was it mom's fault for not offering her daughter realistic expectations? How about all of the fake critics who gave her positive critiques in exchange for a generic comment on their book?
In the end, the one person at fault here is none other than April. April didn't take criticism properly. Critiques 1 + 3 honestly offered legitimate criticisms. Even Critique 2 had a little bit of truth snuck into the awfully rude response.
Now, don't get "taking criticism" confused with "using criticism". Just because someone tells you something is wrong or you should fix it does not mean you agree with them. However, you can't just ignore all of the criticism you receive. You need to accept it, and see how it might be able to help you. When you receive a LOT of criticism on the same area, say weak spelling and grammar, at some point you need to accept that one person can be a fluke, but four or five people means you have a problem.
So what was April's main fault? She stopped writing! She didn't want to be a writer hard enough. She gave up too easily. Writing is a field where you are creating something. As soon as you create it, and definitely when you put it out for others to see, it becomes public domain. Others have the right to view it, critique it, and criticize it for as long as you leave it public. That is the cost of being a writer. Your writing will be judged.
April is only 13 years old. Maybe, somewhere, there is a savant that can write wonderful pieces of art in their teens. Chances are, you are not one of them. Expect your stuff to be clichéd and awful. Expect your stuff to need work. You NEED to improve. You will always improve. And if you really want to be a writer, you'll be improving for the better part of the rest of your life.
Don't expect to have the best story ever in your teens. It will take years to refine and perfect a work, and even then, your story might not be anything better than mediocre. Embrace it. Embrace the criticism. Learn from it. Become a better writer, like you set out to become. Even if you do become a success, even if you do get a million follows, and a million stars, and your book featured on wattpad, know that you STILL can improve. That is what accepting criticism is all about.
wSliy'