How Do You Handle Tough Critiques

There was a wave of these articles floating around over the weekend. All dealt with critiques and how you handle tough critiques.

Sorry to say to say this, but "suck it up buttercup!!!!"

Every post I read talked about how you are a great writer and these people didn't know anything. They rambled on and on about how clearly the reviewer didn't understand your true genius.

Now let me say first, yes, this does happen. But, as someone who had done reviews, sometimes this is not the case and your writing might not be that good.

Remember, you as an author are one of the variables in the equation. Consider the following:

• You wrote the story (you thought it was good but....)
• You sent the story in (your decision, not someone else)
• You have some random reviewer reading your story (do they even like your genre or line?)

I hate to break this to you, but it is, 9 times out of 10, on your shoulders.

So, how do you deal with a tough critique?

1. Examine your writing with an open mind and recognize that you might have bad writing, or, at least, that story is bad. This means fix the problem.
2. You submitted it to someone who never likes that story style so don't submit it again.
3. You do have some issues so grow up, learn how to fix issues and suck it up.

The thing is, you are a professional author. You are a PUBLIC FIGURE and what you put out there and do publicly WILL BE JUDGED!

YOU need to control that/

I would also add, if you cannot handle criticism you have two choices:

1. GET A THICKER SKIN AND LEARN
2. LEAVE THIS AND GO BACK TO THE WORLD OF EVERYONE GETTING A PARTICIPATION RIBBON