FORMULATING A PROFESSIONAL RESPONSE TO CRITICISM
It happens to all of us who create things that we then launch out into the world in the hopes of finding an audience. We sweat and bleed for our art, struggle with the fact that nothing we ever do achieves the perfection we want it to, and then wait, trembling, for the verdict of our public… and our public can be HARSH!
And when the harsh or unfair criticism comes our way, it hurts like hell – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Especially if the criticism is particularly stupid and unfair, or, worse, provided by a professional troll that gets their kicks from providing “joke” reviews of other people’s work.
No amount of telling yourself “this is what I signed up for” makes it any easier to take. Most of the time, as creators, we are met with a discouraging wall of silence. We’re left wondering “Do people like what I’m doing?”, “Do they even know?”, “Yep, I’m getting plenty of downloads. But what does it mean?”. And then we’ll finally see someone’s added something in the comments or reviews. But our excitement turns to shock when they criticise our post-apocalyptic story for its poor characterisation of artificial intelligence when we’ve NEVER actually included an artificial intelligence in our story.
The temptation is to set the story straight, to correct the misapprehension or misrepresentation about our work, to mock and belittle the poster for their obvious stupidity, and perhaps even publicly shame them – after all, they came after our work publicly, didn’t they? Yep, the temptation can be really strong.
There are a thousand reasons why we’d be justified in doing just that, but there is one overriding reason why we NEVER should; it’s NEVER EVER a good look.
Seriously, going after our fans, criticising them for the long silences, explaining our intentions whenever we have been misunderstood, defending ourselves against false comments, berating our audience for a perceived lack of support (financial or otherwise), and/or any of the above (and many more besides), only ever makes US look bad.
When we respond defensively to criticism (even unfair criticism) we only ever lose. We look like whingers and sooks. We look thin-skinned. We look petty. And, dare I say it, we look unprofessional.
Yes, it’s completely unfair. But that doesn’t change how it looks.
I’ve had some utterly horrible comments and emails from “fans” over time. I’ve had some nice comments as well, and plenty of constructive criticism too, but such messages are rarely as memorable as the horrible ones. Some have been so egregiously unfair as to leave me wondering if the scripts were actually even read before the comments were posted. I have been accused of being a “social justice warrior and apologist for the left”, a “culture warrior and crypto-fascist apologist for the right”, a “misogynist”, a “feminazi”, an “example of politically correct culture run amok”, and an “enemy of disabled people everywhere”. And all while telling, what I thought, were fairly innocuous little stories about giant albino alligators, pulp adventurers, occult detectives, goblins, ghosts, zombie cowboys, and alien warfare. Despite this I have managed, thus far, to avoid responding in anger.
Here are some of the things I keep in mind regarding my work…
Silence is support
At the very least, silence is not negative. If people are visiting my content and downloading it, that’s not nothing. Most people who enjoy a piece of entertainment (the vast majority in fact) don’t stop and drop the author a line to encourage them. If they like it they come back (repeat visits and downloads are the best guides to popularity). Silence should never be viewed negatively.
Criticism represents one opinion only
A critical comment represents the thoughts of just one (and only one) person in your audience. That isn’t to say that other audience members may not feel the same way (they might) but the only evidence you have of that is the comment in front of you and that comment only gives you access to the thoughts of one individual. Anything else is just speculation.
Criticism ALWAYS presents us with a learning opportunity
Even the craziest criticisms I have ever received provide a learning opportunity for me, if only in so far as they force me to evaluate what I’m doing once more. I have to actively force myself to ask the question “is there something here that I need to hear?” It can be way too easy to dismiss even the “knucklehead” stuff because my feelings have been hurt. The act of thinking about the criticism and forcing myself to take it seriously (even when it’s, on first blush, nuts) is valuable even when I ultimately reject it. Why? Because, by thinking it through, I get a stronger sense of the real merits (or otherwise) of my work. If the criticism is unfounded, I at least know why and feel secure in rejecting it. If the criticism has merit, then I’ve learned something and my writing profits by it.
Always thank the detractors
I know this sounds totally counter-intuitive, but I learned it from the example of the late Harlan Ellison. I’m not a huge fan of Mr Ellison’s real-life escapades but I have to hand it to him regarding this. A few years back he was giving a talk at a science fiction convention. An older couple in the back was finding the content a little confronting and chose to walk out. Ellison’s response? “Thanks for visiting. I’m sorry it wasn’t what you were looking for”.
That response was all class. It’s hard to imagine how you could possibly make a bad impression responding like that. We’d all look much more professional if we did likewise.
There are always going to be those to whom our work doesn’t appeal. Some of them, because we didn’t write a family drama, a romance, a thriller, or whatever type of story appeals to them personally, will think our work is necessarily bad. That’s going to happen. Some people won’t like our work and will provide the oddest of reasons for it. Some people will be civil. Some won’t. We won’t always be liked and some people will be quite vocal about why. Hurtful as it is, that’s ultimately their right. We cannot control what other people do or think or communicate about our work. We can only control how we respond…
And some responses are far more professional than others.
This article is © 2017 by Philip Craig Robotham – all rights reserved.
