How to Deal With Negative Criticism of Your Work

11th March 2020

Whether you encounter a negative nelly or a troll there are ways to survive as a writer.

The reason that I enjoy being part of the writing community is the lack of trolling. Sure there are trolls, but statistically, these are few and far between. I may have been lucky in my writing, but I find that I rarely get negative responses from people. Writers seem to have a respect for each other, that stops them acting cruelly.

When you put yourself on the internet though, you should expect some criticism. I am not advocating that this is right, but negative criticism is part of the job, you have to learn to work with. Since becoming a blogger I have received one outright troll response to an article. That doesn’t mean I haven’t received any negative comments, because I have.

I think it is important to clarify what I refer to as a troll. A troll is a person who attacks the writer without provocation. A person who will keep attacking them no matter what they write. I do not put those that post negative comments on posts into the category. Although, it is a very thin line. Those that start with a negative comment may soon develop into a troll, but not always.

When I first started writing on Medium I wrote a poem about poverty. How unfair it was that we sit with plates piled high with food, whilst others starve to death. The poem received some brilliant feedback. Then I spotted one comment that made me think, ‘what the hell.’ The comment said that the picture wasn’t very accurate, I had used one which showed well-fed children. I ignored it and put it down to a troll.

A couple of weeks later, another comment was received from the same woman. In this, she stated how much she had enjoyed my article. In the end, it turned out that she wasn’t a troll, she had spoken her mind about the picture. If I had behaved negatively to her, she would have never read any of my articles. I would have lost a follower. To lose…

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