Dealing with criticism as a writer can be difficult, mainly because your work is a piece of you. So when that work is criticized, it can feel like a personal attack on you. Even constructive criticism can be hard to handle.

Recently I completed a first draft of my first fiction novel. I received the same advice from a few individuals, if I wanted to be picked up by a literary agent then I needed to have the book edited first! Even though deep down I knew this was the right thing to do, I had one major concern with doing so. I knew the book wasn’t perfect and I wasn’t sure I could handle the criticism I was about to get, even if it was constructive.

But I did it anyways, I sucked it up and sent out my book to be reviewed.

The result? I did receive a great deal of constructive criticism back but I realized it was just that- constructive. I tried my best to push my feelings aside and realized how much credit there was to the criticism. I realize now it has made my writing better. This after all is our goal, to write well enough to become best selling authors.

So my advice, take constructive criticism and run with it.

As a note of caution, sometimes criticism is not always deserving of your attention. If you do happen to receive criticism that is not constructive, i.e. people are being rude because they’re jealous or could never attempt to do what you are doing. Ignore them, non-constructive criticism is not worth your time.