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Any tips for dealing with negative feed back with my writing?

I'm a writer and I'm getting some negative feedback on blogs and stuff. How you do deal with it?

on: 10/31/09

Tip#1 - Relax! It's not personal. Just keep writing.

I was so excited when my first book was published and was posted to Amazon.com. I checked the comments every day waiting for those glowing reviews. Then it happened, in one day 5 really negative comments. I went from a 5 star rating to a 2. I did three things with the feedback, automatically take the criticism personally, I reacted aggressively to the criticism and finally, I immediately try to prove the other person wrong

Tip#2 - Welcome feedback of all sorts, it means your stuff is being read.

One article I wrote was flooded with negative comments. The article was for a new Web site and I was sure that the editors would never have me write another piece. It was quite the opposite. A lot of negative feedback meant that there were a lot of readers of the article. The editors asked for more.

Tip#3 - You can't please all of the people all of the time. DON'T EXPECT TO!!

There are many reasons why people feel compelled to write and post negative comments. It is next to impossible to guess their motivations. Maybe they are disgruntled writers, everyday cranky people or simply they may think their feedback is helpful to the author. And to be honest, it often is helpful.