I love the creative arts...well most of them, but obviously my favorite form of art is the written word. Sadly, this form of art, and most other mediums are also subjective. There is no golden standard of ingredients that when put together create the perfect book, short story, or poem that makes everyone who reads it fall madly in love with it.
There will always be those that are not fans of your work.
Unfortunately this is something that every creative person needs to come to grips with: You are NEVER going to please everyone. This, this is a tough concept for me. When I write something, especially my more creative genre pieces, it is hard for me to give it for someone to read. My heart jumps and my stomach twists and turns. Why?
I want them to like it.
It seems that the longer that I work on something, the more I feel attached to it. And therefore the more anxious I get about someone else reading it. I want the readers to fall in love with the characters and concepts as much as I have. The really hard part comes when I get their comments and opinions. Then that anxious feeling comes right back.
The hardest lesson that any creative person needs to learn is how to accept the fact that people are just mean and will tear down your story, painting, etc. just to make themselves feel better.
One of my favorite writing movies perfectly expresses this idea:
"You know what the absolute best moment is?
It's when you sit down with your manuscript before these arseholes take something they couldn't do in a lifetime and tear it apart."
If you haven't seen Finding Forrester, it is an excellent movie with lots of advice and inspiration for writers, as well as a great movie in general. Sometimes people just tear your work apart because they can, or they think they are being helpful.
The real helpful stuff?
You usually have to shift through to find the nuggets that are useful, the rest? Feel free to toss 'em out!
It is YOUR story/book/movie/painting after all.
Yes, accepting tough comments is hard, and sometimes people see things that we miss. Or we need a wake up call to realize something that we missed or took for granted but that the reader is missing. Those are the comments that are as valuable as gold to a writer.
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