Regardless of what you do in life, you are bound to deal with criticism at some point, whether at school, work, or home. When you are a freelance writer you are even more likely to deal with criticism. This criticism can be difficult to absorb because as a freelance writer, you are probably very proud of the work you produce and having someone critique it can be a hard pill to swallow. Instead of letting feedback or criticism eat at you, learn how to use it to your advantage.
How to Deal With Feedback & Criticism
Don’t Take Criticism Personally – One of the most important things to keep in mind when doing freelance writing is to not take criticism personally. Remember that your work is being critiqued; you as a person are not.
Could You Possibly Be Wrong? – It is very easy when looking at criticism of your work to just get really angry and not really take the feedback into account. Take a minute to gather yourself and then really consider the feedback while remembering that it is given to help you, not to make you feel bad about the work you produce. If you take the time to read criticism and it is right, you stand to learn something new that will help improve your work in the future.
Make Sure You Have a Support Network – Having other people that you can talk to, such as a group of other freelancers, can be beneficial. These people can oftentimes make you feel better because they can relate to what you are dealing with. They also may be able to help you look at the feedback more objectively so that it can be used as a learning experience.
Using Criticism to Your Advantage
Feedback or criticism is always meant to be constructive, at least here at Quality Gal, and is never meant to upset writers. Once you know how to handle feedback, it is much easier to then use that feedback to your advantage. Knowing what you are doing incorrectly, whether it is grammar issues, spelling issues, or something else, will allow you to work to improve in that particular area. If you learn through feedback that you are maybe using commas incorrectly, you can take that as an opportunity to go out and learn about proper comma usage.
Check out these additional resources on dealing with feedback:
Thanks for this valuable information.