It’s hard not to take feedback on our writing personally, but let’s be honest here, sometimes we do. I’m pretty lucky in that no readers have taken a personal dislike to me and decided to trash everything I write (quite the opposite, really), but I do realize that’s probably just a matter of time as well.
A couple of weeks ago, I turned in a piece on a very short deadline with very last minute interviews (literally– I finished interviewing at 5.55 and filed at 6) and while I thought I had done a pretty good job, even I knew that an extra day would have helped substantially with my reporting. I didn’t expect any accolades, and I didn’t expect any vitriol either, but the journalism life is always a surprise.
The article got read, linked to, blogged, tweeted, and discussed, like they tend to do, but one blogger decided to rip it apart. He found fault with everything, from my pick of sources, to Time magazine’s editorial decision to run it as a “must read” on the website, to the title. There’s no chance of that person knowing me, so the truth is, he just really disliked the piece. I guess, a year ago, I would have been really bothered by this, but after the initial feeling of “I suck and should give up while I’m ahead,” I got busy with other stuff and (to my utter surprise) promptly forgot about it.
Yesterday, I heard that one of Time magazine’s former editors, now an expert in the topic I wrote about, has been using the piece as a teaching tool in his journalism classes. Even though I hadn’t paid much attention to the criticism, I’m suddenly looking at the piece again and thinking, “Hey, it really is quite okay. The ed’s right– I did use several good sources.”
Shows how fickle our opinions of ourselves are and what suckers we are for compliments. And how people will love and hate us in equal measure, so there’s no point dwelling on either the praise or the criticism.