Criticism. It’s inevitable, but the fear of receiving it is something that can make us pause before sharing our work. The thing is, with criticism of your creative work, it’s not if, it’s when. If you haven’t already noticed, people have opinions. Often strong opinions. And at some point, if you keep sharing your work (which you should if you feel called to!), those opinions will be directed at what you’re creating, perhaps even at you.
Chances are you already know the above on an intellectual level. You know it’s part of being visible, you’ve seen it happen to other people and you know it will happen to you at some point, you know that certain kinds of criticism can even be helpful. Even so, many of us go out of our way to avoid it. Being on the receiving end of criticism (especially destructive criticism, which I’ll talk about more below), can deal a blow to our confidence. It can also trigger a fear of failure, which makes it harder to take creative risks and try new things. If we already struggle with negative self-talk, criticism can feed into this and make it harder to see the value in what we’re doing.
But criticism can also be helpful. It can help us see areas for improvement. It can offer a new perspective and open up new ideas and possibilities we haven’t considered before. It can help us reaffirm our commitment to what we’re doing and why.
As you can see, criticism—although it might not be easy to hear—isn’t always negative. The same piece of criticism can also affect different people in different ways. How we receive it depends on our temperament and current mood, the spirit in which it is delivered, and how we filter through and decide which aspects we want to work on and which to let go. Being able to handle negative feedback is a necessary part of growth and success as a creative, so in this post I want to share actionable tips on how to deal with criticism of your creative work.
Understanding the different types of criticism
First, let’s explore the two main types of criticism, as being aware of these two categories can help you better identify which criticism to pay attention to.
The first kind is constructive criticism. This focuses on helping someone improve their work or performance. It is usually specific, objective, and actionable. Examples of this kind of feedback include a teacher sitting down with you and walking you through where you could improve your essay paragraph by paragraph; someone emailing you about a factual inaccuracy on your website and linking to the correct information; someone encouraging you to try something new with your art that would enhance your work, and so on. The intention behind constructive criticism is positive: someone offering this kind of criticism wants to help the recipient see their work from a different perspective and provide guidance on how to improve it. It stems from an underlying belief in someone’s potential and includes positive feedback and recognition for what they’ve done well too.
Then, there’s destructive criticism. This has a different flavour to constructive criticism and focuses on finding faults, mistakes, and flaws. It is often vague, subjective, and it can often be hard to draw out tangible action steps you can take to improve. Think of a teacher giving you a poor grade and a single comment: “Try harder,” someone emailing you about a factual inaccuracy and calling you stupid while not telling you what the inaccuracy actually is; someone telling you to stop making art because no one is going to want to buy it. While the goal of constructive criticism is to help, the goal of destructive criticism is to tear someone’s work down and make them feel bad about it.
How to respond to criticism of your creative work
As you can see, criticism comes in different flavours. Being able to tell the difference between constructive and destructive criticism can help lessen the sting, but in this section I want share a few additional ways you can deal with criticism of your creative work:
1. Recognise that criticism is a normal part of the creative process
Although none of us like criticism, having to deal with it is part of doing creative work, and the sooner we can accept that, the less power it has over us. We can’t control whether someone criticises our work, the manner in which they deliver that criticism, or what their intent is when sharing it. What we can control is what we do next.
That might include taking time to reflect on the criticism and considering if there is any truth to it. If we’re unsure about the meaning of the criticism, it might include asking for clarification. It might also include trying to take the perspective of the person giving it. It might include ignoring the delivery and cherry-picking part of the message underneath you find to be helpful. It might include acknowledging you’re not wrong and they’re not wrong, you just have different ideas about what good art/writing/music/knitting/(insert craft here) looks like. It might include ignoring it completely and utilising the “block” button.
2. Decide now how you will respond — to yourself as well as the other person
Criticism can leave us with hurt feelings, which can provoke a range of understandable but often unhelpful responses: defensiveness, anger, a desire to one-up the other person, a desire to hide. Responding to criticism in a way you feel good about is much harder in the heat of the moment if you’re unprepared. Decide now, while you’re calm and collected, how you will respond to constructive and destructive criticism.
Our own internal dialogue and the things we tell ourselves about our work and what it means to receive negative feedback often makes us feel worse. So what will you say to yourself? How will you respond to the person giving the criticism? What will you do afterwards? How will you take care of yourself? What will you not do? What coping mechanisms would you rather avoid? Thinking through these questions now doesn’t guarantee you will respond well when criticism comes your way, but you stand a much better chance of responding in a considered and conscious way, rather than engaging in a knee-jerk reaction.
3. Separate work criticism from personal criticism
There is a train of thought that, of course, we take criticism of our creative work personally: it is personal. While I understand this, I think for our own sanity and emotional wellbeing, we need to separate out our personal identities from the work we create. When the lines between the two blur, criticism of our work (constructive or destructive) can feel like a personal attack.
But it’s not. And it might even be helpful. Just because someone offers criticism of our work doesn’t mean they don’t like us, that they are a “hater” or similar (yes, those things might be true, but they’re not a given). Feedback—positive or negative—is data. Negative feedback, as criticism, points to potential opportunities to grow and improve, just as positive feedback points to opportunities to continue and lean in to what we’re already doing.
4. Remember, criticism is subjective
It’s something we all know, but forget in the face of criticism: not everyone will like your work, and that’s OK. As burlesque performer Dita Von Teese reportedly said, you can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world and there will still be someone who hates peaches. While some criticism might contain an element of truth, it’s still subjective, and what one person doesn’t like, another person might love.
5. Set boundaries around your exposure to criticism
As an author, I rely on readers leaving reviews of my books for social proof, algorithms, and so that other potential readers can decide if it’s right for them or not. Reviews are also helpful for me to determine how and why a book resonates with readers—or doesn’t. While reading critical reviews can be helpful, destructive criticism doesn’t leave me in a great frame of mind, so I set boundaries around how often I read individual comments. One way I do this is to gauge reader enjoyment using the aggregate star rating rather than through individual reviews. As long as the aggregate rating is good, I’m happy. It can be hard to walk the line between taking useful feedback on board and feeling like we should hear everyone out who takes the time to get in touch and/or comment on our work. That’s where boundaries around criticism come in.
While we can’t control whether people criticise our work, we can control how much and how often we expose ourselves to that criticism, especially on platforms that use comments, likes/dislikes, and aggregate ratings. If you know there are platforms on which you share your work where people can be harsh, it’s OK to decide you won’t read those comments. If you want to get a sense of how your work is landing, instead go for aggregate feedback: views, likes, star ratings, and so on. If there is someone who frequently sends you unhelpful or “concern troll” criticism, it’s OK to not respond or block them. Ditto for personal criticism, comments about appearance, lifestyle, or anything else that isn’t relevant to your work. Boundaries are personal, so what works for me might be different for you, but it’s worth thinking about which boundaries might be useful for you and your creative work.
6. Keep a list of positive feedback
I’ve talked about negativity bias before, and that certainly applies to criticism. Our brains are hard-wired to dwell on the negative, so out of 10 pieces of feedback, we’re likely to remember the one that was critial rather than the nine that were glowing.
One way we can counteract negativity bias is to keep a list of positive feedback. This might be a folder of nice emails, screenshots of positive reviews or comments, and so on. The way you collate these doesn’t matter, what does is doing it. We are excellent at remembering criticism and terrible at remembering praise, but attempting to flip that bias can make all the difference to how we feel about and perceive our creating work.
7. Keep creating
So you’ve received one or more critical comments about your work. Now what?
It’s simple: keep going.
Criticism is not a reason to stop. While I think we should be serious about our work, I don’t think we should take our work—or criticism about it—too seriously. It’s just one person’s opinion, so don’t let discourage you from continuing to create. And if it’s more than just one person’s opinion, that’s useful information too. This is one reason I think it’s important for us to step back and focus on the body of work we are creating over years, rather than on a single project. We all have projects that fail, that don’t land the way we thought they would, where we unintentionally make a faux pas, where we draw criticism from others. It happens, it’s OK, the main thing is to take any lessons that need to be learned and keep going.
Ready to face critcism head on and become a more confident creative? Try the free Creative Confidence Challenge! This seven-day email course offers inspiration and practical advice for overcoming obstacles to creative work and making creativity a habit. Register here.
