Life is not a safe space

I took a look at this thread via suricattus but I gather it has now gone viral, and deservedly so:

http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html

From the nature of my own f-list - and probably most of your f-lists, too - I don't think anything much needs to be said except: wow.

But for anyone who is new to the business of writing, and who comes across the kind of response that Howett makes, just to reiterate: this is unprofessional in the extreme.

I have had some appalling reviews for my books. Someone on Amazon, about a decade ago, said that Ghost Sister was so slowly written that it made watching paint dry seem like a dynamic experience. Since then, I have had an enormous amount of positive feedback, and not a little negative feedback, as well: in email, on review sites, and in person in crit groups. You don't need a thick skin to be a professional writer. You do need, however, to be objective. There are billions of people on this planet and some of them - gasp! - are not going to like what you write. Some of them will (double gasp!) even hate it. This is entirely to be expected. Some of them will, by the law of averages, despise you as a person, because you're a liberal/pinko/fascist/gay/pagan/Christian/heretosexual/man/woman whatever. The latter is regrettable, but also to be expected. Life is not a safe space. People won't, in the main, be endlessly nurturing of your sensibilities. If you want to write professionally, you have got to learn to deal with criticism, otherwise you really should get out of the literary kitchen right now and stick to something that is safe, controllable, comforting and nice (I can't think what, off the top of my head, but possibly non-professional rose growing or something).

You don't have to become all macho and behave like Ernest Hemingway or, God forbid, Norman Mailer, but you do really need to shape up and take a step back. Criticism of your work is not criticism of you. Criticism of your ability to write - which in the above case, is clearly lamentable* - is not criticism of you. And even if it is, so what?

Positive feedback needs to be taken the same way. If it's mainlining straight into your ego, it's going to be a problem.

Basically, if you're a special snowflake and you want to be a pro writer, you're in the wrong trade.

*it's and its. They're not interchangeable.