My kids were watching Ratatouille a few days ago, and I caught the very end where Anton Ego, the food critic, gives his monologue reviewing the restaurant. A portion of it struck me, especially in light of what happened with a friend of mine today, a creative–though not a writer–as she received some stinging criticism of\u00a0her work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m so thankful for those who have been kind to me in my growth as an author, especially when I was \u201cthe new\u201d and needed friends.<\/p>\n
A while back, I contacted a writer I admired to tell her I really liked her book, which I had just read and loved. She responded, asking me whether I was the author of (then-titled) Delicious Conversation, and if so, she appreciated me because when she\u2019d read it, she realized there was a market for the things she wanted to write.<\/p>\n
What? Really? I was stunned. My little puff of cotton candy entertainment had been inspiring to someone? (I realized that she probably meant that what I\u2019d been putting into the market was something a little different, perhaps because I see the world through a weird filter different from that of others, but that maybe it meant her world-view would be accepted too.)<\/p>\n
I was so thankful she told me that, and it gave me the courage to go on and keep trying and going ahead and writing the stuff I wanted to write, whether or not a critic thought it was worth something. It was worth something to her, and to a few others, and that\u2014makes it all worth my effort.<\/p>\n
Fast forward, now that author is no longer \u201cthe new.\u201d She\u2019s award-winning, and she\u2019s made a lot of readers smile and cry and laugh and think. So, for that I\u2019m really grateful too.<\/p>\n
Putting my work out there for public consumption leaves it open to criticism\u2014kind or harsh. I\u2019m aware of that, and every single time I hit \u201cpublish\u201d it takes incredible courage. Every single creative person out there understands that we\u2019re opening ourselves up to be spat upon and eviscerated by critics. But because we believe that our art may just help one person, we forge ahead.<\/p>\n
For that reason, I\u2019ve developed a way to think about art that doesn\u2019t resonate with me. Instead of saying, \u201cI didn\u2019t like that book,\u201d or that picture or that photo or movie, I now think to myself, \u201cI wasn\u2019t the audience for that film.\u201d That leaves it open for others to enjoy, and it doesn\u2019t reflect badly on the artist or those that enjoy it. There are a lot of books and movies and paintings I adore, but that probably aren\u2019t to others\u2019 taste. I\u2019m good with that. You might not be the audience for my books, or any given one of my books over the others. That\u2019s okay. We can still be friends. (Although if you happen to go on and on about how much you disliked my work, expect that I might decide you\u2019re easier to love at a distance for a while, just because I\u2019m a little tenderhearted about my work at times.) It’s absolutely possible to give an honest review without being cruel.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m aware that I still have a long way to go to become a truly great writer, and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ever get there or if I\u2019ll just muck about in mediocrity all my days. Still, I do see small improvements in my craft all the time as I study and practice and work as hard as I can at it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m truly grateful that my efforts didn\u2019t get slammed to the curb as hard as they could\/should have been while I was \u201cthe new.\u201d Huge gratitude to everyone who has supported me as I\u2019m growing. I hope I can support others\u2019 creative efforts as well.<\/p>\n
xoxox<\/p>\n\n
My kids were watching Ratatouille a few days ago, and I caught the very end where Anton Ego, the food critic, gives his monologue reviewing the restaurant. A portion of it struck me, especially in light of what happened with a friend of mine today, a creative–though not a writer–as she received some stinging criticism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26,684,756,1,5],"tags":[477,804,808,807,805,806],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-clean-fiction","category-self-publishing","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-courage","tag-critics","tag-encouragement","tag-growth","tag-how-to-react-to-art-i-dont-like","tag-kindness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2OUjT-rS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorjennifergriffith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorjennifergriffith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorjennifergriffith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorjennifergriffith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorjennifergriffith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorjennifergriffith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1735,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorjennifergriffith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions\/1735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorjennifergriffith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorjennifergriffith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorjennifergriffith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}