Avi

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Criticism

criticThe occu­pa­tion­al haz­ard of being a writer is crit­i­cism. It will come at you whether you share your work with the whole world, or only your best friend. It can be sup­port­ive, painful, or stu­pid. It can be very insight­ful, or woe­ful­ly ignorant.

In all my years of pub­lish­ing I have nev­er had a book about which some­body hasn’t said some­thing neg­a­tive. Indeed, an Eng­lish pro­fes­sor at Brown Uni­ver­si­ty once told me that crit­i­cism was more impor­tant than the work itself. A review­er of True Con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle wrote that “if [Avi] had worked hard­er it would have been a bet­ter book.”  A recent review said that writ­ing in the first per­son removes all sus­pense from the sto­ry. (Too bad for you, Moby Dick, Great Expec­ta­tions, etc., etc., etc., … ). The late Ken­neth Tynan once wrote, “A crit­ic is a man who knows the way but can’t dri­ve the car.” That said, know­ing the way is important. 

How­ev­er painful, one can learn from crit­i­cism. I think it was the actor, Lau­rence Olivi­er who once said some­thing in the nature of, “If you want to improve your art, nev­er read the good reviews, only the neg­a­tive ones.”  What I have learned is that the best thing one can do with crit­i­cism is lis­ten, and nev­er argue. (I’ve nev­er met a crit­ic who accept­ed crit­i­cism of their crit­i­cism.)  Still, if you argue with a crit­ic you don’t hear what may be use­ful sug­ges­tions, and you become trapped in your own vision of what you have done. Noth­ing is hard­er than being a crit­ic of your own work. Sor­ry, a writer needs those extra eyes. 

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