This is a serious question that I've been asking myself these past few hours, after being showered in some pretty unpleasant stuff.
You see, I posted something on some other site. It wasn't meant to be a piece of literature, so I gave it little effort, but I've grown so used to using my writing style that I use it both for normal everyday speech and for most other forms of communication.
Unfortunately, that was a mistake. I had written a few paragraphs about how I felt on a certain issue, since I'm stressed as hell and just need to let off some steam (astronomy exam tomorrow, and I'm very afraid of failing it). Well, that was also a mistake. I was showered with very unpleasant posts right then and there.
In short, I was told I was pretentious, that my work is shitty (something I don't deny, but they could have been more specific), and a variety of other belittling, condescending trash from much older people, who weren't even writers to begin with. Don't confuse this with valid criticism (you should avoid these expressions, use these instead, messy sentence structure, etc.), because this was nothing like that.
I defended my work at first, trying to explain that it is simply a habit by now, and that yes, perhaps I did not yet become a master of the art, but that it is no reason to shred me to pieces. After this, they switched gears completely. They claimed that they were trying to help, whatever that means, still offering very little in the way of critique. I flipped out on them at that point, and rightfully so. Bloody band of insecure hypocrites is what I call them.
So how do you deal with these sorts? I know it might be easy for most, but writing is one of the few things I don't absolutely suck at, so last night really made me reconsider if I should continue doing what I do well.
Sorry for this. If this somehow offends someone, I probably don't care, but it still isn't my intention. I need to find a way to deflect this stuff in the future, and avoid bouts of insecurity like the one I'm going through now.
Edit: Maybe I'm the issue here, I accept that. So I add that to the question: were they right to do what they did? Because I don't even know what's acceptable and what isn't anymore. It seems to change so rapidly and from person to person.
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