{"id":29655,"date":"2025-07-04T03:00:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T10:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=29655"},"modified":"2025-07-01T06:54:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T13:54:57","slug":"the-critic-by-catharine-bramkamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/04\/the-critic-by-catharine-bramkamp\/","title":{"rendered":"The Critic by Catharine Bramkamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>Let\u2019s welcome back monthly columnist Catharine Bramkamp<\/a> as she shares with us \u201cThe Critic.\u201d Enjoy!<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

Encountering the Critic<\/h2>\n

We have all encountered the Critic.<\/p>\n

Of course, good criticism is very beneficial<\/strong>. We need to know how to improve our work and understand if it\u2019s working for the reader.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s too easy for criticism to descend into toxicity.<\/p>\n

For the truth is: writers are timid — Critics are confident. Artists are built from doubt — Critics are certain.<\/p>\n

Critics love nothing better<\/strong> than to inform you of a typo in your handout or errors in your published book. (In a client\u2019s book set in 1876, a critic pointed out that barbed wire wasn\u2019t invented until 1879.)<\/p>\n

The Sensitivity of Creators<\/h2>\n

Critics can be so righteous and terrifying that sensitive artists will simply stop making anything just to avoid confronting the self-satisfied censor and his negative comments.<\/p>\n

We will work over an essay<\/strong> or a painting until holes are worn in the canvas and book chapters lose all color and light because we are so afraid of the Critic, of making a mistake.<\/p>\n

That protection comes at a high cost. Our art is at stake, but how can artists cope when the entire internet is crawling with critics? Or Trolls.<\/p>\n

My Encounter With the Critic<\/h2>\n

I was asked to create a class with very little turnaround time. At the class, one of the students arrived and the first thing she announced was she found a typo in the handout, the winner in a contest I didn\u2019t know I had entered.<\/p>\n

I thanked her for her effort<\/strong> and asked her to send me a list of the mistakes so I could correct them.<\/p>\n

She replied, \u201cOh, there were just too many to count.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, she had no intention to help, her goal was to publicly announce that she was right, and I was wrong.<\/p>\n

I would like to say<\/strong> that this woman came to some appropriately poetic bad end, but I never saw her after that class.<\/p>\n

She was left to her fate, and I to mine.<\/p>\n

The Difference Between Doing and Judging<\/h2>\n

I believe that:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better . . . credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. . .\u201d
\n[Editor\u2019s note: Quote from Man in the Arena by Theodore Roosevelt<\/a>]<\/p>\n

What I have found is<\/strong> that those who sail, face storms, and risk wrecking their boats on a rocky shore are kinder to their fellow sailors than those who never wiggled their toes in the tide.<\/p>\n

When you understand the effort, know what it takes to create, and appreciate how much nerve you need to present your art or speak to a group, you are far more likely to support rather than criticize.<\/p>\n

What Kind of Person Do You Want to Be?<\/h2>\n

And if you are critical just to be right, here is your chance to change.<\/p>\n