Timeless advice for creators

The life of a creator can feel lonely. But you are part of a long history and thriving community of creators—writers, musicians, filmmakers, artists. In these articles, I share examples, principles, and frameworks to help you become a better creator. Sign up to get these sent to your email each week.

Creative Process Mark Samples Creative Process Mark Samples

How to Handle Critique while Avoiding Soul-Death

When early reviewers give you “notes” or other constructive feedback on your work-in-progress, they don’t typically just tell you what’s wrong. Often a reviewer will also tell you how they think you should fix the problem they identified. They tell you how they would fix it.

This is a vulnerable moment for the nascent creative seed that you have been cultivating. Critical feedback has the potential to blast the seed right out of the ground, disintegrate it, and scatter its torn fragments to the winds. To avoid this, you need an approach to receiving critical feedback.

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