I try as hard as I can and pour my heart and soul into everything I do. Once I have committed to something it physically pains me until I have finished it. When I am working on something I seek out constructive criticism, to help shape what I am doing yet sometimes this can be painful as well.
As well intentioned as it may be, people comment on your work without a full understanding of what you are trying to do. This can only ever be the case. Unless you are on a production line, each of us is doing something unique, even more so if it creeting something in writing.
They ask you why you are approaching what you are doing this way, why you haven’t mentioned such and such, or that the issue you are trying to address is actually something else.
There is an old joke that goes along the lines of someone asking for directions to a place because they are lost. The reply comes back that ‘I wouldn’t have started from here.’
You see, a lot of what you do depends upon where you start. You have arrived at this point exactly because you started from a particular place. You were given a set of conditions, asked to achieve a specific outcome or aimed in the direction of one or more audiences.
It is difficult to articulate what you are trying to achieve in a way that appeals to all listeners, that covers all the points you or they would like or to encompass all of the points that could contribute to an argument. Brevity is hard work.
When people give you feedback on your work, constructively or not, remember that that is just what it is. It is only their point of view and may not be right.
You might have asked for it but it is you that must make the final decision about what to include or not. After all it is only you that started from where you did.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 