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here& #39;s a hard truth: just because you are writing about something upsetting and gritty and traumatic does not automatically mean your writing is good and doesnt immediately make it more worthwhile than someone writing about cute domestic fluff and you are not immune to criticism.
if your response every time someone says they don& #39;t like your work is "they just can& #39;t handle reading about real stuff like abuse or trauma or edgy things" you are basically using the "lol are you triggered?" defense to avoid confronting failures in your writing.
if you want to look at it in the least emotional way possible, we& #39;ll call a character being abused "a plot point". if you were watching a film where a lot of time was spent lavishing attention and time on a plot point only for it to have no payoff, would you call that film good?
i understand a lot of us spent time on Tumblr where the idea of writing about anything gritty at all, even with as much taste and decency as possible, was treated as a moral failing, but the inverse of "i should write whatever i want and get no criticism" isn& #39;t true either
if you post your work for public consumption and it has graphic homophobia or violence, some people won& #39;t like it and yes. it might be because of that content. it might be because theyre triggered by it. this doesnt mean theyre wrong wrong.
you can write about dark, upsetting, gritty topics and do it badly. thats just a fact. i understand having someone criticising your work can be difficult to take, but if you care as much about your writing as you claim to, its actually your job to see when criticism is important.
choosing to write about abuse instead of domestic fluff is not a higher calling. you are not inherently more in-tune with human nature. you are not automatically understanding of psychology. your work has a niche audience and is harder to do well but so does a comedy parody song.
if someone is telling you your work promotes abuse or homophobia etc, instead of getting defensive, maybe consider that you are not incapable of being wrong. it sucks to hear, i know, welcome to the human race.
if you actually care about your writing then criticism is not your enemy. it is not someone trying to tear you down. if someone gives you thoughtful, constructive criticism and not meaningless nitpicking, that is a useful tool you have been handed.
accept these things to be true:
-you are not immune to criticism
-criticism is useful
-dark fic is not immediately better or more worthwhile than a coffeeshop au. it isnt necessarily worth anything.
-people being hurt by what you wrote doesnt make them wrong
-you can do better.
-you are not immune to criticism
-criticism is useful
-dark fic is not immediately better or more worthwhile than a coffeeshop au. it isnt necessarily worth anything.
-people being hurt by what you wrote doesnt make them wrong
-you can do better.
