DON'T TAKE ADVICE FROM A SONGWRITER

The following (no, not "flowing," damnable autocorrect) is a comment I typed in response to a colleague's plea for advice from other artists. Others gave advice that struck me as nurturing the ego rather than the artist, the very sort of advice that I hold to be contraindicated. 

  When you're an artist, "getting back to work" is often taken to mean getting back to creating. And I'm well aware that "write write write" as the way to learn to write is generally the best advice. 

However-- 

This business of ego taking a bruising following criticism complicates matters. I write material all the time for my hot plate voice-over staff to read, and it's consistently brilliant (in my mind). But a process has emerged where my minions are pretty relaxed about constructively criticizing the material. I'm talking about during recording sessions. This means that I have to think quickly, as we are on the clock; I have to evaluate their criticism, and either reject it, or rewrite on the spot while they sit there chatting, or worse. Sometimes they are literally calling out suggestions while I'm trying to think. It's not always fun for me, but I know several things. 

1. They love me and my work, or they wouldn't be there.  

2. No matter how much editing and rewriting I do, and I do a huge amount, there's still the chance the material won't make sense to the other humans. And these particular humans are funny and smart, or they wouldn't be there. 

So I never dismiss their ideas. I don't always take their suggestions, but I rewrite quite a bit based on what they say. 

So in my mind, it's a mild episode of ego-roasting, but if I were to just get miffed about it I'd be missing an opportunity to improve my work. And ultimately I'm going to get the credit and blame no matter how much input the damn magpies had. So it's literally not in my interest to childishly shut them out. And I consider myself very lucky that they give enough of a damn to push me to do my best. 

Ok, so that's one scenario. It may not be the one you're talking about. You may be dealing with criticism that's harsh and dismissive. I've had that too, from rock critics. Also from music fans. Also from my wife. And sometimes the "tell them to fuck off" advice is good. Except when it's not. And I don't think an artist with a smarting ego and hurt feelings is usually qualified to determine whether the criticism is in the "opportunity to improve" box, or the "opportunity to realize that not everyone will like your work no matter what" box. 

Choosing wrong about that can be disastrous, and only the artist can make that choice. I've watched budding composers in college classes fly off the handle at the mildest criticism from a professor, criticism that struck me as not nearly harsh enough. (Auto correct turned that into "fly off the Handel," suggesting that autocorrect has a fundamental misunderstanding of my approach to humor. So, this is one of those "fuck off" examples.) 

Regardless of the right or wrong of the ego-bruiser, or the ego-bruisee, I suggest that "getting back to work" can and should sometimes mean getting back to reading or listening or staring at some other art. Because while I do think that too many artists think that creating should be as fun as experiencing art, I also think that letting the ego into the process too much can be a huge mistake. When you create, you should be excited about the material, caught up in it. Later, when that moment has passed, and you've since polished your work dispassionately, you can think about whether it's great, or you are great, or whatever. Incidentally, my advice about polishing is this--  approach it clinically. Identify stuff that doesn't work and why and then try to fix it. I find that this approach is better than the "ok, what would be brilliant here?" or "how can I make this magical?" sort of approach, which leads to letdown and shutdown. Just keep fixing problems and one day the thing may be brilliant or magical. 

But let's skip back a bit. When you're caught up in someone else's work, it can help you get back to the mode where you're caught up in your own. Dwelling on the criticism of others, whether it's good or bad or some third thing, isn't healthy or productive. But that doesn't literally mean that dismissing criticism so you won't feel bad is the right move. It might be the right move for regular people, but for artists? No.