A writing project got bumped back to me today (not one I’d written, but it doesn’t matter), and it got me to thinking about how writers deal with criticism. The following lines are taken from How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague, and they sum up how many of us feel when our work is criticised.
Does a dinosaur slam his tail and pout?
Does he throw his teddy bear all about? …
Does he mope, does he moan, does he sulk, does he sigh?
Does he fall on top of his covers and cry?
No-one likes to be criticised, but when you’re a writer, criticism is part of life. Whether you are working for an editor or a client, there will come a time when someone won’t like what you’ve written. If clients are paying for your writing, then they will feel free to tell you so.
Sometimes clients are not clear about what they want, and even if you ask questions, you can’t deliver. It’s a hidden brief, which you have no hope of unmasking until you fail to deliver. Sometimes the brief is clear and you may still get it wrong.
Well, guess what? This stuff happens to writers. Even the best and most competent of us sometimes miss a client’s wishes by a mile. It may not always be our fault, but we have still have to suck it up and move on.
There’s no point in behaving like the dinosaur in this children’s story. If you do, you will lose your client. Whining will only reduce your credibility. The thing to do is to say: ‘Sorry, I misunderstood you’ and find out what you need to do to fix it. Make the changes quickly and behave gracefully and you will still end up with a happy client.
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People should learn from criticism, it makes us better for the next job. However, while we all say that we like to receive criticism, inside, we don’t like it at all and we like to argue with the criticism leveled at us. Surely the client is always wrong if they criticize?
It may seem that way, Stephen. Even though the client may actually be wrong (for example, in not adequately spelling out requirements), pointing this out doesn’t help the service provider. I’m not saying that you should never point it out, but there’s no point for minor changes. If clients change their mind about requirements and you have the evidence to back it up, then you have to weigh up the pros and cons of renegotiating the contract or just taking the criticism.
It’s as simple as this: You’re doing a job. It isn’t about YOU, personally. No one is criticizing YOU. They just didn’t like the work. That’s it, that’s all, so you accept their feedback gracefully and try again.
Simple
Spot on, James
My first bump back hurt badly. It was mostly the client’s fault but that didn’t matter, really. I just couldn’t cope with fixing it and in the end it cost me the client. I was so taken aback that I malfunctioned as a writer and couldn’t pull myself out of it. I lost sleep over some simple rewrites when it should’ve been easy for me to just make the changes and move on.
The client never gave me work to do again and it hurt a little because it was a regular gig (but with a new editor). It was my first real lesson in taking criticism and it taught me a lot. I still don’t like to be criticized much (who does, though?) but I have learned a little bit about how to handle it and not take it as such a personal thing.
All that said, I don’t want a client to come back five times for tweaks and rewrites unless they’re prepared to pay for my time. If I’ve not met the brief, it’s up to me to fix it but if they’re just picky and high maintenance either the price has to reflect the rework OR I won’t take on more work in the future from them.
Yes, Dana. There’s definitely a big difference between tweaking and a major overhaul. In most cases, if the brief is close to right and the writer is competent, then it shouldn’t be too much extra work. If it’s effectively a whole new project, then some renegotiation may be in order.
Great topic. I think that most of us work-at-home writers get really used to being our own bosses and so it especially stings when a client sends something back with criticism. We’re just not used to that daily feedback that you’d get from a boss in an office.
For me, dealing with it depends on the situation. As you said, if the client is paying then you should generally just be polite and make the changes. If their demands are truly unreasonable, work out a compromise to resolve the problem. Vent about it in a journal but not to the client; we have to maintain our professionalism.
I usually don’t have a problem with this if I’m writing something that’s being published on a website without my byline. However, I’m a lot more careful about editing if my name is on the work. I take the time to really think through the criticism and make sure that I’m comfortable with making the changes that are asked of me. At that point, it’s not just the client’s needs that must be met but also the need to maintain my own integrity as a writer. If I think the client is wrong in this case, I’ll probably say so (albeit politely). What do you think?
I try to learn from it, too. Sometimes, though, I encounter a client that is simply hard to please so I had to learn not to take everything too seriously. There is a limit to how much I can “learn” especially if the root problem is that the client is difficult.
Great story with the dinosaur. I deal with it as James says. It’s not about me. Although I don’t make it personal, it’s sometimes still annoying, which is a whole other thing. But it’s all a part of the job. I’ve often thought about adding “Psychic” to my resume.
@ Kathryn: You’re right. Although I am quite hard on myself, it’s not quite the same as when I had a boss. There was always a chance that he would take a dislike to something, and that was just part of life.
I agree with you about having a polite conversation with the client. Sometimes that works. After all, if the client is paying for your expertise, it makes sense to give an opinion when it matters.
@ Katherine: We all meet difficult clients, in which case we just have to grit our teeth and make a mental note to be more discerning in future.
@ Amy: In spite of my advice, I sometimes get miffed too, but I try not to let the client know that.
Sharon, I try not to let my clients know it either. Although if they read my blog, a few might be able to pick themselves out of my rants as of late.
Water off a duck’s back. Gotta have a thick skin for this business.
Its not nearly as bad as the print days. Print is a whole different animal. You want to talk rejection, try getting a novel picked up!
Great post, as always Sharon.
I’m afraid I have to admit to a personality flaw: I’m very thin-skinned. Oh, on the outside I handle criticism well enough: I apologize if I missed the boat and fix the problem regardless of who was at fault. But inside I’m feeling just like that angry, hurt little dinosaur.
The good news is, I handle criticism much better than I did when I first started out as a writer. If I do this another ten years or so, I might actually get to the point where it doesn’t bother me so much.
Sharon,
Finally got around to reading this gem, and this is so, so true! For writers, it can be particularly annoying when clients don’t clearly state exactly what they want and then (once all our hard work is done) declare that the focus, or treatment, or [fill in the blank] is all wrong and the piece will need to be revised or rewritten.
Yet, when this happens, it always pays to be philosophical about the situation, which in turn helps us remain professional in our dealings with the client. (We’ll just have to make it a point to ask a few more very specific questions before tackling the next project. Too often, we simply don’t realize the importance of thoroughly exploring the client’s needs and expectations before we begin to write.)
Admittedly, dealing with this widespread client tendency is–and will always remain–one of the most irksome and frustrating parts of the writer’s job. Yet, we’ll find it far easier to maintain our perspective (and our composure) if we remind ourselves of this:
If the client were able to clearly and comprehensively articulate exactly what he wanted, he likely wouldn’t require our services at all but could simply write the piece himself!
Hopefully that will help!
Thanks for this great (and timeless) advice!
Jeanne
Well said, Jeanne – we don’t like it, but it’s part of the job, so sometimes we have to accept it and move on.
Jeanne, you make a great point. If the client knew exactly what he wanted, he wouldn’t need us to write it.
I’ve been writing for over 20 years, and have finally gotten used to criticism. I’d rather hear it up front, though, rather than the client waiting till the very end of the project! I guess this one guy thought he’d hurt my feelings or something, but it was definitely a big miscommunication.
Lesson learned? Ask many, many questions throughout the process, so there’s far less chance for misunderstanding.
Thanks for an excellent post, Sharon!
Lisa,
Thanks for your thoughtful response to my comment. One lesson we can take away from such experiences is expressed in this very wise piece of advice: Never assume anything. Whenever we feel an assumption coming on, as professionals we really need to check ourselves–and then check with our client.
One thing I find particularly irksome (when ghostwriting or writing Web copy, which typically doesn’t carry a byline) is having a client change my content so extensively that I wonder why I went to so much trouble to produce a superior piece of writing in the first place.
Unfortunately, such changes rarely improve the piece. I’ve learned through such experiences that many business clients simply don’t have an appreciation for or understanding of what constitutes quality writing. My only consolation in such cases is that my byline isn’t on the piece! And I choose to be as philosophical about this problem as I do about the insufficient-information problem discussed in my earlier comment (though, to a large extent, this problem can also sometimes be based on insufficient knowledge of the client’s needs or preferences).
My rationale in coming to terms with this situation: The client is the one paying for the work, and if he or she is content to lower its quality and use the resulting piece to represent his or her company, who am I to argue? (I have been known, however, to attempt to “talk some sense into” certain clients at various times. It rarely works, though.) In such cases, I find that it’s better to simply forget it and move on.
Unfortunately, such situations do cause one real, ongoing problem for professional writers: We’re unable use such work as samples for acquiring new writing projects, since our previous client’s manipulations have turned a well-crafted piece into an inferior product which would not adequately represent our writing skills to prospective new clients. This is one of my least favorite facets of this problem.
Yet, as much as we may dislike these unfortunate realities, they are all part of the writing game–and particularly the Web writing game! So, unless we’d rather target the literary journals, we’d better get used to them!
That said, I will offer one qualification to the above: There are some dream clients out there who do recognize and appreciate excellent work and are willing to pay a writer well for it. As professionals, we owe it to ourselves to never stop looking for them!
Jeanne
Jeanne, I know where you’re coming from. But quality, unfortunately, is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t waste my time trying to talk anyone out of rewriting something. To me, they’re definitely not a smart businessperson, because time is money. They’ve just wasted money paying you for writing that they didn’t like! So you almost have to pity their stupidity and move on. You can always turn down their work in the future.
As far as not having enough work with your byline, zillions of blogs are out there in cyberspace where you can remedy that. My beef about many of those jobs is that they pay no better than literary journals. I refuse to work for a piddling $6 a post. That’s not even minimum wage.
The best way to avoid the nightmare clients is referrals. As you acquire clients and please them with your services, ask them to write a testimonial and pass your name on to others with writing needs. Obviously, the more social networking you can do, either through professional organizations, alumni associations or MySpace, Twitter and Facebook, the more likely you’ll land dream clients.
How do you find the dream customer? Do your research. Do an advanced search on Google to see if there are any lawsuits against them. Pipl.com is another great people research site, and it’s free. It’s a lot faster to weed through than the Google advanced search. The Web also has some great Web sites where writing frauds and scams are posted. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Finally, get a contract for all your work. I learned this one the hard way! Spell out exactly what work you’ll do, even how many times you’ll revise the copy. Then you won’t be writing 50 rewrites for someone and making 50 cents an hour.
Lisa,
I actually have plenty of work that bears my byline spread all over cyberspace. But that doesn’t make the projects I can’t use as writing samples any less irritating. At times, I’d like to be able to mention certain specific projects to demonstrate my expertise in those areas or my knowledge of particular topics, but thanks to the client’s misguided revisions, the piece is no longer suitable for showcasing my skills.
I joined LinkedIn recently and have several excellent recommendations there, which certainly help to make up for the projects I’m unable to add to my writing portfolio.
Thanks for the info about Pipl.com. I’ll have to check the site out. Interesting suggestion about doing an advanced Google search to check for pending lawsuits against potential clients. That’s something I never thought of doing.
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