The biggest critics of an Improviser, outside him- or herself, will be those who do not Improvise yet who feel qualified to critique the effort. There is never anything constructive in such criticism. The only “good” thing about such criticism is that it is free and abundant.
I have another blog on Wordpress that is even more neglected than this one has become. (Hard to believe? I know.) It’s called “That Writer Guy” and it holds some poetry and prose offerings. Some of it is good. Some of it is mediocre. I didn’t care about that. I just felt like posting it.
Every once in a while I get a comment that basically reads like this:
“Your writing is shit. You should kill yourself.”
I’m not kidding. Go look. They tell me to kill myself. Heh. I’ve been there. We’ll talk about that in another post.
Now, don’t misunderstand this post. I’m narcissistic-ly aware that I’m a good writer. Not only do I feel this is true; I’ve been told this waaaaay too often to not believe it. So I’m not looking for sympathy. I’m pointing something out.
There will always be commentary. On everything you do. And a lot of the time someone who is too lazy/cowardly/unimaginative to do what you’re attempting will come at you out of left field and tell you that you are shit and you should die.
Here’s what I say in response:
“Thank you for your comment, [insert name]. Have a nice day.”
And then we go on, forgetting about Mr. or Ms. Cowardly Unhelpful and doing what we can to make the world more beautiful.
