How to Handle Compliments
As aspiring writers, we are told to develop thick skins to handle criticism that is sure to come our way. For some, compliments are equally hard to accept. Here’s how to deal with that.
“Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.”
― Samuel Johnson
If you are, like me, insecure about the quality of your work and feel like you are just muddling along, a compliment can hit you as hard as criticism would. Especially when you are new at something, you won’t likely expect you’ll be good at it right from the start. However, you cannot amount for a certain aptitude or even raw talent. Perhaps it’s experience and attitude that makes you good at what you do, even when you don’t expect to be.
I was caught off-guard myself not so long ago. Since a few months, I have been working for a new client, who provides me with continuous work and income (a luxury for any struggling freelancer, but particularly for our little household, that has known some very troubled times indeed). The actual work itself — technical editing — fits me like a glove. Though I really enjoy the work (an added bonus) I am still a ‘newbie’. The work requires extreme attention to detail, accuracy, word processing and content management skills, paired…
