When you get hit with that very first negative blog comment, it hurts. It’s demoralizing. Here you are, working as hard as you can, and then someone swoops in right underneath you and tells you it sucks. It’s stupid. It’s boring.

Yeah, thanks guys.

Here’s something I’ve noticed, though, over the years working on blogs and coasting around the Internet in general:

The more criticism you receive — particularly negative criticism — the less it affects you on a personal level.

Here’s something else I’ve noticed:

One positive comment, or one piece of meaningful, constructive criticism, is worth 50 negative comments.

That doesn’t mean negative comments don’t matter. You shouldn’t ignore feedback when it’s valuable and constructive.

But all that meaningless criticism? The personal attacks, the asinine comments, the hollow trolling from bored people on the Internet?

As time goes on, you stop taking it seriously.

In fact, you stop taking criticism — both positive and negative — personally. You lose interest in it. You start focusing on what’s actually important. You become Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen, perfectly apathetic to the noise, focused only on the goal at hand.

It’s an acquired skill, sure, and this is just my own, personal experience. But I think every writer eventually experiences something similar.

So, for those of you who may just be starting out online, those first few hits to your ego may sting. You’ll get over it.

Image courtesy brittgow.