Tough words hurt So my friend mdash an award-winning author mdash struggled with how to respond to the criticism His new book had earned -star reviews plus a major award Then a respected magazine reviewer gave him a backhanded compliment describing his book as well-written yet still criticizing it harshly Turning to friends he asked ldquo How should I reply rdquo One friend advised ldquo Let it go rdquo I shared advice from writing magazines including tips to ignore such criticism or learn from it even while continuing to work and write Finally however I decided to seek the best [... more]