One of the things that I am fairly good at is taking advice.* This is not a skill that came naturally to me when I was a younger writer. Like many writers, I suspect, I was one of the best in my class. In all my classes up to and including law school. So when someone presumed to tell me how my writing could be improved, I probably reacted much like the kid that Maya Reynolds just tried to help here . Go take a look; I'll wait. His mistakes, as Maya points out, are ones fairly common for young writers used to being praised. Maybe he thinks that he's being cute and clever by explaining away all of Maya's issues, or maybe he just thinks she's wrong, but either way, he's ticked off not just Maya, but me. As she points out, it's rude and insulting to defend your manuscript against someone who has offered to help you improve your writing. I don't know how I became comfortable with the process of receiving criticism. I don't remember a particular event
Jay Montville's Blog