Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

When Arguing Goes Too Far (Defending Versus Arguing)

One of my ongoing mantra's in Wattpad 101 has been to say that you shouldn't argue or fight with your critics. However, I simultaneously state that I think it's a good idea to defend yourself and your work. If you wrote something, likely you feel proud of it, and I don't think there is any problem defending your work to people who comment on it. This is a website about learning to perfect your craft of writing, and while every negative comment/criticism can be a learning opportunity for the writer, it can also be a learning opportunity for the readers as well.

I can certainly say that through the course of writing this book, I've occasionally made some claims and arguments that seem outrageous. I've even written a chapter stepping back and admitting some of the things I've felt I've gotten wrong over the years I've written this book. I'm not always right, and I don't write this self-help guide to give you the impression my ideas are the "right" ideas. However, I've also found there is not a single thing that I've written that I disagree with on a fundamental level. I support most of the points I've made over the years, even if, on occasion, I might be less emotional about some of the finer details within those messages.

Anyway, the point is that many of my arguments face challengers. After any controversial chapter where I call out a certain group, whether it be critiques, younger writers, readers, or editors... I always wait to see who is going to disagree with me and take up the challenge to refute what I say. When they do make arguments against my writing, I'm happy to jump right in and respond back, looking to explain my position better and clearer.

For someone who encourages people to not "argue", I know there are a couple of readers who probably see me as a complete hypocrite. After all, I'm responding, often point for point against someone who has negative things to say about what I wrote. Is that not just "arguing" with the critic?

This chapter is here hopefully to clear up the discrepancies between when someone is arguing with you, and when someone is defending their work. At least, these are the discrepancies I see, and what I mean when I condemn arguing with your reader while condoning defending yourself. Remember, defending yourself is healthy. You should have confidence in your work, and there are readers that may have just missed something and jumped to an emotional reaction. By defending my work, I've learned a lot of things about writing, and I think you can too.

So, this chapter is for readers and writers. When you're taking heat from a pissed off author whose book you may have just called "crap", it's a good idea to recognize the difference between the person just defending their work, and the person who is going after you to start an argument. And for writers, it's a good idea to know the difference between just trying to take pride in your work, and being petty and vindictive. Here is a list of five ways you know a writer has gone passed defending and started arguing.

Making it Personal

You've all heard this kind of response before. I think it even makes it into my list of things you've heard on Wattpad.

"This isn't as easy as it looks, why don't you try writing before you criticize me!"

Or if you DO write

"Your writing is shiet, what do you know? How dare you say negative things about my work."

This is the point of someone not being able to take criticism properly. It should be stated that not taking criticism properly is the primary reason someone jumps from defending into arguing. The telltale sign this jump has occurred is when the writer starts making it personal.

Everyone has a right to provide their feedback and criticism. If you don't want people to have an opinion about something you wrote, stop showing people what you wrote. They owe you absolutely no expectation to like and/or hate anything that you share with them. Therefore, what they do on the side has nothing to do with their criticism towards you.