Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

As a writer and a person, I find it important to differentiate between me and something I wrote.

I write a lot of things. Some of the things I write, especially those I write a my day job, are reviewed by others. I find one statement helps me and the reviewers:

This is something I wrote. It is not me.

This helps me: when people tear apart the thing I wrote, I am not hurt. I am standing far enough back to listen to what they are saying about what I wrote to make it better.

This helps the reviewer: the vast majority of people I have ever met dislike tearing a person to shreds. Hence, they don’t provide the type of feedback that will improve the piece of writing. Once I remove myself from the piece of writing, they are free to shred it.