Criticism is not some inscrutable, mysterious process. It’s just a matter of: (1) noticing ourselves responding to a work of art, moment by moment, and (2) getting better at articulating that response.

return. In some quarters he’s believed too sentimental to be taken seriously, and fatally flawed by a tendency to think too kindly of his characters – but Thomas believes that any writer who thinks himself better than the products of his own imagination should seek out some more appropriate profession (such as dentistry, for example, or the

The argument is that if writers can’t force themselves to grow this thick skin, then they’re not cut out to be writers. This is blatantly false. Most of the highly creative writers on this planet, living and dead, are Sensitive Intuitives and Sensitive Intuitives are so extremely attuned to emotional energy that harsh, aggressive, competitive