Embracing the Odd.
I was often told that if I wanted to be a writer I would need to grow a thick skin.
My papery epidermis has taken a tear or two over the past couple of years, but a comment I received last week was to prove to be my biggest test yet.
It is never nice to be told your work isn’t good. So far, I haven’t yet come across too many unhelpful comments, and most of what I am told is justified, even if I am a little reluctant at first to admit it.
Last week I was given some feedback in relation to a freelance job I was bidding for. The company had asked if I would write a trial piece for them, which is industry code for “we want you to write something for free even though we can see a huge portfolio of your work online.”
I obliged, and it was within an evaluation of this piece (which came from an anonymous ‘evaluator’ that hid behind the name of the company) that I found this pearl of wisdom…
“Your words seemed odd.”
Baffled by the buckets of brilliance that it must have taken to come up with that little whip-smart nugget, I didn’t quite know what to say.
It took the strength of a superhuman not to reply with an equally insightful observation such as “your face is odd”, but instead I printed it out and I pinned it on my pinboard.
Over the past few years, I have started to embrace my eccentricities. So if it shines through my words I’m afraid it’s just the mark of someone who’s becoming a bit more comfortable in their skin… which, funnily enough, is getting ever thicker.
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