Funny Thing About Compliments

I usually put my writing up for peer review at some point. Of course good feedback is always hard to come by, but there are places and persons willing to lend a hand. This time I wasn't too pleased with the writing, but it was at least a finished vignette which was more than I'd been able to accomplish for a while. It was really a pice I wanted to convert into using in one of my other stories, but I wasn't too sure about the style of writing I'd chosen and wanted input.

That's maybe a bit more background than you need, but I'm getting to the point I swear. Long story short - I put the piece up for shredding and got some responses. One thing that really made me pause was the words "not quite up to [your] usual standards". Now you may think that this was a negative remark and indeed it was, but it brought me genuine joy just the same. Why?

Because for something not to be up to its usual standards means that there are actually standards to be (and usually are) met. You with me? Being up to ones standards means being good, great, excellent. So this person had expected a standard quality for me that I didn't produce this time. And because this was actually a negative remark and not praise I can be pretty sure they meant it. Which means I'm a good writer! Yay!

Ok, so obviously it's not the first time I've had that particular notion reaffirmed, but there is just something about this sort of backhanded compliment that makes me feel all gushy and gooey inside. Praise is so hard to take. We look for it, but once we get it we rarely put much credence to it since we all know that -you're supposed to be nice. Comments like this confirm the praise however, because they're brutally honest while still implying that they think we're good at whatever it is we do.

I like being good at what I do. Makes me happy.
^^

There, I'm done.
Have a great day!