I believe that anyone who writes "creatively", either poetry or prose, should be open to criticism, otherwise writing becomes a self-indulgence of the worst kind. I equally believe that a worse sin is self-indulgent criticism, the kind that seeks only to impress the reader with the critic's superior knowledge, insight and wit, or to self-glorify the critic in some other way.

Fine sentiments, but what do they mean in practice? As an amateur writer and part time very amateur poet and even more amateur critic do I welcome criticism of my own work, where are my limits and what do I do about it?

Firstly like everyone else I love critics that love my work, whose criticism praises it beyond reason, and who freely admit to being completely enthralled and wondering if I am the reincarnation of some famous writer of the past. In turn my regard for their judgement, perspicacity and good sense is bounded only by a doubting voice which asks whether anyone who likes what I do can ever be regarded as completely sane? Who are they kidding? Would I ever want to be a member of a club that wanted me as a member? Perhaps not.

The converse should be that I hate those who do not like my work, but I confess that although I search deeply in my conscience for reasons not to forgive their ignorance, stupidity and blatant disregard for talent, I often do so. There are exceptions of course, the American lady who criticised a ghost story of mine "because it didn't have any slime" is one such, but on the whole I tend to read critical comment much more closely than non-critical comment. Hopefully that means I might slowly improve my writing, and I use the word "hopefully" advisedly.

So when I critique someone else's work I consciously set out to avoid three things.

First is not making my mind up whether I like it or I don't. It seems to me that the overall impact of a work is what one should judge first, and that includes the emotional content as well as the technical content.

Secondly I like to try to be constructive and positive and encouraging and to avoid the kind of throw-away destructive negative comment that I am afraid can come so easily. Equally I try to avoid pointing out ad infinitum every minor error, iconsistency and idiosyncracy. There is nought so infernally irritating than having a brilliant idea nickel and dimed to death by a critic who insists on pointing out every grammatical, spelling and typing error, nor anything worse than an author who wilfully commits such errors.

Thirdly I do believe that I owe the author a duty of care and to avoid making remarks which might indicate a lack of respect for their effort, talent and ego. Of course if they have made no effort, have no talent and have an ego the size of New York then this is harder than it might be otherwise......

So, like many things in life, criticism is with us whether we like it or not. We must try to make the best of it, learn and move on to greater things.

No slime indeed!