"It's not our job; it's recreation."

"I didn't ask for the criticism, so shut up and go read something that makes you happy, you hater."

How many times have you seen or heard someone make these arguments to excuse their mistakes and bad writing or to reject criticism?

Although they contain some grain of validity in them, I don't think they stand up to the arguments against them.

What some people don't realize is that there is a difference between expecting someone to write like a professional and expecting someone to write professionally. The former is an expectation of top-notch quality writing, the other is an expectation regarding the author's attitude toward writing. Unless it's your personal blog or something you keep to yourself, professionalism ultimately matters. It's what gains you respect. Having fun and writing what you feel like are great and desirable, but if you neither make efforts to improve nor strive to perfect your writing, don't expect everyone to respect you as an author because there are people who take it seriously. People do things that are not their jobs, such as volunteer work. Does this mean they should not have to exhibit professionalism? You're not getting paid to walk down the street, but should you go out looking unclean and unkempt?

I've touched on this before, but as a writer, you should at the very least expect, if not accept and even welcome, criticism. Criticizing and hating are not the necessarily the same thing. Criticism is essentially an expression of a negative opinion of something. However, the way in which people go about presenting said criticism is what determines whether it is hateful and hurtful or helpful.

Haters are the s. They rarely go into detail about what they dislike about your story. Even if they do, mostly they will say things that attempt to insult and degrade you as a person. They will tell you to stop writing and to get off the Internet and possibly just go die. Not a pleasant bunch.

Helpers are not s. They will spend the time to tell you what is wrong with your writing and even how to fix it. They believe you have the potential to improve and won't insult you, only your writing, and in that case as a form of tough love. Think about it: can you really call someone an if they spend their time trying to help you improve? s won't care enough to spend that time on you. They'll spit in your face and move on (or come back and spit in your face again sometime down the road).