If you are driven or held back by what strangers think about your work, or — worse — what you imagine people might think or comment, you aren’t producing honest

If you are driven or held back by what strangers think about your work, or — worse — what you imagine people might think or comment, you aren’t producing honest work. You are performing. No matter what you do, no matter how relevant or perfect you think it is, someone will find fault. It’s up to you to interpret criticism as constructive or not. You can’t expect other people to know what may offend you or cause you to doubt yourself. All criticism, and all praise, you get may have value. If someone’s comments make you think about your work then the comments have value. Everything else you can ignore. If you feel defensive or hurt, or flattered, your focus has moved from your work to your ego. Nabokov, a writer who didn’t give a toss about his critics, wrote something worth keeping in mind: I don’t think that an artist should bother about his audience. His best audience is the person he sees in his shaving mirror every morning. I think that the audience an artist imagines, when he imagines that kind of a thing, is a room filled with people wearing his own mask. You asked for books that might help. I’m not sure what your project involves, but I can suggest a few that I have enjoyed. How to Write a Thesis and Six Walks in the Fictional Woods by Umberto Eco. Strong Opinions by Vladimir Nabokov.