The ‘C’ Word Part 1 Criticism shouldn’t be a dirty word. Both readers and writers should embrace it—or literature itself may be in danger. ‘There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.’ - Ernest Hemingway Being a writer is hard. It takes a great deal of courage, ingenuity and self-discipline to sit alone for hours, day after day, staring at a blank screen, or sheet of paper, in the seemingly impossible pursuit of wilful creation. Between soul destroying jobs, persistent writer’s block, and the constant (in)convenience of modern day distractions, it’s a miracle that the average writer manages to break through and put any words on the page at all. Self doubt is often overwhelming to the point of total imaginative paralysis, and most days the writer’s efforts feel hopeless, and futile. Embarrassing, even. The truth is, writing takes grit. So when writers do somehow manage to find the time to write, ...