Some people have not learned how to accept criticism, constructive or otherwise, and that is a skill just as important as the writing itself. I was guilty of this for years as was my wife who is a visual artist. Once you regularly have your work scrutinized and you learn how to filter criticism and use it to improve your work, it becomes one of if not the most-important part of the creative process.

Best advice I can give for handling this particular situation is to encourage the person to keep writing and to start asking for critique earlier in the process, to be vocal about if they feel the criticism is unfair, and to try as hard as possible to suspend the feeling that “critique = they think I’m a bad writer.” Ensure them that anything you suggest is given with the purest intent, not meant to hurt the author but to improve the piece.

We are emotional beings and we put a lot of heart and soul into what we make and it’s understandable that our gut reaction to even constructive criticism is wounded pride. It never goes away completely, but if you want to be successful, you need to get comfortable with hearing objective opinions about your work.