If you are a writer, you have to open yourself up to criticism. You have to “put yourself out there.” Not all critics are worth listening to. Sometimes people will tell you something is good when it isn’t, and other people will tell you something is bad when it isn’t. The most important thing to understand is that the best critics are the people who don’t know you, don’t understand your work, and have nothing invested in what you’re doing.
Put up a blog, a Facebook profile, and get a Twitter account. Ask people what they think, and allow them to publicly say bad things about your work. Yes, it is defeating; however, one bad critic doesn’t make your work bad. It means that one person doesn’t like that one piece. It could be that you wrote something bad also. Either way, as a good creative writer, you need to write what other people can understand.
I could always tell if I had written something worthwhile because people would either give me a very positive or very negative response. The work I’ve done that gets a neutral response is always the work I rework. If someone hates my work, I know they feel passionate about it. If someone just doesn’t like, that’s when I think I’m in trouble.
Good luck with your writing, and try your best to make people either love or hate your work – as long as they’re talking about it.