Let Go of the Boulder, Sisyphus!
In a world where appearances and reputation are overwhelmingly important for a writer (and for anyone in any field, really) it is easy to let your writing get smotherered and stifled and crushed under the enormous weight of the opinions of others, whether they be an instructor in your writing class, critiquers in an amateur writing group, or writers whose work you admire.
What too much criticism does is interfere with the creativity of our wordplay,the imaginitiveness of our world-building, and the flow of our words on the page. These are all things that should go as natural as possible, for seasoned writers, but especially when we are first starting out and feeling around the blank page trying to find "our voice."
This is not to say that we should not seek out critiques of our writing and follow some of the advice that our writing peers give us, but part of the growing process as a writer is learning to sift through that advice, to choose the good points and discard anything that we feel may hinder our burgeoning voice. Not all advice we receive from our peers is suited for the story we are trying to tell. We need to develop a way to discern advice. We can do that by listening to our writer gut instinct. It is not an easy trait to learn, but we must learn it or be forever like Sisyphus, rolling our boulder of a story we are enjoying writing up the hill to completion only to have too many critiques (or ones that are too severe) knock it from our creative grasp and send it tumbling back to the bottom and ourselves at a loss, feeling as if our stories have died within our souls, and perhaps even losing our desire to pick it up and carry on with it again.
Climb that Hill to the Top, Before Getting Help.
The best thing we can do when just starting out writing stories is to never take an unfinished piece to a critique group or a writers conference to let others offer suggestions on. Finish your story first! Then seek out advice, not only from one critiquer, but from several in different settings (different critique groups, writer friends, make a few friends in online writer groups and agree to critique each others works). Getting many eyes on your story will help you determine what issues you really need to focus on in editing. If several people are saying the same thing, take those opinions more seriously than others. As for plot and storyline, unless there are serious holes pointed out to you, take the advice with a grain of salt. You are telling your story, and you should tell it how you see fit, unless a really serious flaw comes to your attention or a critiquer points it out.
Does your story seem too weird to others? That's on them, friend. I've written stories about UFOs and aliens and all manner of strangeness, some fiction, some...not fiction. I've had people critique them...and, yes, some were put off only by the subject matter, The weirdness. But if I listened to every criticism of my writing (fiction and nonfiction) about the woo-woo subjects of my stories and articles and blog posts, my imagination and creative process would lie burning on the death pyre of my personal muse and I would not see her burn for anyone or anything. I get the best ideas and do my utmost to execute them in an entertaining manner, which is all we can really do as writers. Maybe in the end our stories will indeed suck. That happens a lot too, and will continue to happen as we sharpen our craft. But we should free ourselves as much as we can during our writing.
After all, some of my favorite classical stories have been the weirdest. The wildest. The strangest. And some of these are nonfiction (in the paranormal genres).
The band 'Destiny's Child' had a top hit in the song 'Free Your Mind (and the Rest Will Follow)' and it is true. But we should hole ourselves up in our studies and write these stories completely out of the realm of our minds where they are trapped and longing to be told before we ask others whether or not the structure, grammar, punctuation and other basics are flawed...and then ask if there are plotholes. The dynamics and style of the stories we write should always resemble our own free will put to paper or screen, and later to be adjusted according to our own senses and also guided by a trusted and good editor/publisher. This is exactly how we find "our voice."
Some of the best stories I have written (and favorites among those who have read them) are short stories or flash where I have just sat down at my desk and written without any type of mental chains placed on me, by myself or anyone else. The words just flowed out of me and hit the screen. Later, they were edited, of course. But in the moment, they were were pebbles and stones tossed out and collected and rolled like a mad avalanche across the page.
The time to "kill our darlings" comes after a tale has been told. And it always comes, make no mistake. But while the film is rolling in our minds, we should only concentrate on the unfolding of the drama.
As it is often good for all humans to live in the moment, it is good for writers to create in the moment and let the moment be. Let the swell of words, and characters, and situations carry you away on their intense floodwaters.
We can seek a lifejacket later.