Postby drawscore » Sun Feb 22, 2015 2:10 pm
Keep in mind that there are some that do not take criticism well, even when it's constructive, and points out both strong, and weak points. (ie: "The story/plot is good, but line space between paragraphs, and remember that SpellCheck is your friend, but it misses homonyms like "flak" and "flack" when the wrong one is used.") If you can, have someone you trust, proofread your work, and if you have no one locally, send it via PM to a board member you feel can help, or even make corrections for you. It is usually a good idea to ask first, though, rather than just sending the story.
There are those that have written quite well, but are reluctant to pen additional efforts, for fear of being criticized. I think such a fear is unfounded. Rarely, is someone going to post something to the effect of "The story sucked, and you bite as a writer." 99% of the time, suggestions, recommendations, and criticism, are posted with the intent to help the writer become better.
Granted, sometimes criticism could be worded differently. What might seem innocuous to the person criticizing, may look like a hard slam to the writer being criticized. I would suggest initially mixing in both criticism and praise, and putting the highest praise in the last paragraph, so that it ends on a high note.
However, if the story is REALLY bad, is full of grammatical, spelling, case, tense, and usage errors, and has absolutely no quality at all, then criticism through private message would be more appropriate.
Drawscore