665

I just finished reviewing a whole raft of other peoples stories. you might think that it’s difficult to write a story, but trying to constructively critique other peoples stories is so much more difficult.

It’s not like the problem is trying to build up bad stories, or find flaws in good stories. All of the stories I was reading were very well written. it’s more like it was a matter of fine degrees. There might be one tiny thing in a story that otherwise works fantastically, that catches me as slightly off. Or there will be a story that I didn’t feel was working as it was, but is technically so well written. The writer could absolutely adjust the story so that it would work for me. They have the skill. But maybe they shouldn’t try to change it so that it works for me. Maybe I am not their audience. Maybe their audience wants exactly what they wrote.

So there you go. It’s very difficult. I want to be encouraging. Like I said, the writing is almost always great, but I was asked to provide suggestions on ways to improve it, so I tried.

I don’t envy editors. Seems like a difficult job.