There are certainly stories here that I would love to add constructive criticism to. Some writers here are very talented, perhaps from writing elsewhere, and seem not to lack in writing abilities.

Other amateur writers have a big problem with grammar. They don't know where to add punctuation, they don't check their spelling (spelling thru instead of through), can't bother with capitalization (incredibly important for stand alone I's), and most heinous of all (though not a grammar issue) they don't properly space things. It is very painful to read everything in one block paragraph and especially so if they have several different characters speaking at once.

Proper use of contractions is also incredibly important. Many amateur writers seem to forget how human beings actually speak. No one says "Hello, how are you today? Oh, I am fine, thank you for asking." They're much more likely to say "Hey, how's it going? I'm fine, thanks for askin'." People don't talk like robots.

The problem with constructive criticism, no matter how well worded or how much praise you heap on other areas of the story, is that it's generally met with annoyance. Writers put a lot of effort into their works, I certainly know how that is, and they get annoyed when someone has the gall to say that their work may be less than perfect.

I just can't read stories that suffer from those problems and I cannot leave constructive criticism in a PM or in a comment because I know that most author's will misconstrue my efforts. Too many times have I seen constructive criticism taken as "unfriendly" behaviour by the author who then turned around, threw a hissy fit, and pulled their work off the site.

There are some "less than perfect" writers on this site who have very compelling stories, ones I would dearly love to read, but their stories suffer from formatting issues. I'd love to say something but I know I can't.

Of course, when an author actively seeks constructive criticism, or when I think it appropriate, I try my best to leave something without sounding rude. It never involves writing style, however. I only ever comment on the plots. Some writers just can't handle anything else.

On an amateur site you have to have a fairly high threshold of grammar and spelling pain for a number of authors. Authors, if you want critique but am sensitive about certain things then spell out in your story what constitutes allowable criticism, known issues, or areas that should be tread lightly.

SaraUK is having a crisis due to lack of comments and probably unfair criticism at this moment. Her stories are light hearted for the most part and never has really involved plots but the reader needs to tailor any criticism with that understanding in mind. I find her misspellings fun and amusing and just part of what she does. I can almost visualize a whole series of cartoons whose captions would be snippets of those spelling errors but I bite my tongue.

Point is I find bad grammar and punctuation as annoying as the next person. I do not know all the forms that constitute proper sentence structure for certain story sequences either but if I like the story enough I will go ahead and edit my own copy of it and keep it. I will still however keep the original as that is the author's voice and sometimes it is those very flaws that you want to keep.

Let's put it this way, would 'Tale of Two Cities' be ever the same if some idiot put out a grammatically correct version of it, especially correcting that 'horrible' first run on sentence?

Kim

Several have commented about the turn-off of bad punctuation, with which I agree, but to me a far worse turn-off is a story badly told.

Who would meet someone for the first time (say at a party) and with their opening words, try to tell their life history. Yet so many stories on this site do exactly that. Boring! Boring! Boring! That may be the right way to write up a scientific experiment at school - it's not the way to compel readers to read on to the end find out what happens to the protagonist.

So for me, the worst writing offence is to fill the story with background, especially towards the start.

I had to do a great deal of study (and regurgitation) of that particular field, and all I will say is that there is an awful lot of rubbish written about it. Russian Formalism, for example, claims that context should be ignored in discussing 'quality', and half a second's thought will show that to be crap. Anything written without context is sterile, and 'sterile' is not good reading.

I write for myself, but am gratififed that a number of people clearly appreciate the result. That places me, myself, in context. I write what I consider to be 'reality' and work from character rather than heavy plot devices. My belief is that if someone cares about a character, they want to know their story. If the story is all about the events, with a generic cardboard cut-out swept along in it, then I lose interest. I wrote one comment here, to a writer even newer than myself, suggesting that rather than charge straight to the exciting bit some colour and atmosphere be inserted. That is a crucial thing: let the plot develop, don't throw it at people.

I struggle with poor spelling and syntax, never mind grammar, but one thing in a recent story that really threw me was an unstructured change from first person to third, and back and forth, through the story. Maddy Bell, IIRC, had an unfinished series here that swapped persons, but that was deliberate and structured, and made sense.

I could list the authors here I value, but that would take a while and risk excluding some by oversight. I could also list those I avoid like the plague, but that would be cruel. Instead, I shall simply say I filter by genre or subject matter. I avoid most stories headed as concerning magic, retcon superheroes, being physically forced or fantasy worlds (with one sparkling exception). As soon as a story starts going into intense detail about the exact shade of eye-shadow or underwear I find myself drifting away. The point is that those latter filters all come down to one thing, and that is my own personal taste and not anything about any intrinsic quality of the writing.

I think many of us came here to journal out our pain, or try to bring our fantasies alive at least on paper. For most of us, writing stories is as close as we will ever get to actually being women, and we can survive with that. Some of us try to bring fantasy into reality by acting out those fantasies, as I did.

I've experimented a bit with genres here and think I understand the audience better than I did in the beginning. "You Did What To Me", was a deliberate effort to target the majority audience here, and it seems that it came pretty close; being the highest scoring story "I have" here. "Lt Katia In Afghanistan" really surprised me because the Transgender part of the story was really over in a paragraph. She then became this admittedly HOT little babe, that was really not very feminine at all, but she was working off a lot of suppressed anger I felt at the time. It was not until the last part of the last chapter that she really started to become a woman.

So, for me, much of what I have written was actually journaling and helped me to work things out.

At the ripe old age of 7 the heart felt stories of first exposure to feminine clothing, involuntary feminization, and those sorts of things have grown old, but in no way to I dispute their validity.

Everything I put a lot of effort to I like to push the envelope on what I can do, and what I do know, and putting forth a story that people can still enjoy.

Usually my stories last about 2000 words each chapter, usually because I find the pace easier to deal with because I don't have as much time as I'd like to write, and it kind of makes it easier to pump out stories to keep the readers entertained. I've written dramas (Ithycca), action/adventure (Heart of it All), and even tried doing some comedy (Super Happy Sparkle Fairies), each trying something different to see how the audience reacts.

Recently I took up a huge project. I wanted to see if I can write a 10,000 word solo story and see if I can maintain some form of structure throughout without getting the readers lost. I've been working on it the past few weeks. But it definitely is challenging.

Good writing simply is the writer willing to get themselves better, and not settling.