At 03:15 PM 22/8/96 -0400, you wrote:

Let's try this, lets NOT point out the bad parts to the authors.  Post only

the good points, DON'T post the stuff you feel needs to be worked on.  This
way, that author gets a big ego boost.  So, he'll write more stories and try
to make them better than his previous.  This is sorta like correcting your
own mistake.  If you point out the bad thing about the fic, he'll get
discouraged and maybe stop writing.

Anou... I *HOPE* you're being sarcastic...  I don't usually post to the whole
ML, but I feel that your statement, if not meant in jest, justifies it.

When I post a story, I am fortunate in that I usually receive quite a few
responses to it.  Most of them are 'ego-boosts'.  They're nice, yes, but the
ones I value MOST are the ones that completely destroy my confidence in writing,
point out every hole in my plots, show me exactly where my jokes aren't funny,
or where I've made foolish grammatical mistakes, et cetera ad nauseum.  It is
THESE notes that make me get off my laurels and put my nose back to the
grindstone, reconsidering, finiding new ways to express things which could
perhaps be improved...

If I had relied merely on the 'ego-boosts', I can think immediately of three
stories of mine which would not have been written.  In addition, for those of
you who follow my '2096' series, 'A Winter's Tale' would have remained a pretty
pathetic, rather pointless tale, and my VISION rewrite (soon to be released on
the FFML, I hope) would have stayed a very confusing 9-page nothing.  Instead,
it's grown to 45 pages which I'm quite proud of, after having been torn to
shreds by ruthless reviewers.

I also disagree with your last point.  If you make an author think he's perfect
just the way he is, if he's anything like me, he'll think that's good enough
and a) either crank out more of the same or b) stop writing altogether, content
with what he's done.  Once you've written a story which everyone thinks is 
flawless, what's left?

I can't speak for others, but though every kind word on a story of mine is
cherished and kept for posterity, it is to those who DON'T like my writing
to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.  A very fine example is one well-known
figure of internet anime (who shall remain nameless, as he has no e-mail
over the summer, and cannot defend himself) who called my characters
'cardboard' and complained about their 'absolute lack of characterisation',
the artificiality of my dialogue, the lack of background for my stories, lack
of humour in my jokes and the predictability of my plots.  His very thorough,
very specific letter inspired me to do better, and I hope you'll agree, if
you'll go through my work, that it has improved in those areas.

In short, so long as it's explicit and thorough, pointing out the ERRORS
in a 'fic will lead to much more improvement than merely patting a writer on
the back... Though the latter is also necessary, and I myself send compliments
to the authors of those stories which I particularly enjoy.

My apologies for focusing so much upon myself, and drawing examples only from
my own writing, but that is only because I can speak for no one else.

Yours,

Christopher Willmore