So, I have this friend. A Real Life friend, not someone from here. He thinks he's god's gift to writing. I ... don't. His non-fiction writing is passable, but his fiction is absolutely horrid. I don't know why, but over the years a large number of people have told him that his writing is good. Maybe it was because he uses a lot of big words, and as we all know, bs baffles brains. Or maybe it was because they didn't want to hurt his feelings. Either way, I think they've done him a huge disservice, because now, any time someone tries to help him by pointing out how he could improve his writing, he ignores them and goes merrily on his ignorant way, because he thinks he's better than everyone else.

Now, this is by far the worst example I've ever seen of this, but it isn't even close to the only one. I've always been of the opinion that if someone puts their work up for people to read and comment on, that I should help them by offering constructive criticism. As a writer, myself, it's what I would want other people to do for me. I'll never get better if I'm not told what I could do to improve. Nonetheless, I've run up against people time and again who get very testy any time someone offers them anything but the most glowing of accolades.

I'm still fairly new here, so I don't know how a lot of you feel about this. Does anyone want to weigh in on the subject? Praise or Concrit? Which do you prefer? Is it better to risk hurting someone's feelings a little bit so that they might become a much better writer in the future? Or is it better to simply tell them that their writing is good, and let them go on thinking that they're a lot better than they are?

Let me know what you think. Cheers.

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