There is no secret to this at all. Use the CW vocabulary. The creative act is a feed triangle of writer and work and reader. Technical issues: beginnings, titles, structure, characters, language, setting, corn, mood, etc. Are we talking birds? Can you give me a map to that tunnel through the mountain so I don’t have to spend so much energy climbing this stupid mountain? Whether they’re absorbing it or not? No clue. Positive AND constructive comments. I’m getting a feeling you are a bigot. Comedians get to see if someone is actually laughing. Coaching and nurturing (editors don’t do this like in the past. Now groups and workshops and universities do this). WORKSHOPS are not debates! Makes art cooperative and collaborative. Were you ever lost? Did we understand the ending? Any transition problems? Is the horse believable? If I slap Barbie, how does she react? Dialogue realistic? Any places you felt tension? Don’t write the story where you kill the class, I beg you. A desire to see what happens? What is the central conflict? I love when characters say strange or funny things. The pilot said. “Hey, Tiger,” as a greeting to the little boy. After a brief pause, the kid said “I’m not a tiger.”

What is your mental image of the main character? THEME PLOT LANGUAGE Should you accept all of them, or ignore them, or what? It’s like Russian nesting dolls? Get inside the syntax. Maintain equilibrium so they can keep moving the work forward. Cleavage! Polite. Always respond to the story! Don’t ask her out with a comment. As a consequence I end up feeling at a loss when I don’t have a pen in my hand—it’s just a kind of job hazard that the pen is part of the reading life. Compare to things in class, other texts. Take notes as you read. A work is a work IN PROGRESS! You can accept or reject an opinion. If I say 2+2 does not equal 5, it won’t hurt your feelings. You will get last word in your FINAL DRAFT. I can’t move people in cars. Grammar concerns, editing, corn. Rudeness, sarcasm. Do NOT be prescriptive. It’s not your draft! A lack of honesty. “It was all good.” “This is not college level” etc. Remember, this is a draft. Is that beer? Confusing the writer with the material. (I can write from the perspective of Billie Holiday, for example.) I really can’t see that anything has changed. And the people in either of these extremes can vary greatly from room to room. You have to define the rules when using magic. The writing is too good to be written by a bad writer. Corn.