Ophelia,

My two cents...

Write for yourself. The talent will shine through because YOU will be in it, driving the characters, the action, etc. The mechanics will follow.

The hardest part of writing is what you are going through right now, the critiques and edits. It's absolutely worse than giving birth to a hard stool. Gross isn't it, but you get what I mean.

My beloved writes long, wordy, descriptive, multi-idea type sentences. He gets bashed and praised for them.

If you read the reviews on the stories some of the instructor's have received on their work, you'd be scratching your head trying to figure out why they still feel the desire to write.

Look at some of mine. Most of the lower scores are because the story wasn't long enough. I definitely learned from most of the critiques. There was no forum like this other than Mad's Short Takes. Several of us edit each other's work and take pride in being asked to do so.

Consider this, if it is tough having to do the re-writes after considering the suggestions and edits others have made, just think of how difficult it has to be for them. They don't have to do it.

Editorially yours,

Nikita