How to Critique Without Being an Asshole

Critiquing other writers’ work is surprisingly difficult. It’s tempting to go through with a red pen and mark everything you find that’s wrong (or you just don’t like), then hand back the bloodied masterpiece: These are all the things you need to change!
However, if you do that, you’re an asshole.

Something I’ve enjoyed about the writing community is that we try to build each other up, and