No More Crits: I have a form letter

It has taken me years to figure this out, but I've finally come to the conclusion that when people send you stories and ask for feedback, most of them just want you to say 'it kicks ass'. Which, in a way, is good, because a few lines of praise are SO MUCH EASIER to drool out than a good hard critique. In the last four months, I've basically lost friends and readers, because they sent me a story and asked me to give them feedback, and I did. And I actually read the stories and I thought about them, and I pondered on what I felt was positive about them and what I felt was letting the story down. And I told them. My HUGE mistake. Because it takes me at least two hours to put together a half-decent critique on TOP of the time it took to read the work. And I always follow the rules. I always point out what I felt was strong first. And then I specify what I thought didn't work. Exactly where I thought the problems were. And then, if I can, I think about ways to fix the problems. And I do this [...]