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Cia’s Torturing Me! If you’re an author, I’m sure you’ve thought that at least once, right? I swear, it’s nothing personal! GA’s posting system is complicated, and there is always a learning curve for new authors to figure out the ins and outs of posting here. I'm also the primary staff member that reviews the Stories submissions, so I am not picking on any one person if you receive more than one PM; I'm simply the staff member that reviews everything in the queue unless I am away from GA for some reason. That being said… there are a few things that will get you on my hit… uh, kindly message list. Posting Issues Most Likely To Trigger a Moderation PM: Posting More Than One Chapter : New stories should always be posted with a single chapter only. These should be properly edited, ready to go live, chapters. A prologue is okay, as it auto-posts with the first chapter, but more than a single chapter in a new submission floods the announcement listing. Additional chapters CAN be posted, but only if you post-date them. You can read about the post-dating system in the faq here. Paragraph Spacing : This might be the most common mistake I see. Check your story content after you post, please. Some writing programs, browsers, and or machines (tablets/phones) are not compatible with the text editor. It can either strip out or add extra spaces between the chapters. Reviewing your chapters allows you to fix that before I find it in the queue. A fix in Word can be found in the faq here. If you use other writing programs, like Google docs, tablets, etc… try posting with a new browser or placing your text in another program before you copy to GA until you have the correct spacing. We can't always tell you what the exact problem is in these cases to fix the spacing issue. Flash Fiction and Poetry : Short stories under 1k in length, such as prompt responses, or poetry must be placed in a ‘collection’. This is as simple as creating a title that implies a collection, such as ‘My Shorts or My Haiku’ and then posting a single submission as the first chapter. Then subsequent posts would be made as chapters to that ‘collection’. The chapter titles can be edited and notes can be placed in each chapter as a description, if you choose. You may have more than one collection, within reason, to separate types of poetry or stories if you have a large number of varied content available. Posting a Series Title : If you are posting a story that isn’t a follow up story to one already existing on GA, you do not have a series. Once you post the 2 nd story in your series you can go back and edit the first story to include the series information for the search engine. Also you can never have story 0 of a series. Content : Yes, we have a basic quality expectation. If you don’t know the word ‘I’ should be capitalized, or how to use a basic spellcheck, you will be placed under review and your story may be rejected until you can edit it up to a minimum level of readability. Yes, we allow stories with erotic content. We also allow stories that show drug use, suicide attempts and actual suicides, abuse, rape, etc… but there are criteria for each that must be followed, such as not glorifying the acts and adding content warnings to the story/chapter notes for extreme content. Erotic content must be integral to the plot and cannot be more than half the story plot. There is a narrow band of acceptable incest and bestiality themes, but necrophilia is NEVER ok. Various Fields Filled Out Incorrectly : We have a 3 step rating system for stories for authors to use. They include Everyone, Teen, and Mature. Teen and Mature ratings apply for stories containing content like sex, violence, abuse, or suicide stories. Mature would mean any ‘on-screen/graphic’ content. Teen includes it, but it might occur in the backstory or off-screen such as a ‘fade to black’ sex scene not actually written in. We have a story status system that has 3 levels. In Process means you’re still posting the story (even if you have it complete, until you post the last chapter it is not complete on GA) and On Hold means you’re not posting the story for whatever reason. Make sure you post to the right category for your story. There is a long drop menu with many options, so please check them all to ensure the best search engine results. And more… This is why we ask that authors read the entire “New Author Help: How to Post a Story” faq before they post. Any story deemed suspect for any reason will be placed under review and discussed by the forum moderation team to ensure a fair team decision on acceptability. I am not a dictator with the only say in what does and does not get approved. Questions I Get The Most From Authors: Why are you checking my stuff in a moderation queue? We check to ensure proper posting procedure is followed, that the content falls within our guidelines, and that you’re not a plagiarist. The fact is, we’ve been burned before with people stealing stories and posting on GA. We don’t always catch it, but we try our utmost to protect authors’ rights on this site. How long does the queue take? Typically 24 hours, at the most. I say this because I check the mod queue once a day. Usually I attempt this between 5-10 AM, Pacific Standard Time, but I do have a life and things sometimes crop up. If you post at 9:00 AM and I already checked the queue, and something comes up the next day and I don’t get to it until the afternoon… you may wait longer than 24 hours. Sometimes I can review and approve submissions several times a day. Anything with questionable content triggering a team review can take up to 72 hours. Also, because we ask that authors only post a maximum of 2 chapters spaced out (morning/night, for example) if you have 2 stories or chapters waiting in the queue, I will only approve one. I might approve the second several hours later, or it might end up waiting until the next day. Please don’t overwhelm the queue, as that only makes my job harder to ensure that your stories and chapters are posted with a fair timing without overwhelming the announcement listing. Please remember I’m one person who dedicates time every day to this process, but I am not perfect. In the past we’ve found bugs with the posting system when author’s work didn’t post to the queue properly as well. IF your submission remains in the queue for an unreasonable amount of time without any contact from me, you can PM me. How long am I in the queue? There is no set time limit in the queue, but there is a cut-off point. You must have 75 likes on your forum content, stories, and chapters before you no longer face the queue. Once you have achieved that level, your updates will post when you publish them. So, it behooves an author to be active, posting consistently, and interacting with readers and other members on our forums as well. Is your decision the sole factor in submission approval? No, it’s not. As I said before, any story deemed suspect for any reason is reviewed by the forum moderation team for a fair discussion and consensus. Why can’t I edit my story/chapter or why did I get an error message when I tried to edit my story/chapter? The system has a fail-safe set in place to prevent large amounts of text in a chapter or story from being removed. We expect that you post your best work that has already been edited. If there is a serious problem, or you do not take advantage of the offer, I will remove the story/chapter content for you to repost if you PM me. Why can’t I delete my story/chapter(s)? Again, there’s a fail-safe built into the system to prevent that from occurring. Authors can place their work unpublished so no one but the author or staff can see it, but they cannot delete. No, we will not refuse to remove your work, but you must PM me to ensure complete deletion from the system. I will usually want to know why, because if there’s a problem with the story, posting, or a moderation issue with another GA member, a cooling off period and discussion can sometimes resolve the issue without the story actually being deleted. I’m so confused! How do I find help? We have a faq you can find under the ? tab in the red menu bar. The topic titled, “New Author Help: How to Post a Story” not only has our posting and content guidelines, it also has a chapter that explains what each field is for in our story submission form as well as various things unique to our system. If you’ve read the faq, and still don’t know the answer to your questions, please feel free to PM me. It can often be easier to ask ahead of time than to sort out posting issues after you attempt to post.

It's been a while since we took a look at some things that new site authors need to know. Our list of authors continues to grow, and it's never a bad thing to re-visit blog entries that help make their life easier. So you've purchased the author title in the GA Store and you're ready to post your first story. Here's a few things you need to know to make your posting in GA Stories go smoothly and help your story get approved. Cia’s Torturing Me! by Cia If you’re an author, I’m sure you’ve thought that at least once, right? I swear, it’s nothing personal! GA’s posting system is complicated, and there is always a learning curve for new authors to figure out the ins and outs of posting here. I'm also the primary staff member who reviews the Stories submissions, so I am not picking on any one person if you receive more than one PM about your stories; I'm simply the staff member who reviews everything in the queue unless I am away from GA for some reason. That being said… there are a few things that will get you on my hit… uh, kindly message list. Posting Issues Most Likely To Trigger a Moderation PM: Posting More Than One Chapter : New stories should always be posted with a single chapter only. These should be properly edited, ready to go live, chapters. A prologue is okay, as it auto-posts with the first chapter, but more than a single chapter in a new submission floods the announcement listing. Additional chapters CAN be posted, but only if you post-date them. You can read about the post-dating system in the faq here. Paragraph Spacing : This might be the most common mistake I see. Check your story content after you post, please. Some writing programs, browsers, and or machines (tablets/phones) are not compatible with the text editor. It can either strip out or add extra spaces between the paragraphs. Reviewing your chapters allows you to fix that before I find it in the queue. A fix in Word for double spaces between paragraphs can be found in the faq here. If you use other writing programs, like Google docs, tablets, etc… try posting with a new browser or placing your text in another program before you copy to GA until you have the correct spacing. We can't always tell you what the exact problem is in these cases to fix the spacing issue. Flash Fiction and Poetry : Short stories under 1k in length, such as prompt responses, or poetry must be placed in a ‘collection’. This is as simple as creating a title that implies a collection, such as ‘My Shorts or My Haiku’ and then posting a single submission as the first chapter. Then subsequent posts would be made as chapters to that ‘collection’. The chapter titles can be edited and notes can be placed in each chapter as a description, if you choose. You may have more than one collection, within reason, to separate types of poetry or stories if you have a large number of varied content available. Posting a Series Title : The series information is used so readers can find series on the site. If you are posting a story that isn’t a follow up story to one already existing on GA, you do not have a series on the site. Please don't use this field. Once you post the 2 nd story in your series you can go back and edit the first story to include the series information for the search engine. Also you can never have story 0 of a series. Content : Yes, we have a basic quality expectation. If you don’t know the word ‘I’ should be capitalized, or how to use a basic spellcheck, or that a new paragraph should be started every time a different character speaks, you will be placed under review and your story may be rejected until you can edit it up to a minimum level of readability. Yes, we allow stories with erotic content. We also allow stories that show drug use, suicide attempts and actual suicides, abuse, rape, etc… but there are criteria for each that must be followed, such as not glorifying the acts and adding content warnings to the story/chapter notes for extreme content. Erotic content must be integral to the plot and cannot be more than half the story plot. There is a narrow band of acceptable incest and bestiality themes, but necrophilia is NEVER okay. When in doubt, send me a PM before you post. I'm more than happy to go over content beforehand. Various Fields Filled Out Incorrectly : We have a 3 step rating system for stories for authors to use. They include Everyone, Teen, and Mature. Teen and Mature ratings apply for stories containing content like sex, violence, abuse, or suicide stories. Mature would mean any ‘on-screen/graphic’ content. Teen includes it, but it might occur in the backstory or off-screen such as a ‘fade to black’ sex scene not actually written in. Everyone means no graphic content. We have a story status system that has 3 levels. In Process means you’re still posting the story (even if you have it complete, until you post the last chapter it is not complete on GA) and On Hold means you’re not posting the story for whatever reason. Make sure you post to the right category for your story. There is a long drop menu with many options, so please check them all to ensure the best search engine results. And there's so much more… This is why we ask that authors read the entire “New Author Help: How to Post a Story” faq before they post. The more you put into getting your story right and sharing all the information readers know to find your story, the more readers and feedback you'll receive. Any story deemed suspect for content or editing reasons will be placed under review and discussed by the forum moderation team to ensure a fair team decision on acceptability. I am not a dictator with the only say in what does and does not get approved. Questions I Get The Most From Authors: Why are you checking my stuff in a moderation queue? We check to ensure proper posting procedure is followed, that the content falls within our guidelines, and that you’re not a plagiarist. The fact is, we’ve been burned before with people stealing stories and trying to post on GA. We don’t always catch it, but we try our utmost to protect authors’ rights on this site. How long does the queue take? Typically 24 hours, at the most. I say this because I check the mod queue once a day. Usually I attempt this between 5-10 AM, Pacific Standard Time, but I do have a life and things sometimes crop up. If you post at 9:00 AM and I already checked the queue, and something comes up the next day and I don’t get to it until the afternoon… you may wait longer than 24 hours. Sometimes I can review and approve submissions several times a day. Anything with questionable content triggering a team review can take up to 72 hours. Also, because we ask that authors only post a maximum of 2 chapters spaced out (morning/night, for example) if you have 2 stories or chapters waiting in the queue, I will only approve one. I might approve the second several hours later, or it might end up waiting until the next day. Please don’t overwhelm the queue, as that only makes my job harder to ensure that your stories and chapters are posted with a fair timing without overwhelming the announcement listing. Please remember I’m one person who dedicates time every day to this process, but I am not perfect. In the past we’ve found bugs with the posting system when author’s work didn’t post to the queue properly as well. IF your submission remains in the queue for an unreasonable amount of time without any contact from me, you can PM me. How long am I in the queue? There is no set time limit in the queue, but there is a cut-off point. You must have 75 likes on your forum content, stories, and chapters before you no longer face the queue. Once you have achieved that level, your updates will post within an hour of when you publish them. So, it behooves an author to be active, posting consistently, and interacting with readers and other members on our forums as well. Is your decision the sole factor in submission approval? No, it’s not. As I said before, any story deemed suspect for any content/editing reason is reviewed by the forum moderation team for a fair discussion and consensus. Why can’t I edit my story/chapter or why did I get an error message when I tried to edit my story/chapter? The system has a fail-safe set in place to prevent large amounts of text in a chapter or story from being removed. We expect that you post your best work that has already been edited. If there is a serious problem, or you do not take advantage of the offer, I will remove the story/chapter content for you to repost if you PM me. Why can’t I delete my story/chapter(s)? Again, there’s a fail-safe built into the system to prevent that from occurring. Authors can place their work unpublished so no one but the author or staff can see it, but they cannot delete. No, we will not refuse to remove your work, but you must PM me to ensure complete deletion from the system. I will usually want to know why, because if there’s a problem with the story, posting, or a moderation issue with another GA member, a cooling off period and discussion can sometimes resolve the issue without the story actually being deleted. I’m so confused! How do I find help? We have a faq you can find under the Help tab in the red menu bar. The area titled: New Author Help: How to Post a Story not only has our posting and content guidelines, it also has a section that explains what each field is for in our story submission form as well as various things unique to our system. If you’ve read the FAQ, and still don’t know the answer to your questions, please feel free to PM me. It can often be easier to ask ahead of time than to sort out posting issues after you attempt to post.

Reminder: Voting for the Secret Santa Story Contest ends TODAY! Don't forget to PM your votes, for your favorite Secret Santa Story, to A.J. before 2:00 PM EST. Now, what do we have for you today. Lately, I've been revisiting some of the old blog posts. The site is growing every day, bringing in more readers and more authors. With the influx in newer authors, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit Cia's blog post on some of the highest occurring mistakes that authors make when posting their stories for the first time. For the newer authors, I hope you find this post informative. For those who have been here a while, it never hurts to have a reminder. Cia’s Torturing Me! by Cia If you’re an author, I’m sure you’ve thought that at least once, right? I swear, it’s nothing personal! GA’s posting system is complicated, and there is always a learning curve for new authors to figure out the ins and outs of posting here. I'm also the primary staff member that reviews the Stories submissions, so I am not picking on any one person if you receive more than one PM; I'm simply the staff member that reviews everything in the queue unless I am away from GA for some reason. That being said… there are a few things that will get you on my hit… uh, kindly message list. Posting Issues Most Likely To Trigger a Moderation PM: Posting More Than One Chapter : New stories should always be posted with a single chapter only. These should be properly edited, ready to go live, chapters. A prologue is okay, as it auto-posts with the first chapter, but more than a single chapter in a new submission floods the announcement listing. Additional chapters CAN be posted, but only if you post-date them. You can read about the post-dating system in the faq here. Paragraph Spacing : This might be the most common mistake I see. Check your story content after you post, please. Some writing programs, browsers, and or machines (tablets/phones) are not compatible with the text editor. It can either strip out or add extra spaces between the paragraphs. Reviewing your chapters allows you to fix that before I find it in the queue. A fix in Word can be found in the faq here. If you use other writing programs, like Google docs, tablets, etc… try posting with a new browser or placing your text in another program before you copy to GA until you have the correct spacing. We can't always tell you what the exact problem is in these cases to fix the spacing issue. Flash Fiction and Poetry : Short stories under 1k in length, such as prompt responses, or poetry must be placed in a ‘collection’. This is as simple as creating a title that implies a collection, such as ‘My Shorts or My Haiku’ and then posting a single submission as the first chapter. Then subsequent posts would be made as chapters to that ‘collection’. The chapter titles can be edited and notes can be placed in each chapter as a description, if you choose. You may have more than one collection, within reason, to separate types of poetry or stories if you have a large number of varied content available. Posting a Series Title : If you are posting a story that isn’t a follow up story to one already existing on GA, you do not have a series. Please don't use this field. Once you post the 2 nd story in your series you can go back and edit the first story to include the series information for the search engine. Also you can never have story 0 of a series. Content : Yes, we have a basic quality expectation. If you don’t know the word ‘I’ should be capitalized, or how to use a basic spellcheck, you will be placed under review and your story may be rejected until you can edit it up to a minimum level of readability. Yes, we allow stories with erotic content. We also allow stories that show drug use, suicide attempts and actual suicides, abuse, rape, etc… but there are criteria for each that must be followed, such as not glorifying the acts and adding content warnings to the story/chapter notes for extreme content. Erotic content must be integral to the plot and cannot be more than half the story plot. There is a narrow band of acceptable incest and bestiality themes, but necrophilia is NEVER ok. Various Fields Filled Out Incorrectly : We have a 3 step rating system for stories for authors to use. They include Everyone, Teen, and Mature. Teen and Mature ratings apply for stories containing content like sex, violence, abuse, or suicide stories. Mature would mean any ‘on-screen/graphic’ content. Teen includes it, but it might occur in the backstory or off-screen such as a ‘fade to black’ sex scene not actually written in. Everyone means no graphic content. We have a story status system that has 3 levels. In Process means you’re still posting the story (even if you have it complete, until you post the last chapter it is not complete on GA) and On Hold means you’re not posting the story for whatever reason. Make sure you post to the right category for your story. There is a long drop menu with many options, so please check them all to ensure the best search engine results. And more… This is why we ask that authors read the entire “New Author Help: How to Post a Story” faq before they post. Any story deemed suspect for any reason will be placed under review and discussed by the forum moderation team to ensure a fair team decision on acceptability. I am not a dictator with the only say in what does and does not get approved. Questions I Get The Most From Authors: Why are you checking my stuff in a moderation queue? We check to ensure proper posting procedure is followed, that the content falls within our guidelines, and that you’re not a plagiarist. The fact is, we’ve been burned before with people stealing stories and posting on GA. We don’t always catch it, but we try our utmost to protect authors’ rights on this site. How long does the queue take? Typically 24 hours, at the most. I say this because I check the mod queue once a day. Usually I attempt this between 5-10 AM, Pacific Standard Time, but I do have a life and things sometimes crop up. If you post at 9:00 AM and I already checked the queue, and something comes up the next day and I don’t get to it until the afternoon… you may wait longer than 24 hours. Sometimes I can review and approve submissions several times a day. Anything with questionable content triggering a team review can take up to 72 hours. Also, because we ask that authors only post a maximum of 2 chapters spaced out (morning/night, for example) if you have 2 stories or chapters waiting in the queue, I will only approve one. I might approve the second several hours later, or it might end up waiting until the next day. Please don’t overwhelm the queue, as that only makes my job harder to ensure that your stories and chapters are posted with a fair timing without overwhelming the announcement listing. Please remember I’m one person who dedicates time every day to this process, but I am not perfect. In the past we’ve found bugs with the posting system when author’s work didn’t post to the queue properly as well. IF your submission remains in the queue for an unreasonable amount of time without any contact from me, you can PM me. How long am I in the queue? There is no set time limit in the queue, but there is a cut-off point. You must have 75 likes on your forum content, stories, and chapters before you no longer face the queue. Once you have achieved that level, your updates will post when you publish them. So, it behooves an author to be active, posting consistently, and interacting with readers and other members on our forums as well. Is your decision the sole factor in submission approval? No, it’s not. As I said before, any story deemed suspect for any reason is reviewed by the forum moderation team for a fair discussion and consensus. Why can’t I edit my story/chapter or why did I get an error message when I tried to edit my story/chapter? The system has a fail-safe set in place to prevent large amounts of text in a chapter or story from being removed. We expect that you post your best work that has already been edited. If there is a serious problem, or you do not take advantage of the offer, I will remove the story/chapter content for you to repost if you PM me. Why can’t I delete my story/chapter(s)? Again, there’s a fail-safe built into the system to prevent that from occurring. Authors can place their work unpublished so no one but the author or staff can see it, but they cannot delete. No, we will not refuse to remove your work, but you must PM me to ensure complete deletion from the system. I will usually want to know why, because if there’s a problem with the story, posting, or a moderation issue with another GA member, a cooling off period and discussion can sometimes resolve the issue without the story actually being deleted. I’m so confused! How do I find help? We have a faq you can find under the ? tab in the red menu bar. The topic titled, “New Author Help: How to Post a Story” not only has our posting and content guidelines, it also has a chapter that explains what each field is for in our story submission form as well as various things unique to our system. If you’ve read the faq, and still don’t know the answer to your questions, please feel free to PM me. It can often be easier to ask ahead of time than to sort out posting issues after you attempt to post.

Herm, we've had a resource, a writing tip, an editing tip... how about a site tip? How to promote your story on GA: Just as you'd find with a book placed on the bookshelf in a store, your story can get lost on GA among the other stories if you don't make it stand out. Most importantly, imo, is to have a story that engages and interests readers and then try some of these other tips to help improve your fan base. 1. Post regularly if you are writing a serial work. We ask that you don't post more than one or two chapters a week to avoid flooding the system. On average, that amount of time seems to also provide the most readership feedback. 2. Make a discussion topic for your story in the appropriate forum. Individual forums for Promising/Hosted or the Stories Discussion forum for all other authors. Post a link in the topic whenever you update chapters if the story is a serial piece. 3. Mention the story posting in your status update. Do NOT spam by updating about your story posting multiple times unless you are posting for each new chapter posted. 4. Create a banner link or place a text link to your site signature to send readers to your story. 5. ALWAYS respond to comments and reviews by readers. 6. Read and review for other authors. Most people will check out the work of another author who is actively participating on the site and in GA Stories. For more information on how to promote your work or anyone else's for that matter, please read the FAQ: Basic Care Guide of Authors As usual, if there is something you would like to see explained or a tip written about, PM the idea and we will see what we can come up with in a future tip.

We love getting News blog articles and tips from members - and CassieQ has been a wonderful contributor. Here she writes her thoughts on Constructive Criticism - a very detailed article that shows a lot of thought. I hope you enjoy and let us know your thoughts as well! Also, if YOU have an article you think would be great for this blog, let Renee Stevens, Andy021278 or myself know. Thanks! Constructive Criticism by CassieQ I'll try to make this as painless as possible. It's a tough thing for many writers to have someone criticize their work. But any writer that is going to be worth reading is going to encounter criticism eventually and how they take it can make the difference between improving your craft or giving up. In my mind, there are four types of feedback. Here are some examples of each type. Non-Constructive praise: This is so awesome! I just love it! It's such a great story! It's nice and not many writers mind seeing it, but it's not really helpful. Non-Constructive criticism: This is awful and I hate it! You should never write another word you talentless hack! This will do you no good at all. Throw it away. Both of these give you feedback, but it is not specific enough to apply to your writing. Constructive praise: I like this story. I like Caleb and I told you that Noah is a bit boring to me as a character (as a bf I would take him and lock him in and never let him go ) but he fits the story very well. I like the ending though it is dark and even with the intention you had, it makes the story very round and interesting with a BANG of a final! Great! This is good, because it points out the things that the reader likes about the story. In this review (a real one, given to me by my beta), I learned that he likes my characters, even though one is boring and that the ending was well done, which is something he knows I struggle with sometimes. Constructive criticism: Also from a real review from a rough draft for the legends anthology: Legends, myth and fairy tales rarely portray complex characters, backgrounds and sometimes even treat logic like it is something that happens to other. But they all contain a motivation for the doings of the protagonists and some kind of purpose or moral to the story. You, aside from a wonderful setting and beautiful language, have no complex characters (which is totally fine), no background, a medium lack in logic and no real motivation and purpose. What I think weighs heavier is the overall lack of motivation. It all seems so… random. After I finished the last chapter, it left me like “Um… That’s it? *figuratively turns the sheet to look for a lost chapter* Really? Wow. Okay.” It misses the wow-effect. If I had read that as the first story from you, I would think “Good style, nice language, lacks a certain feeling and profoundness.” I don’t intend to sound harsh, but I don’t know if ItD would make me look for more of you. And I know you have very good, very deep stories, wonderful characters, well-thought plots, self-made worlds and realities that are profound and fantastic. That is only a small snippet. My beta actually wrote a full page of comments, ripping on everything from my characters, to my plot and everything in between. This is the most valuable type of criticism that a writer can get. It is one thing to show what your strong points are, in constructive praise, so you can identify your strengths and develop them to make them even stronger. But the weak points of your writing are the ones that you need to develop. Readers will notice these, even if they don't comment on them. And you will never develop yourself as a writer if you don't take these weak points into consideration and work on developing them. Constructive criticism can be hard to take, especially from a friend or someone you are close to, so finding someone that is not familiar to you to look over your work is best. Of course, that has its own set of issues, because you need someone you can work well with. That is why having a good beta reader or editor is important. GA is great with the Writing Support in the Editor's corner. Make sure if you utilize this resource to mention what kind of feedback you want, and if you don't think you can take up front, blunt criticism, ask for someone who is gentle and tactful (but still honest) with their feedback. Don't get discouraged by negative feedback either. No one is perfect and especially in the beginning, mistakes run rampant. A good beta/editor will guide you through these early hurdles and the more mistakes they help you see and recognize, the easier it will be to avoid them in the future. And don't ever think that constructive criticism is a bad thing. It isn't. It doesn't mean you have a bad story, on the contrary, it actually means the opposite. It means that there is something awesome about it and that the person leaving the criticism wants to see more of that awesome. When I read a story and think it is no good, then I won't say a word. I won't review; I just leave it and go read something else. If it has potential, if it has something that is awesome about it, then I would want to point out what is good about it and what needs improvement. But only if the writer is ready to hear it. So you've got your constructive criticism. Now what? Well, when I would get rough criticism, I would need some space. I wouldn't talk to my beta until I had some time to think about it and contemplate it. A person's first reaction is to defend their work, or justify why they did such and such. That is not going to help you. Take some time, walk the dog, go for a swim, meditate, whatever. Do something to clear your mind and then come back. Try to be objective and listen to what the person is telling you. If necessary, try to contact the person and ask for examples or specifics if you still don't see the problem. If your feelings get hurt, cry or punch a pillow or do what you need to do let them out, but don't let them get in the way. If you really do still have doubts, run it through a second person. Again, find someone who can be objective. If they point out the same issues, then you need to address them. But do remember, you are the writer and it is your call. But if you receive constructive criticism and learn to use it to your advantage, you will be doing yourself, your writing and your readers a great service and eventually, you might even learn to like criticism!