Do you find things in storys that make

[Fox]

No Shanghainese here either ...

My post was a response to a comment by slave ruthie. I truly believe that good writing requires effort, research, and thinking. There is nothing magical, ephemereal or supernatural about it - you must sit down and carefully craft your ideas, build a plot, construct your characters, and above all, capture the reader's imagination. In other words (pun intended), the writer must work at his/her craft.

I too agree with Mr. Beale's original thought. I skip over most fiction with space aliens and 44 DDD mammaries, and supermales with 14" appendages, and housewives who secretly want their husbands to beat the crap out of them. If you want me to read your story, then you must entertain me.

As an example, I read just this week a snuff story that has received some high reviews ... not for the content but for the skilfull way the characters and the plot were developed. I do not like snuff as a rule, but this was well written.

I have read many fantasmagorical stories too - liquidsmooth is full of them - they are fine if you're into one-handed reading.

I posted some of my work on this site because what I had sampled indicated a sense of quality, and the review process showed promise of constructive criticism. Alas, this has been "shangahied" of late, in my opinion.

Bravo to BBeale for saying what many of us think! < And no, I am not comparing what we do here to Van Gogh et al - diamonds and kumquats, my friend>

- Fox

<aside to bocaccio: Dickens, like Shakespeare, was writing for the mass market, of his time, hence the caricutures. But that does not demean the quality of the writing. >