something i posted somewhere else -- on meaning

[abu nuwas]

I always tell them that I will find a lot wrong with it, no matter how good it is, and that I do not praise or say nice things. I then return it to them and tell them to think about for a week, and if they still want me to look at it to bring it back then. As what most people are really wanting is praise and instant gratification, that usually weeds most of them out right there, and as the week allows enough time to pass that they can pretend they ever asked me, all is well and good!
But of course this is well traveled ground for us, isn't it Ed. You could just go through and mark all the things that are objectively wrong with with it such as grammar, punctuation, and that which is redundant or a cliche phrase. If you do the corrections with a red pen that should make a pretty good mess of it, without ever having to poo-poo his ideas. As long as you don't attack the idea, or the originality, most people can deal with the other, and they are already used to those kinds of corrections that from school.

Dale

It is an absolute fucker, Dale. My plan is, to look at it from different points of view. He may, for example be 'scriptor', and I shall feign no knowledge of him. Or line by line, like that horrible bloke that used to terrify novelist and writers for generations; and so on. I can try to follow the method learnt from Leanne, of trying to make suggestions based not on my taste and ideas, but to improve what the writer is seeking to do. After 4 or 5 years at Uni doing Creative Writing, he ought not to be a novice, and I know I am at the best of times a crap critic. Either way, it's a real fucker, but this evening, I cannot deal with it, as I have to go to the pub/jazz. I am conscious that it all means a lot to him -- and of course, in truth, I do know his back-ground, from birth! It is in the form of what he calls epigrams, most v negative about other people. There are, though, occasional flashes of wit--- and he has the same originality over titles as Milton with his sonnets, as pointed out, I think, by Ms L. Grrr!