ieva melgalve

My story, “The Time-squeezer” (soon to be named “The Time Squeezer” as you pointed this out as a better version) received 39 crits this far in critters.org and I must admit that I haven’t even read them all, much less sent an appropriate thank-you note to all who dedicated their time to reading and reviewing it.
So if you are a critter – thank you again for your help! Each and every one of these critiques are valuable to me, both the “I liked the story, here’s what I suggest you could improve” and the “I didn’t get it, and this is why” types. It’s funny how different the opinions can be – and how, combined, they point out the flaws in the story.
A note to myself about the upcoming revision.
1. Do take into account everything people say, even if you don’t see it as relevant at the first glance.
2. Send a personal thank-you note to everybody. They dedicated at least half an hour of their time to do this, and they deserve at least two minutes of your time, too.
3. Change everything that doesn’t work even if you think it’s brilliant (a.k.a. “kill your darlings”).
4. But do not change the things that are essential to the story, even if they don’t work for some people. If you don’t care for the story after it’s changed, why bother publishing it?
5. And do not change your voice either. That thing that Russ Adams calls “the accent”, the feel that makes the story uniquely yours. While other folks write better because they have their voices, mimicking them won’t make you as good as they are.