Board Thread:Writer's Showcase/@comment-4665292-20180608193616/@comment-28266772-20180613155004

No single cliche is disallowed. But rather if a story is constructed using nothing but cliches, or is so riddled with them that any sense of novelty is absent, then that can be a reason for deletion. I think this story is original enough and the acrostic is fine.

My notes to the author would simply be that you should be aware that your story is on the wrong side of the razor edge that is ambiguity. As it stands enough people have clearly wrestled with the story's logic that you can't write off the criticisms as a one-off. Ambiguity is not just the absence of information, it also the presence of multiple valid interpretations that have sufficient evidence to justify them. You do only the former, and none of the latter.

Ambiguity is hard because it requires you to weave more than one valid reality together. It's not enough to take one reality and butcher it so badly that it becomes vague enough that people can project more than one interpretation onto it.

For what it's worth the story's a bit of fun, and I liked the twist. But you're not doing anyone any favours by making the plot so obtuse.

Jdeschene - I really appreciate you taking the time out to offer honest feedback. Sometimes I think people coming to the workshop need to toughen up a bit. Writing is no place for a fragile ego.