User blog comment:EmpyrealInvective/So You Want to Write a Review?/@comment-4849011-20180928012642

This is well-written. This will sound weird, but I would also add that criticisms about the story should be about things that actually are part of the story. Before you ask, "Shouldn't that be obvious?" yes, it should, but it wasn't to someone who reviewed my story "The Geisha" (now part of "The Dagger and the Cords"). This person told me I needed to make the killer more creative since having them leave flowers as a calling card wasn't very creative. The thing was the killer didn't leave flowers as a calling card. At no point was it claimed that she had left them behind. In fact, I mentioned her smelling the flowers and then mentioned her holding the flowers, meaning she still had the bloody flowers! The criticism was based on a poor assumption and not anything that actually happened. I guess the take-away is sometimes you need to ask the writer questions so you have the best understanding and don't rely on faulty assumptions.