Mad talented writer Victoria Garcia (“Anthropology,” “Wally’s Porn,” etc.) has posted* a thoughtful and sensible essay, cleverly rooted in TESL training, on the best way — or anyway a promising way — to critique writers with relatively low skill levels.

When I was very young, I used to subscribe to the Harlan Ellison notion that the obviously untalented needed to be discouraged, and with flourish. Now, a decade and a half later, that approach has lost its appeal. I am a much kinder, less rabid sort of person. Also, I have become less convinced that I am a sacred, unique snowflake of special, unique specialness. Simply put, I do not have the capacity to be that kind of a prick anymore.

But what then, you ask. Well, you’ll have to read on. Suffice to say that being a prick is less work and probably, for many people, more fun. However, it doesn’t really help anybody, and it’s still being a prick.

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* Posted some time back, that is — hey, V, you knew I’d discover your lj eventually, didn’t you? How’d the retreat go?